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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7626.txt b/7626.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bf7276c --- /dev/null +++ b/7626.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2852 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook Devereux, by Bulwer-Lytton, Book III. +#54 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: Devereux, Book III. + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7626] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on February 25, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEVEREUX, BY LYTTON, BOOK III. *** + + + +This eBook was produced by Dagny, + and David Widger, + + + + + +BOOK III. + + + +CHAPTER I. + +WHEREIN THE HISTORY MAKES GREAT PROGRESS AND IS MARKED BY ONE IMPORTANT +EVENT IN HUMAN LIFE. + +SPINOZA is said to have loved, above all other amusements, to put flies +into a spider's web; and the struggles of the imprisoned insects were +wont to bear, in the eyes of this grave philosopher, so facetious and +hilarious an appearance, that he would stand and laugh thereat until the +tears "coursed one another down his innocent nose." Now it so happened +that Spinoza, despite the general (and, in my most meek opinion, the +just) condemnation of his theoretical tenets,* was, in character and in +nature, according to the voices of all who knew him, an exceedingly +kind, humane, and benevolent biped; and it doth, therefore, seem a +little strange unto us grave, sober members of the unphilosophical Many, +that the struggles and terrors of these little winged creatures should +strike the good subtleist in a point of view so irresistibly ludicrous +and delightful. But, for my part, I believe that that most imaginative +and wild speculator beheld in the entangled flies nothing more than a +living simile--an animated illustration--of his own beloved vision of +Necessity; and that he is no more to be considered cruel for the +complacency with which he gazed upon those agonized types of his system +than is Lucan for dwelling with a poet's pleasure upon the many +ingenious ways with which that Grand Inquisitor of Verse has contrived +to vary the simple operation of dying. To the bard, the butchered +soldier was only an epic ornament; to the philosopher, the murdered fly +was only a metaphysical illustration. For, without being a fatalist, or +a disciple of Baruch de Spinoza, I must confess that I cannot conceive a +greater resemblance to our human and earthly state than the penal +predicament of the devoted flies. Suddenly do we find ourselves plunged +into that Vast Web,--the World; and even as the insect, when he first +undergoeth a similar accident of necessity, standeth amazed and still, +and only by little and little awakeneth to a full sense of his +situation; so also at the first abashed and confounded, we remain on the +mesh we are urged upon, ignorant, as yet, of the toils around us, and +the sly, dark, immitigable foe that lieth in yonder nook, already +feasting her imagination upon our destruction. Presently we revive, we +stir, we flutter; and Fate, that foe--the old arch-spider, that hath no +moderation in her maw--now fixeth one of her many eyes upon us, and +giveth us a partial glimpse of her laidly and grim aspect. We pause in +mute terror; we gaze upon the ugly spectre, so imperfectly beheld; the +net ceases to tremble, and the wily enemy draws gently back into her +nook. Now we begin to breathe again; we sound the strange footing on +which we tread; we move tenderly along it, and again the grisly monster +advances on us; again we pause; the foe retires not, but remains still, +and surveyeth us; we see every step is accompanied with danger; we look +round and above in despair; suddenly we feel within us a new impulse and +a new power! we feel a vague sympathy with /that/ unknown region which +spreads beyond this great net,--/that limitless beyond/ hath a mystic +affinity with a part of our own frame; we unconsciously extend our wings +(for the soul to us is as the wings to the fly!); we attempt to +rise,--to soar above this perilous snare, from which we are unable to +crawl. The old spider watcheth us in self-hugging quiet, and, looking +up to our native air, we think,--now shall we escape thee. Out on it! +We rise not a hair's breadth: we have the /wings/, it is true, but the +/feet/ are fettered. We strive desperately again: the whole web +vibrates with the effort; it will break beneath our strength. Not a jot +of it! we cease; we are more entangled than ever! wings, feet, frame, +the foul slime is over all! where shall we turn? every line of the web +leads to the one den,--we know not,--we care not,--we grow blind, +confused, lost. The eyes of our hideous foe gloat upon us; she whetteth +her insatiate maw; she leapeth towards us; she fixeth her fangs upon us; +and so endeth my parallel! + + +* One ought, however, to be very cautious before one condemns a +philosopher. The master's opinions are generally pure: it is the +conclusions and corollaries of his disciples that "draw the honey forth +that drives men mad." Schlegel seems to have studied Spinoza /de +fonte/, and vindicates him very earnestly from the charges brought +against him,--atheism, etc.--ED. + + +But what has this to do with my tale? Ay, Reader, that is thy question; +and I will answer it by one of mine. When thou hearest a man moralize +and preach of Fate, art thou not sure that he is going to tell thee of +some one of his peculiar misfortunes? Sorrow loves a parable as much as +mirth loves a jest. And thus already and from afar, I prepare thee, at +the commencement of this, the third of these portions into which the +history of my various and wild life will be divided, for that event with +which I purpose that the said portion shall be concluded. + +It is now three months after my entire recovery from my wounds, and I am +married to Isora!--married,--yes, but /privately/ married, and the +ceremony is as yet closely concealed. I will explain. + +The moment Isora's anxiety for me led her across the threshold of my +house it became necessary for her honour that our wedding should take +place immediately on my recovery: so far I was decided on the measure; +now for the method. During my illness, I received a long and most +affectionate letter from Aubrey, who was then at Devereux Court: /so/ +affectionate was the heart-breathing spirit of that letter, so steeped +in all our old household remembrances and boyish feelings, that coupled +as it was with a certain gloom when he spoke of himself and of worldly +sins and trials, it brought tears to my eyes whenever I recurred to it; +and many and many a time afterwards, when I thought his affections +seemed estranged from me, I did recur to it to convince myself that I +was mistaken. Shortly afterwards I received also a brief epistle from +my uncle; it was as kind as usual, and it mentioned Aubrey's return to +Devereux Court. "That unhappy boy," said Sir William, "is more than +ever devoted to his religious duties; nor do I believe that any +priest-ridden poor devil in the dark ages ever made such use of the +scourge and the penance." + +Now, I have before stated that my uncle would, I knew, be averse to my +intended marriage; and on hearing that Aubrey was then with him, I +resolved, in replying to his letter, to entreat the former to sound Sir +William on the subject I had most at heart, and ascertain the exact +nature and extent of the opposition I should have to encounter in the +step I was resolved to take. By the same post I wrote to the good old +knight in as artful a strain as I was able, dwelling at some length upon +my passion, upon the high birth, as well as the numerous good qualities +of the object, but mentioning not her name; and I added everything that +I thought likely to enlist my uncle's kind and warm feelings on my +behalf. These letters produced the following ones:-- + + +FROM SIR WILLIAM DEVEREUX. + +'Sdeath, nephew Morton,--but I won't scold thee, though thou deservest +it. Let me see, thou art now scarce twenty, and thou talkest of +marriage, which is the exclusive business of middle age, as familiarly +as "girls of thirteen do of puppy-dogs." Marry!--go hang thyself +rather. Marriage, my dear boy, is at the best a treacherous proceeding; +and a friend--a true friend--will never counsel another to adopt it +rashly. Look you: I have had experience in these matters; and, I think, +the moment a woman is wedded some terrible revolution happens in her +system; all her former good qualities vanish, /hey presto/! like eggs +out of a conjuror's box; 'tis true they appear on t' other side of the +box, the side turned to other people, but for the poor husband they are +gone forever. Ods fish, Morton, go to! I tell thee again that I have +had experience in these matters which thou never hast had, clever as +thou thinkest thyself. If now it were a good marriage thou wert about +to make; if thou wert going to wed power, and money, and places at +court,--why, something might be said for thee. As it is, there is no +excuse--none. And I am astonished how a boy of thy sense could think of +such nonsense. Birth, Morton, what the devil does that signify so long +as it is birth in another country? A foreign damsel, and a Spanish +girl, too, above all others! 'Sdeath, man, as if there was not +quicksilver enough in the English women for you, you must make a +mercurial exportation from Spain, must you! Why, Morton, Morton, the +ladies in that country are proverbial. I tremble at the very thought of +it. But as for my consent, I never will give it,--never; and though I +threaten thee not with disinheritance and such like, yet I do ask +something in return for the great affection I have always borne thee; +and I make no doubt that thou wilt readily oblige me in such a trifle as +giving up a mere Spanish donna. So think of her no more. If thou +wantest to make love, there are ladies in plenty whom thou needest not +to marry. And for my part, I thought that thou wert all in all with the +Lady Hasselton: Heaven bless her pretty face! Now don't think I want to +scold thee; and don't think thine old uncle harsh,--God knows he is +not,--but my dear, dear boy, this is quite out of the question, and thou +must let me hear no more about it. The gout cripples me so that I must +leave off. Ever thine old uncle, + + WILLIAM DEVEREUX. + +P. S. Upon consideration, I think, my dear boy, that thou must want +money, and thou art ever too sparing. Messrs. Child, or my goldsmiths +in Aldersgate, have my orders to pay to thy hand's-writing whatever thou +mayst desire; and I do hope that thou wilt now want nothing to make thee +merry withal. Why dost thou not write a comedy? is it not the mode +still? + + +LETTER FROM AUBREY DEVEREUX. + +I have sounded my uncle, dearest Morton, according to your wishes; and I +grieve to say that I have found him inexorable. He was very much hurt +by your letter to him, and declared he should write to you forthwith +upon the subject. I represented to him all that you have said upon the +virtues of your intended bride; and I also insisted upon your clear +judgment and strong sense upon most points being a sufficient surety for +your prudence upon this. But you know the libertine opinions and the +depreciating judgment of women entertained by my poor uncle; and he +would, I believe, have been less displeased with the heinous crime of an +illicit connection than the amiable weakness of an imprudent marriage--I +might say of any marriage--until it was time to provide heirs to the +estate. + + +Here Aubrey, in the most affectionate and earnest manner, broke off, to +point out to me the extreme danger to my interests that it would be to +disoblige my uncle; who, despite his general kindness, would, upon a +disagreement on so tender a matter as his sore point, and his most +cherished hobby, consider my disobedience as a personal affront. He +also recalled to me all that my uncle had felt and done for me; and +insisted, at all events, upon the absolute duty of my delaying, even +though I should not break off, the intended measure. Upon these points +he enlarged much and eloquently; and this part of his letter certainly +left no cheering or comfortable impression upon my mind. + +Now my good uncle knew as much of love as L. Mummius did of the fine +arts,* and it was impossible to persuade him that if one wanted to +indulge the tender passion, one woman would not do exactly as well as +another, provided she were equally pretty. I knew therefore that he was +incapable, on the one hand, of understanding my love for Isora, or, on +the other, of acknowledging her claims upon me. I had not, of course, +mentioned to him the generous imprudence which, on the news of my wound, +had brought Isora to my house: for if I had done so, my uncle, with the +eye of a courtier of Charles II., would only have seen the advantage to +be derived from the impropriety, not the gratitude due to the devotion; +neither had I mentioned this circumstance to Aubrey,--it seemed to me +too delicate for any written communication; and therefore, in his advice +to delay my marriage, he was unaware of the necessity which rendered the +advice unavailing. Now then was I in this dilemma, either to marry, and +that /instanter/, and so, seemingly, with the most hasty and the most +insolent decorum, incense, wound, and in his interpretation of the act, +contemn one whom I loved as I loved my uncle; or, to delay the marriage, +to separate Isora, and to leave my future wife to the malignant +consequences that would necessarily be drawn from a sojourn of weeks in +my house. This fact there was no chance of concealing; servants have +more tongues than Argus had eyes, and my youthful extravagance had +filled my whole house with those pests of society. The latter measure +was impossible, the former was most painful. Was there no third +way?--there was that of a private marriage. This obviated not every +evil; but it removed many: it satisfied my impatient love; it placed +Isora under a sure protection; it secured and established her honour the +moment the ceremony should be declared; and it avoided the seeming +ingratitude and indelicacy of disobeying my uncle, without an effort of +patience to appease him. I should have time and occasion then, I +thought, for soothing and persuading him, and ultimately winning that +consent which I firmly trusted I should sooner or later extract from his +kindness of heart. + + +* A Roman consul, who, removing the most celebrated remains of Grecian +antiquity to Rome, assured the persons charged with conveying them that, +if they injured any, they should make others to replace them. + + +That some objections existed to this mediatory plan was true enough: +those objections related to Isora rather than to myself, and she was the +first, on my hinting at the proposal, to overcome its difficulties. The +leading feature in Isora's character was generosity; and, in truth, I +know not a quality more dangerous either to man or woman. Herself was +invariably the last human being whom she seemed to consider; and no +sooner did she ascertain what measure was the most prudent for me to +adopt, than it immediately became that upon which she insisted. Would +it have been possible for me, man of pleasure and of the world as I was +thought to be,--no, my good uncle, though it went to my heart to wound +thee so secretly, it would /not/ have been possible for me, even if I +had not coined my whole nature into love, even if Isora had not been to +me what one smile of Isora's really was,--it would not have been +possible to have sacrificed so noble and so divine a heart, and made +myself, in that sacrifice, a wretch forever. No, my good uncle. I +could not have made that surrender to thy reason, much less to thy +prejudices. But if I have not done great injustice to the knight's +character, I doubt whether the youngest reader will not forgive him for +a want of sympathy with one feeling, when they consider how susceptible +that charming old man was to all others. + +And herewith I could discourse most excellent wisdom upon that +mysterious passion of love. I could show, by tracing its causes, and +its inseparable connection with the imagination, that it is only in +certain states of society, as well as in certain periods of life, that +love--real, pure, high love--can be born. Yea, I could prove, to the +nicety of a very problem, that, in the court of Charles II., it would +have been as impossible for such a feeling to find root, as it would be +for myrtle trees to effloresce from a Duvillier periwig. And we are not +to expect a man, however tender and affectionate he may be, to +sympathize with that sentiment in another, which, from the accidents of +birth and position, nothing short of a miracle could have ever produced +in himself. + +We were married then in private by a Catholic priest. St. John, and one +old lady who had been my father's godmother--for I wished for a female +assistant in the ceremony, and this old lady could tell no secrets, for, +being excessively deaf, nobody ever talked to her, and indeed she +scarcely ever went abroad--were the sole witnesses. I took a small +house in the immediate neighbourhood of London; it was surrounded on all +sides with a high wall which defied alike curiosity and attack. This +was, indeed, the sole reason which had induced me to prefer it to many +more gaudy or more graceful dwellings. But within I had furnished it +with every luxury that wealth, the most lavish and unsparing, could +procure. Thither, under an assumed name, I brought my bride, and there +was the greater part of my time spent. The people I had placed in the +house believed I was a rich merchant, and this accounted for my frequent +absences (absences which Prudence rendered necessary), for the wealth +which I lavished, and for the precautions of bolt, bar, and wall, which +they imagined the result of commercial caution. + +Oh the intoxication of that sweet Elysium, that Tadmor in life's +desert,--the possession of the one whom we have first loved! It is as +if poetry, and music, and light, and the fresh breath of flowers, were +all blended into one being, and from that being rose our existence! It +is content made rapture,--nothing to wish for, yet everything to feel! +Was that air the air which I had breathed hitherto? that earth the earth +which I had hitherto beheld? No, my heart dwelt in a new world, and all +these motley and restless senses were melted into one sense,--deep, +silent, fathomless delight! + +Well, too much of this species of love is not fit for a worldly tale, +and I will turn, for the reader's relief, to worldly affections. From +my first reunion with Isora, I had avoided all the former objects and +acquaintances in which my time had been so charmingly employed. +Tarleton was the first to suffer by my new pursuit. "What has altered +you?" said he; "you drink not, neither do you play. The women say you +are grown duller than a Norfolk parson, and neither the Puppet Show nor +the Water Theatre, the Spring Gardens nor the Ring, Wills's nor the Kit +Cat, the Mulberry Garden nor the New Exchange, witness any longer your +homage and devotion. What has come over you?--speak!" + +"Apathy!" + +"Ah! I understand,--you are tired of these things; pish, man!--go down +into the country, the green fields will revive thee, and send thee back +to London a new man! One would indeed find the town intolerably dull, +if the country were not, happily, a thousand times duller: go to the +country, Count, or I shall drop your friendship." + +"Drop it!" said I, yawning, and Tarleton took pet, and did as I desired +him. Now I had got rid of my friend as easily as I had found him,--a +matter that would not have been so readily accomplished had not Mr. +Tarleton owed me certain moneys, concerning which, from the moment he +had "dropped my friendship," good breeding effectually prevented his +saying a single syllable to me ever after. There is no knowing the +blessings of money until one has learned to manage it properly! + +So much, then, for the friend; now for the mistress. Lady Hasselton +had, as Tarleton hinted before, resolved to play me a trick of spite; +the reasons of our rupture really were, as I had stated to Tarleton, the +mighty effects of little things. She lived in a sea of trifles, and she +was desperately angry if her lover was not always sailing a +pleasure-boat in the same ocean. Now this was expecting too much from +me, and, after twisting our silken strings of attachment into all manner +of fantastic forms, we fell fairly out one evening and broke the little +ligatures in two. No sooner had I quarrelled with Tarleton than Lady +Hasselton received him in my place, and a week afterwards I was favoured +with an anonymous letter, informing me of the violent passion which a +certain /dame de la cour/ had conceived for me, and requesting me to +meet her at an appointed place. I looked twice over the letter, and +discovered in one corner of it two /g's/ peculiar to the caligraphy of +Lady Hasselton, though the rest of the letter (bad spelling excepted) +was pretty decently disguised. Mr. Fielding was with me at the time. +"What disturbs you?" said he, adjusting his knee-buckles. + +"Read it!" said I, handing him the letter. + +"Body of me, you are a lucky dog!" cried the beau. "You will hasten +thither on the wings of love." + +"Not a whit of it," said I; "I suspect that it comes from a rich old +widow whom I hate mortally." + +"A rich old widow!" repeated Mr. Fielding, to whose eyes there was +something very piquant in a jointure, and who thought consequently that +there were few virginal flowers equal to a widow's weeds. "A rich old +widow: you are right, Count, you are right. Don't go, don't think of +it. I cannot abide those depraved creatures. Widow, indeed,--quite an +affront to your gallantry." + +"Very true," said I. "Suppose you supply my place?" + +"I'd sooner be shot first," said Mr. Fielding, taking his departure, and +begging me for the letter to wrap some sugar plums in. + +Need I add, that Mr. Fielding repaired to the place of assignation, +where he received, in the shape of a hearty drubbing, the kind favours +intended for me? The story was now left for me to tell, not for the +Lady Hasselton; and that makes all the difference in the manner a story +is told,--/me/ narrante, it is de /te/ fabula narratur; /te/ narrante, +and it is de /me/ fabula, etc. Poor Lady Hasselton! to be laughed at, +and have Tarleton for a lover! + +I have gone back somewhat in the progress of my history in order to make +the above honourable mention of my friend and my mistress, thinking it +due to their own merits, and thinking it may also be instructive to +young gentlemen who have not yet seen the world to testify the exact +nature and the probable duration of all the loves and friendships they +are likely to find in that Great Monmouth Street of glittering and of +damaged affections! I now resume the order of narration. + +I wrote to Aubrey, thanking him for his intercession, but concealing, +till we met, the measure I had adopted. I wrote also to my uncle, +assuring him that I would take an early opportunity of hastening to +Devereux Court, and conversing with him on the subject of his letter. +And after an interval of some weeks, I received the two following +answers from my correspondents; the latter arrived several days after +the former:-- + + +FROM AUBREY DEVEREUX. + +I am glad to understand from your letter, unexplanatory as it is, that +you have followed my advice. I will shortly write to you more at large; +at present I am on the eve of my departure for the North of England, and +have merely time to assure you of my affection. + + AUBREY DEVEREUX. + +P. S. Gerald is in London; have you seen him? Oh, this world! this +world! how it clings to us, despite our education, our wishes, our +conscience, our knowledge of the Dread Hereafter! + + +LETTER FROM SIR WILLIAM DEVEREUX. + +MY DEAR NEPHEW,--Thank thee for thy letter, and the new plays thou +sentest me down, and that droll new paper, the "Spectator:" it is a +pretty shallow thing enough,--though it is not so racy as Rochester or +little Sid would have made it; but I thank thee for it, because it shows +thou wast not angry with thine old uncle for opposing thee on thy love +whimsies (in which most young men are dreadfully obstinate), since thou +didst provide so kindly for his amusement. Well, but, Morton, I hope +thou hast got that crotchet clear out of thy mind, and prithee now +/don't/ talk of it when thou comest down to see me. I hate +conversations on marriage more than a boy does flogging,--ods fish, I +do. So you must humour me on that point! + +Aubrey has left me again, and I am quite alone,--not that I was much +better off when he was here, for he was wont, of late, to shun my poor +room like a "lazar house," and when I spoke to his mother about it, she +muttered something about "example" and "corrupting." 'Sdeath, Morton, +is your old uncle, who loves all living things, down to poor Ponto the +dog, the sort of man whose example corrupts youth? As for thy mother, +she grows more solitary every day; and I don't know how it is, but I am +not so fond of strange faces as I used to be. 'Tis a new thing for me +to be avoided and alone. Why, I remember even little Sid, who had as +much venom as most men, once said it was impossible to--Fie now--see if +I was not going to preach a sermon from a text in favour of myself! But +come, Morton, come, I long for your face again: it is not so soft as +Aubrey's, nor so regular as Gerald's; but it is twice as kind as either. +Come, before it is too late: I feel myself going; and, to tell thee a +secret, the doctors tell me I may not last many months longer. Come, +and laugh once more at the old knight's stories. Come, and show him +that there is still some one not too good to love him. Come, and I will +tell thee a famous thing of old Rowley, which I am too ill and too sad +to tell thee now. + + WM. DEVEREUX. + + +Need I say that, upon receiving this letter, I resolved, without any +delay, to set out for Devereux Court? I summoned Desmarais to me; he +answered not my call: he was from home,--an unfrequent occurrence with +the necessitarian valet. I waited his return, which was not for some +hours, in order to give him sundry orders for my departure. The +exquisite Desmarais hemmed thrice,--"Will Monsieur be so very kind as to +excuse my accompanying him?" said he, with his usual air and tone of +obsequious respect. + +"And why?" The valet explained. A relation of his was in England only +for a few days: the philosopher was most anxious to enjoy his society, a +pleasure which fate might not again allow him. + +Though I had grown accustomed to the man's services, and did not like to +lose him even for a time, yet I could not refuse his request; and I +therefore ordered another of my servants to supply his place. This +change, however, determined me to adopt a plan which I had before +meditated; namely, the conveying of my own person to Devereux Court on +horseback, and sending my servant with my luggage in my post-chaise. +The equestrian mode of travelling is, indeed to this day, the one most +pleasing to me; and the reader will find me pursuing it many years +afterwards, and to the same spot. + +I might as well observe here that I had never intrusted Desmarais--no, +nor one of my own servants--with the secret of my marriage with, or my +visits to, Isora. I am a very fastidious person on those matters; and +of all confidants, even in the most trifling affairs, I do most eschew +those by whom we have the miserable honour of being served. + +In order, then, to avoid having my horse brought me to Isora's house by +any of these menial spies, I took the steed which I had selected for my +journey, and rode to Isora's with the intention of spending the evening +there, and thence commencing my excursion with the morning light. + + + +CHAPTER II. + +LOVE; PARTING; A DEATH-BED.--AFTER ALL HUMAN NATURE IS A BEAUTIFUL +FABRIC; AND EVEN ITS IMPERFECTIONS ARE NOT ODIOUS TO HIM WHO HAS STUDIED +THE SCIENCE OF ITS ARCHITECTURE, AND FORMED A REVERENT ESTIMATE OF ITS +CREATOR. + +IT is a noticeable thing how much fear increases love. I mean--for the +aphorism requires explanation--how much we love in proportion to our +fear of losing (or even to our fear of injury done to) the beloved +object. 'Tis an instance of the reaction of the feelings: the love +produces the fear, and the fear reproduces the love. This is one +reason, among many, why women love so much more tenderly and anxiously +than we do; and it is also one reason among many why frequent absences +are, in all stages of love, the most keen exciters of the passion. I +never breathed, away from Isora, without trembling for her safety. I +trembled lest this Barnard, if so I should still continue to call her +persecutor, should again discover and again molest her. Whenever (and +that was almost daily) I rode to the quiet and remote dwelling I had +procured her, my heart beat so vehemently, and my agitation was so +intense, that on arriving at the gate I have frequently been unable, for +several minutes, to demand admittance. There was, therefore, in the +mysterious danger which ever seemed to hang over Isora, a perpetual +irritation to a love otherwise but little inclined to slumber; and this +constant excitement took away from the torpor into which domestic +affection too often languishes, and increased my passion even while it +diminished my happiness. + +On my arrival now at Isora's, I found her already stationed at the +window, watching for my coming. How her dark eyes lit into lustre when +they saw me! How the rich blood mantled up under the soft cheek which +feeling had refined of late into a paler hue than it was wont, when I +first gazed upon it, to wear! Then how sprang forth her light step to +meet me! How trembled her low voice to welcome me! How spoke, from +every gesture of her graceful form, the anxious, joyful, all-animating +gladness of her heart! It is a melancholy pleasure to the dry, harsh +afterthoughts of later life, to think one has been thus loved; and one +marvels, when one considers what one is now, how it could have ever +been! That love /of ours/ was never made for after years! It could +never have flowed into the common and cold channel of ordinary affairs! +It could never have been mingled with the petty cares and the low +objects with which the loves of all who live long together in this +sordid and most earthly earth are sooner or later blended! We could not +have spared to others an atom of the great wealth of our affection. We +were misers of every coin in that boundless treasury. It would have +pierced me to the soul to have seen Isora smile upon another. I know +not even, had we had children, if I should not have been jealous of my +child! Was this selfish love? yes, it was, intensely, wholly selfish; +but it was a love made so only by its excess; nothing selfish on a +smaller scale polluted it. There was not on earth that which the one +would not have forfeited at the lightest desire of the other. So +utterly were happiness and Isora entwined together that I could form no +idea of the one with which the other was not connected. Was this love +made for the many and miry roads through which man must travel? Was it +made for age, or, worse than age, for those cool, ambitious, scheming +years that we call mature, in which all the luxuriance and verdure of +things are pared into tame shapes that mimic life, but a life that is +estranged from Nature, in which art is the only beauty and regularity +the only grace? No, in my heart of hearts, I feel that our love was not +meant for the stages of life through which I have already passed; it +would have made us miserable to see it fritter itself away, and to +remember what it once was. Better as it is! better to mourn over the +green bough than to look upon the sapless stem. You who now glance over +these pages, are you a mother? If so, answer me one question: Would you +not rather that the child whom you have cherished with your soul's care, +whom you have nurtured at your bosom, whose young joys your eyes have +sparkled to behold, whose lightest grief you have wept to witness as you +would have wept not for your own; over whose pure and unvexed sleep you +have watched and prayed, and, as it lay before you thus still and +unconscious of your vigil, have shaped out, oh, such bright hopes for +its future lot,--would you not rather that while thus young and +innocent, not a care tasted, not a crime incurred, it went down at once +into the dark grave? Would you not rather suffer this grief, bitter +though it be, than watch the predestined victim grow and ripen, and wind +itself more and more around your heart, and when it is of full and +mature age, and you yourself are stricken by years, and can form no new +ties to replace the old that are severed, when woes have already bowed +the darling of your hope, whom woe never was to touch, when sins have +already darkened the bright, seraph, unclouded heart which sin never was +to dim,--behold it sink day by day altered, diseased, decayed, into the +tomb which its childhood had in vain escaped? Answer me: would not the +earlier fate be far gentler than the last? And if you /have/ known and +wept over that early tomb, if you have seen the infant flower fade away +from the green soil of your affections; if you have missed the bounding +step, and the laughing eye, and the winning mirth which made this +sterile world a perpetual holiday,--Mother of the Lost, if you have +known, and you still pine for these, answer me yet again! Is it not a +comfort, even while you mourn, to think of all that that breast, now so +silent, has escaped? The cream, the sparkle, the elixir of life, it had +already quaffed: is it not sweet to think it shunned the wormwood and +the dregs? Answer me, even though the answer be in tears! Mourner, +your child was to you what my early and only love was to me; and could +you pierce down, down through a thousand fathom of ebbing thought, to +the far depths of my heart, you would there behold a sorrow /and a +consolation/ that have something in unison with your own! + +When the light of the next morning broke into our room, Isora was still +sleeping. Have you ever observed that the young, seen asleep and by the +morning light, seem much younger even than they are? partly because the +air and the light sleep of dawn bring a fresher bloom to the cheek, and +partly, because the careless negligence and the graceful postures +exclusively appropriated to youth, are forbidden by custom and formality +through the day, and developing themselves unconsciously in sleep, they +strike the eye like the ease and freedom of childhood itself. There, as +I looked upon Isora's tranquil and most youthful beauty, over which +circled and breathed an ineffable innocence,--even as the finer and +subtler air, which was imagined by those dreamy bards who kindled the +soft creations of naiad and of nymph, to float around a goddess,--I +could not believe that aught evil awaited one for whom infancy itself +seemed to linger,--linger as if no elder shape and less delicate hue +were meet to be the garment of so much guilelessness and tenderness of +heart. I felt, indeed, while I bent over her, and her regular and +quiet breath came upon my cheek, that feeling which is exactly the +reverse to a presentiment of ill. I felt as if, secure in her own +purity, she had nothing to dread, so that even the pang of parting was +lost in the confidence which stole over me as I then gazed. + +I rose gently, went to the next room, and dressed myself; I heard my +horse neighing beneath, as the servant walked him lazily to and fro. I +re-entered the bed-chamber in order to take leave of Isora; she was +already up. "What!" said I, "it is but three minutes since I left you +asleep, and I stole away as time does when with you." + +"Ah!" said Isora, smiling and blushing too, "but for my part, I think +there is an instinct to know, even if all the senses were shut up, +whether the one we love is with us or not. The moment you left me, I +felt it at once, even in sleep, and I woke. But you will not, no, you +will not leave me yet!" + +I think I see Isora now, as she stood by the window which she had +opened, with a woman's minute anxiety, to survey even the aspect of the +clouds, and beseech caution against the treachery of the skies. I think +I see her now, as she stood the moment after I had torn myself from her +embrace, and had looked back, as I reached the door, for one parting +glance,--her eyes all tenderness, her lips parted, and quivering with +the attempt to smile, the long, glossy ringlets (through whose raven hue +the /purpureum lumen/ broke like an imprisoned sunbeam) straying in +dishevelled beauty over her transparent neck; the throat bent in mute +despondency; the head drooping; the arms half extended, and dropping +gradually as my steps departed; the sunken, absorbed expression of face, +form, and gesture, so steeped in the very bitterness of dejection,--all +are before me now, sorrowful, and lovely in sorrow, as they were beheld +years ago, by the gray, cold, comfortless light of morning! + +"God bless you,--my own, own love," I said; and as my look lingered, I +added, with a full but an assured heart; "and He will!" I tarried no +more: I flung myself on my horse, and rode on as if I were speeding +/to/, and not /from/, my bride. + +The noon was far advanced, as, the day after I left Isora, I found +myself entering the park in which Devereux Court is situated. I did not +enter by one of the lodges, but through a private gate. My horse was +thoroughly jaded; for the distance I had come was great, and I had +ridden rapidly; and as I came into the park, I dismounted, and, throwing +the rein over my arm, proceeded slowly on foot. I was passing through a +thick, long plantation, which belted the park and in which several walks +and rides had been cut, when a man crossed the same road which I took, +at a little distance before me. He was looking on the ground, and +appeared wrapt in such earnest meditation that he neither saw nor heard +me. But I had seen enough of him, in that brief space of time, to feel +convinced that it was Montreuil whom I beheld. What brought him hither, +him, whom I believed in London, immersed with Gerald in political +schemes, and for whom these woods were not only interdicted ground, but +to whom they must have also been but a tame field of interest, after his +audiences with ministers and nobles? I did not, however, pause to +consider on his apparition; I rather quickened my pace towards the +house, in the expectation of there ascertaining the cause of his visit. + +The great gates of the outer court were open as usual: I rode +unheedingly through them, and was soon at the door of the hall. The +porter, who unfolded to my summons the ponderous door, uttered, when he +saw me, an exclamation that seemed to my ear to have in it more of +sorrow than welcome. + +"How is your master?" I asked. + +The man shook his head, but did not hasten to answer; and, impressed +with a vague alarm, I hurried on without repeating the question. On the +staircase I met old Nicholls, my uncle's valet; I stopped and questioned +him. My uncle had been seized on the preceding day with gout in the +stomach; medical aid had been procured, but it was feared ineffectually, +and the physicians had declared, about an hour before I arrived, that he +could not, in human probability, outlive the night. Stifling the rising +at my heart, I waited to hear no more: I flew up the stairs; I was at +the door of my uncle's chamber; I stopped there, and listened; all was +still; I opened the door gently; I stole in, and, creeping to the +bedside, knelt down and covered my face with my hands; for I required a +pause for self-possession, before I had courage to look up. When I +raised my eyes, I saw my mother on the opposite side; she sat on a chair +with a draught of medicine in one hand, and a watch in the other. She +caught my eye, but did not speak; she gave me a sign of recognition, and +looked down again upon the watch. My uncle's back was turned to me, and +he lay so still that, for some moments, I thought he was asleep; at +last, however, he moved restlessly. + +"It is past noon!" said he to my mother, "is it not?" + +"It is three minutes and six seconds after four," replied my mother, +looking closer at the watch. + +My uncle sighed. "They have sent an express for the dear boy, Madam?" +said he. + +"Exactly at half-past nine last evening," answered my mother, glancing +at me. + +"He could scarcely be here by this time," said my uncle, and he moved +again in the bed. "Pish, how the pillow frets one!" + +"Is it too high?" said my mother. + +"No," said my uncle, faintly, "no--no--the discomfort is not in the +pillow, after all: 'tis a fine day; is it not?" + +"Very!" said my mother; "I wish you could go out." + +My uncle did not answer: there was a pause. "Ods fish, Madam, are those +carriage wheels?" + +"No, Sir William--but--" + +"There /are/ sounds in my ear; my senses grow dim," said my uncle, +unheeding her: "would that I might live another day; I should not like +to die without seeing him. 'Sdeath, Madam, I do hear something +behind!--Sobs, as I live!--Who sobs for the old knight?" and my uncle +turned round, and saw me. + +"My dear--dear uncle!" I said, and could say no more. + +"Ah, Morton," cried the kind old man, putting his hand affectionately +upon mine. "Beshrew me, but I think I have conquered the grim enemy now +that you are come. But what's this, my boy?--tears--tears,--why, little +Sid--no, nor Rochester either, would ever have believed this if I had +sworn it! Cheer up, cheer up." + +But, seeing that I wept and sobbed the more, my uncle, after a pause, +continued in the somewhat figurative strain which the reader has +observed he sometimes adopted, and which perhaps his dramatic studies +had taught him. + +"Nay, Morton, what do you grieve for?--that Age should throw off its +fardel of aches and pains, and no longer groan along its weary road, +meeting cold looks and unwilling welcomes, as both host and comrade grow +weary of the same face, and the spendthrift heart has no longer quip or +smile wherewith to pay the reckoning? No, no: let the poor pedler +shuffle off his dull pack, and fall asleep. But I am glad you are come: +I would sooner have one of your kind looks at your uncle's stale saws or +jests than all the long faces about me, saving only the presence of your +mother;" and with his characteristic gallantry, my uncle turned +courteously to her. + +"Dear Sir William!" said she, "it is time you should take your draught; +and then would it not be better that you should see the chaplain? he +waits without." + +"Ods fish," said my uncle, turning again to me, "'tis the way with them +all: when the body is past hope comes the physician, and when the soul +is past mending comes the priest. No, Madam, no, 'tis too late for +either.--Thank ye, Morton, thank ye" (as I started up--took the draught +from my mother's hand, and besought him to drink it), "'tis of no use; +but if it pleases thee, I must,"--and he drank the medicine. + +My mother rose, and walked towards the door: it was ajar; and, as my eye +followed her figure, I perceived, through the opening, the black garb of +the chaplain. + +"Not yet," said she, quietly; "wait." And then gliding away, seated +herself by the window in silence, and told her beads. + +My uncle continued: "They have been at me, Morton, as if I had been a +pagan; and I believe, in their hearts, they are not a little scandalized +that I don't try to win the next world by trembling like an ague. Faith +now, I never could believe that Heaven was so partial to cowards; nor +can I think, Morton, that Salvation is like a soldier's muster-roll, and +that we may play the devil between hours, so that, at the last moment, +we whip in, and answer to our names. Ods fish, Morton, I could tell +thee a tale of that; but 'tis a long one, and we have not time now. +Well, well, for my part, I deem reverently and gratefully of God, and do +not believe He will be very wroth with our past enjoyment of life, if we +have taken care that others should enjoy it too; nor do I think, with +thy good mother, and Aubrey, dear child! that an idle word has the same +weight in the Almighty's scales as a wicked deed." + +"Blessed, blessed, are they," I cried through my tears, "on whose souls +there is as little stain as there is on yours!" + +"Faith, Morton, that's kindly said; and thou knowest not how strangely +it sounds, after their exhortations to repentance. I know I have had my +faults, and walked on to our common goal in a very irregular line; but I +never wronged the living nor slandered the dead, nor ever shut my heart +to the poor,--'t were a burning sin if I had,--and I have loved all men +and all things, and I never bore ill-will to a creature. Poor Ponto, +Morton, thou wilt take care of poor Ponto, when I'm dead,--nay, nay, +don't grieve so. Go, my child, go: compose thyself while I see the +priest, for 't will please thy poor mother; and though she thinks +harshly of me now, I should not like her to do so /to-morrow/! Go, my +dear boy, go." + +I went from the room, and waited by the door, till the office of the +priest was over. My mother then came out, and said Sir William had +composed himself to sleep. While she was yet speaking, Gerald surprised +me by his appearance. I learned that he had been in the house for the +last three days, and when I heard this, I involuntarily accounted for +the appearance of Montreuil. I saluted him distantly, and he returned +my greeting with the like pride. He seemed, however, though in a less +degree, to share in my emotions; and my heart softened to him for it. +Nevertheless we stood apart, and met not as brothers should have met by +the death-bed of a mutual benefactor. + +"Will you wait without?" said my mother. + +"No," answered I, "I will watch over him." So I stole in, with a light +step, and seated myself by my uncle's bed-side. He was asleep, and his +sleep was as hushed and quiet as an infant's. I looked upon his face, +and saw a change had come over it, and was increasing sensibly: but +there was neither harshness nor darkness in the change, awful as it was. +The soul, so long nurtured on benevolence, could not, in parting, leave +a rude stamp on the kindly clay which had seconded its impulses so well. + +The evening had just set in, when my uncle woke; he turned very gently, +and smiled when he saw me. + +"It is late," said he, and I observed with a wrung heart, that his voice +was fainter. + +"No, Sir, not very," said I. + +"Late enough, my child; the warm sun has gone down; and 'tis a good time +to close one's eyes, when all without looks gray and chill: methinks it +is easier to wish thee farewell, Morton, when I see thy face +indistinctly. I am glad I shall not die in the daytime. Give me thy +hand, my child, and tell me that thou art not angry with thine old uncle +for thwarting thee in that love business. I have heard tales of the +girl, too, which made me glad, for thy sake, that it is all off, though +I might not tell thee of them before. 'Tis very dark, Morton. I have +had a pleasant sleep. Ods fish, I do not think a bad man would have +slept so well. The fire burns dim, Morton: it is very cold. Cover me +up; double the counterpane over the legs, Morton. I remember once +walking in the Mall; little Sid said, 'Devereux'--it is colder and +colder, Morton; raise the blankets more over the back; 'Devereux,' said +little Sid--faith, Morton, 'tis ice now--where art thou?--is the fire +out, that I can't see thee? Remember thine old uncle, Morton--and-- +and--don't forget poor--Ponto. Bless thee, my child; bless you all!" + +And my uncle died! + + + +CHAPTER III. + +A GREAT CHANGE OF PROSPECTS. + +I SHUT myself up in the apartments prepared for me (they were not those +I had formerly occupied), and refused all participation in my solitude, +till, after an interval of some days, my mother came to summon me to the +opening of the will. She was more moved than I had expected. "It is a +pity," said she, as we descended the stairs, "that Aubrey is not here, +and that we should be so unacquainted with the exact place where he is +likely to be that I fear the letter I sent him may be long delayed, or, +indeed, altogether miscarry." + +"Is not the Abbe here?" said I, listlessly. + +"No!" answered my mother, "to be sure not." + +"He has /been/ here," said I, greatly surprised. "I certainly saw him +on the day of my arrival." + +"Impossible!" said my mother, in evident astonishment; and seeing that, +at all events, she was unacquainted with the circumstance, I said no +more. + +The will was to be read in the little room where my uncle had been +accustomed to sit. I felt it as a sacrilege to his memory to choose +that spot for such an office, but I said nothing. Gerald and my mother, +the lawyer (a neighbouring attorney, named Oswald), and myself were the +only persons present. Mr. Oswald hemmed thrice, and broke the seal. +After a preliminary, strongly characteristic of the testator, he came to +the disposition of the estates. I had never once, since my poor uncle's +death, thought upon the chances of his will; indeed, knowing myself so +entirely his favourite, I could not, if I had thought upon them, have +entertained a doubt as to their result. What then was my astonishment +when, couched in terms of the strongest affection, the whole bulk of the +property was bequeathed to Gerald; to Aubrey the sum of forty, to myself +that of twenty thousand pounds (a capital considerably less than the +yearly income of my uncle's princely estates), was allotted. Then +followed a list of minor bequests,--to my mother an annuity of three +thousand a year, with the privilege of apartments in the house during +her life; to each of the servants legacies sufficient for independence; +to a few friends, and distant connections of the family, tokens of the +testator's remembrance,--even the horses to his carriage, and the dogs +that fed from his menials' table, were not forgotten, but were to be set +apart from work, and maintained in indolence during their remaining span +of life. The will was concluded: I could not believe my senses; not a +word was said as a reason for giving Gerald the priority. + +I rose calmly enough. "Suffer me, Sir," said I to the lawyer, "to +satisfy my own eyes." Mr. Oswald bowed, and placed the will in my +hands. I glanced at Gerald as I took it: his countenance betrayed, or +feigned, an astonishment equal to my own. With a jealous, searching, +scrutinizing eye, I examined the words of the bequest; I examined +especially (for I suspected that the names must have been exchanged) the +place in which my name and Gerald's occurred. In vain: all was smooth +and fair to the eye, not a vestige of possible erasure or alteration was +visible. I looked next at the wording of the will: it was evidently my +uncle's; no one could have feigned or imitated the peculiar turn of his +expressions; and, above all, many parts of the will (the affectionate +and personal parts) were in his own handwriting. + +"The date," said I, "is, I perceive, of very recent period; the will is +signed by two witnesses besides yourself. Who and where are they?" + +"Robert Lister, the first signature, my clerk; he is since dead, Sir." + +"Dead!" said I; "and the other witness, George Davis?" + +"Is one of Sir William's tenants, and is below, Sir, in waiting." + +"Let him come up," and a middle-sized, stout man, with a blunt, bold, +open countenance, was admitted. + +"Did you witness this will?" said I. + +"I did, your honour!" + +"And this is your handwriting?" pointing to the scarcely legible scrawl. + +"Yees, your honour," said the man, scratching his head, "I think it be; +they are my /ees/, and G, and D, sure enough." + +"And do you know the purport of the will you signed?" + +"Anan!" + +"I mean, do you know to whom Sir William--stop, Mr. Oswald, suffer the +man to answer me--to whom Sir William left his property?" + +"Noa, to be sure, Sir; the will was a woundy long one, and Maister +Oswald there told me it was no use to read it over to me, but merely to +sign, as a witness to Sir William's handwriting." + +"Enough: you may retire;" and George Davis vanished. + +"Mr. Oswald," said I, approaching the attorney, "I may wrong you, and if +so, I am sorry for it, but I suspect there has been foul practice in +this deed. I have reason to be convinced that Sir William Devereux +could never have made this devise. I give you warning, Sir, that I +shall bring the business immediately before a court of law, and that if +guilty--ay, tremble, Sir--of what I suspect, you will answer for this +deed at the foot of the gallows." + +I turned to Gerald, who rose while I was yet speaking. Before I could +address him, he exclaimed, with evident and extreme agitation, + +"You cannot, Morton,--you cannot--you dare not--insinuate that I, your +brother, have been base enough to forge, or to instigate the forgery of, +this will?" + +Gerald's agitation made me still less doubtful of his guilt. + +"The case, Sir," I answered coldly, "stands thus: my uncle could not +have made this will; it is a devise that must seem incredible to all who +knew aught of our domestic circumstances. Fraud has been practised, how +I know not; by whom I do know." + +"Morton, Morton: this is insufferable; I cannot bear such charges, even +from a brother." + +"Charges!--your conscience speaks, Sir,--not I; no one benefits by this +fraud but you: pardon me if I draw an inference from a fact." + +So saying, I turned on my heel, and abruptly left the apartment. I +ascended the stairs which led to my own: there I found my servant +preparing the paraphernalia in which that very evening I was to attend +my uncle's funeral. I gave him, with a calm and collected voice, the +necessary instructions for following me to town immediately after that +event, and then I passed on to the room where the deceased lay in state. +The room was hung with black: the gorgeous pall, wrought with the proud +heraldry of our line, lay over the coffin; and by the lights which made, +in that old chamber, a more brilliant, yet more ghastly, day, sat the +hired watchers of the dead. + +I bade them leave me, and kneeling down beside the coffin, I poured out +the last expressions of my grief. I rose, and was retiring once more to +my room, when I encountered Gerald. + +"Morton," said he, "I own to you, I myself am astounded by my uncle's +will. I do not come to make you offers; you would not accept them: I do +not come to vindicate myself, it is beneath me; and we have never been +as brothers, and we know not their language: but I /do/ come to demand +you to retract the dark and causeless suspicions you have vented against +me, and also to assure you that, if you have doubts of the authenticity +of the will, so far from throwing obstacles in your way, I myself will +join in the inquiries you institute and the expenses of the law." + +I felt some difficulty in curbing my indignation while Gerald thus +spoke. I saw before me the persecutor of Isora, the fraudulent robber +of my rights, and I heard this enemy speak to me of aiding in the +inquiries which were to convict himself of the basest, if not the +blackest, of human crimes; there was something too in the reserved and +yet insolent tone of his voice which, reminding me as it did of our long +aversion to each other, made my very blood creep with abhorrence. I +turned away, that I might not break my oath to Isora, for I felt +strongly tempted to do so; and said in as calm an accent as I could +command, "The case will, I trust, require no king's evidence; and, at +least, I will not be beholden to the man whom my reason condemns for any +assistance in bringing upon himself the ultimate condemnation of the +law." + +Gerald looked at me sternly. "Were you not my brother," said he, in a +low tone, "I would, for a charge so dishonouring my fair name, strike +you dead at my feet." + +"It is a wonderful exertion of fraternal love," I rejoined, with a +scornful laugh, but an eye flashing with passions a thousand times more +fierce than scorn, "that prevents your adding that last favour to those +you have already bestowed on me." + +Gerald, with a muttered curse, placed his hand upon his sword; my own +rapier was instantly half drawn, when, to save us from the great guilt +of mortal contest against each other, steps were heard, and a number of +the domestics charged with melancholy duties at the approaching rite, +were seen slowly sweeping in black robes along the opposite gallery. +Perhaps that interruption restored both of us to our senses, for we +said, almost in the same breath, and nearly in the same phrase, "This +way of terminating strife is not for us;" and, as Gerald spoke, he +turned slowly away, descended the staircase, and disappeared. + +The funeral took place at night: a numerous procession of the tenants +and peasantry attended. My poor uncle! there was not a dry eye for +thee, but those of thine own kindred. Tall, stately, erect in the power +and majesty of his unrivalled form, stood Gerald, already assuming the +dignity and lordship which, to speak frankly, so well became him; my +mother's face was turned from me, but her attitude proclaimed her +utterly absorbed in prayer. As for myself, my heart seemed hardened: I +could not betray to the gaze of a hundred strangers the emotions which I +would have hidden from those whom I loved the most. Wrapped in my +cloak, with arms folded on my breast, and eyes bent to the ground, I +leaned against one of the pillars of the chapel, apart, and apparently +unmoved. + +But when they were about to lower the body into the vault, a momentary +weakness came over me. I made an involuntary step forward, a single but +deep groan of anguish broke from me, and then, covering my face with my +mantle, I resumed my former attitude, and all was still. The rite was +over; in many and broken groups the spectators passed from the chapel: +some to speculate on the future lord, some to mourn over the late, and +all to return the next morning to their wonted business, and let the +glad sun teach them to forget the past, until for themselves the sun +should be no more, and the forgetfulness eternal. + +The hour was so late that I relinquished my intention of leaving the +house that night; I ordered my horse to be in readiness at daybreak and +before I retired to rest I went to my mother's apartments: she received +me with more feeling than she had ever testified before. + +"Believe me, Morton," said she, and she kissed my forehead; "believe me, +I can fully enter into the feelings which you must naturally experience +on an event so contrary to your expectations. I cannot conceal from you +how much I am surprised. Certainly Sir William never gave any of us +cause to suppose that he liked either of your brothers--Gerald less than +Aubrey--so much as yourself; nor, poor man, was he in other things at +all addicted to conceal his opinions." + +"It is true, my mother," said I; "it is true. Have you not therefore +some suspicions of the authenticity of the will?" + +"Suspicions!" cried my mother. "No!--impossible!--suspicions of whom? +You could not think Gerald so base, and who else had an interest in +deception? Besides, the signature is undoubtedly Sir William's +handwriting, and the will was regularly witnessed; suspicions, +Morton,--no, impossible! Reflect, too, how eccentric and humoursome +your uncle always was: suspicions!--no, impossible!" + +"Such things have been, my mother, nor are they uncommon: men will +hazard their souls, ay, and what to some are more precious still, their +lives too, for the vile clay we call money. But enough of this now: the +Law,--that great arbiter,--that eater of the oyster, and divider of its +shells,--the Law will decide between us, and if against me, as I suppose +and fear the decision will be,--why, I must be a suitor to fortune +instead of her commander. Give me your blessing, my dearest mother: I +cannot stay longer in this house; to-morrow I leave you." + +And my mother did bless me, and I fell upon her neck and clung to it. +"Ah!" thought I, "this blessing is almost worth my uncle's fortune." + +I returned to my room; there I saw on the table the case of the sword +sent me by the French king. I had left it with my uncle, on my +departure to town, and it had been found among his effects and reclaimed +by me. I took out the sword, and drew it from the scabbard. "Come," +said I, and I kindled with a melancholy yet a deep enthusiasm, as I +looked along the blade, "come, my bright friend, with thee through this +labyrinth which we call the world will I carve my way! Fairest and +speediest of earth's levellers, thou makest the path from the low valley +to the steep hill, and shapest the soldier's axe into the monarch's +sceptre! The laurel and the fasces, and the curule car, and the +emperor's purple,--what are these but thy playthings, alternately thy +scorn and thy reward! Founder of all empires, propagator of all creeds, +thou leddest the Gaul and the Goth, and the gods of Rome and Greece +crumbled upon their altars! Beneath thee the fires of the Gheber waved +pale, and on thy point the badge of the camel-driver blazed like a sun +over the startled East! Eternal arbiter, and unconquerable despot, +while the passions of mankind exist! Most solemn of hypocrites, +--circling blood with glory as with a halo; and consecrating +homicide and massacre with a hollow name, which the parched throat of +thy votary, in the battle and the agony, shouteth out with its last +breath! Star of all human destinies! I kneel before thee, and invoke +from thy bright astrology an omen and a smile." + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +AN EPISODE.--THE SON OF THE GREATEST MAN WHO (ONE ONLY EXCEPTED) /EVER +ROSE TO A THRONE/, BUT BY NO MEANS OF THE GREATEST MAN (SAVE ONE) WHO +/EVER EXISTED/. + +BEFORE sunrise the next morning I had commenced my return to London. I +had previously intrusted to the /locum tenens/ of the sage Desmarais, +the royal gift, and (singular conjunction!) poor Ponto, my uncle's dog. +Here let me pause, as I shall have no other opportunity to mention him, +to record the fate of the canine bequest. He accompanied me some years +afterwards to France, and he died there in extreme age. I shed tears as +I saw the last relic of my poor uncle expire, and I was not consoled +even though he was buried in the garden of the gallant Villars, and +immortalized by an epitaph from the pen of the courtly Chaulieu. + +Leaving my horse to select his own pace, I surrendered myself to +reflection upon the strange alteration that had taken place in my +fortunes. There did not, in my own mind, rest a doubt but that some +villany had been practised with respect to the will. My uncle's +constant and unvarying favour towards me; the unequivocal expressions he +himself from time to time had dropped indicative of his future +intentions on my behalf; the easy and natural manner in which he had +seemed to consider, as a thing of course, my heritage and succession to +his estates; all, coupled with his own frank and kindly character, so +little disposed to raise hopes which he meant to disappoint, might alone +have been sufficient to arouse my suspicions at a devise so contrary to +all past experience of the testator. But when to these were linked the +bold temper and the daring intellect of my brother, joined to his +personal hatred to myself; his close intimacy with Montreuil, whom I +believed capable of the darkest designs; the sudden and evidently +concealed appearance of the latter on the day my uncle died; the +agitation and paleness of the attorney; the enormous advantages accruing +to Gerald, and to no one else, from the terms of the devise: when these +were all united into one focus of evidence, they appeared to me to leave +no doubt of the forgery of the testament and the crime of Gerald. Nor +was there anything in my brother's bearing and manner calculated to +abate my suspicions. His agitation was real; his surprise might have +been feigned; his offer of assistance in investigation was an unmeaning +bravado; his conduct to myself testified his continued ill-will towards +me,--an ill-will which might possibly have instigated him in the fraud +scarcely less than the whispers of interest and cupidity. + +But while this was the natural and indelible impression on my mind, I +could not disguise from myself the extreme difficulty I should +experience in resisting my brother's claim. So far as my utter want of +all legal knowledge would allow me to decide, I could perceive nothing +in the will itself which would admit of a lawyer's successful cavil: my +reasons for suspicion, so conclusive to myself, would seem nugatory to a +judge. My uncle was known as a humourist; and prove that a man differs +from others in one thing, and the world will believe that he differs +from them in a thousand. His favour to me would be, in the popular eye, +only an eccentricity, and the unlooked-for disposition of his will only +a caprice. Possession, too, gave Gerald a proverbial vantage-ground, +which my whole life might be wasted in contesting; while his command of +an immense wealth might, more than probably, exhaust my spirit by delay, +and my fortune by expenses. Precious prerogative of law, to reverse the +attribute of the Almighty! to fill the /rich/ with good things, but to +send the poor empty away! /In corruptissima republica plurimoe leges/. +Legislation perplexed is synonymous with crime unpunished,--a +reflection, by the way, I should never have made, if I had never had a +law-suit: sufferers are ever reformers. + +Revolving, then, these anxious and unpleasing thoughts, interrupted, at +times, by regrets of a purer and less selfish nature for the friend I +had lost, and wandering, at others, to the brighter anticipations of +rejoining Isora, and drinking from her eyes my comfort for the past and +my hope for the future, I continued and concluded my day's travel. + +The next day, on resuming my journey, and on feeling the time approach +that would bring me to Isora, something like joy became the most +prevalent feeling in my mind. So true it is that misfortunes little +affect us so long as we have some ulterior object, which, by arousing +hope, steals us from affliction. Alas! the pang of a moment becomes +intolerable when we know of nothing /beyond/ the moment which it soothes +us to anticipate! Happiness lives in the light of the future: attack +the present; she defies you! darken the future, and you destroy her! + +It was a beautiful morning: through the vapours, which rolled slowly +away beneath his beams, the sun broke gloriously forth; and over wood +and hill, and the low plains, which, covered with golden corn, stretched +immediately before me, his smile lay in stillness, but in joy. And ever +from out the brake and the scattered copse, which at frequent intervals +beset the road, the merry birds sent a fitful and glad music to mingle +with the sweets and freshness of the air. + +I had accomplished the greater part of my journey, and had entered into +a more wooded and garden-like description of country, when I perceived +an old man, in a kind of low chaise, vainly endeavouring to hold in a +little but spirited horse, which had taken alarm at some object on the +road, and was running away with its driver. The age of the gentleman +and the lightness of the chaise gave me some alarm for the safety of the +driver; so, tying my own horse to a gate, lest the sound of his hoofs +might only increase the speed and fear of the fugitive, I ran with a +swift and noiseless step along the other side of the hedge and, coming +out into the road just before the pony's head, I succeeded in arresting +him, at a rather critical spot and moment. The old gentleman very soon +recovered his alarm; and, returning me many thanks for my interference, +requested me to accompany him to his house, which he said was two or +three miles distant. + +Though I had no desire to be delayed in my journey for the mere sake of +seeing an old gentleman's house, I thought my new acquaintance's safety +required me, at least, to offer to act as his charioteer till we reached +his house. To my secret vexation at that time, though I afterwards +thought the petty inconvenience was amply repaid by a conference with a +very singular and once noted character, the offer was accepted. +Surrendering my own steed to the care of a ragged boy, who promised to +lead it with equal judgment and zeal, I entered the little car, and, +keeping a firm hand and constant eye on the reins, brought the offending +quadruped into a very equable and sedate pace. + +"Poor Bob," said the old gentleman, apostrophizing his horse; "poor Bob, +like thy betters, thou knowest the weak hand from the strong; and when +thou art not held in by power, thou wilt chafe against love; so that +thou renewest in my mind the remembrance of its favourite maxim, namely, +'The only preventive to rebellion is restraint!'" + +"Your observation, Sir," said I, rather struck by this address, "makes +very little in favour of the more generous feelings by which we ought to +be actuated. It is a base mind which always requires the bit and +bridle." + +"It is, Sir," answered the old gentleman; "I allow it: but, though I +have some love for human nature, I have no respect for it; and while I +pity its infirmities, I cannot but confess them." + +"Methinks, Sir," replied I, "that you have uttered in that short speech +more sound philosophy than I have heard for months. There is wisdom in +not thinking too loftily of human clay, and benevolence in not judging +it too harshly, and something, too, of magnanimity in this moderation; +for we seldom contemn mankind till they have hurt us, and when they have +hurt us, we seldom do anything but detest them for the injury." + +"You speak shrewdly; Sir, for one so young," returned the old man, +looking hard at me; "and I will be sworn you have suffered some cares; +for we never begin to think till we are a little afraid to hope." + +I sighed as I answered, "There are some men, I fancy, to whom +constitution supplies the office of care; who, naturally melancholy, +become easily addicted to reflection, and reflection is a soil which +soon repays us for whatever trouble we bestow upon its culture." + +"True, Sir!" said my companion; and there was a pause. The old +gentleman resumed: "We are not far from my home now (or rather my +temporary residence, for my proper and general home is at Cheshunt, in +Hertfordshire); and, as the day is scarcely half spent, I trust you will +not object to partake of a hermit's fare. Nay, nay, no excuse: I assure +you that I am not a gossip in general, or a liberal dispenser of +invitations; and I think, if you refuse me now, you will hereafter +regret it." + +My curiosity was rather excited by this threat; and, reflecting that my +horse required a short rest, I subdued my impatience to return to town, +and accepted the invitation. We came presently to a house of moderate +size, and rather antique fashion. This, the old man informed me, was +his present abode. A servant, almost as old as his master, came to the +door, and, giving his arm to my host, led him, for he was rather lame +and otherwise infirm, across a small hall into a long low apartment. I +followed. + +A miniature of Oliver Cromwell, placed over the chimney-piece, forcibly +arrested my attention. + +"It is the only portrait of the Protector I ever saw," said I, "which +impresses on me the certainty of a likeness; that resolute gloomy +brow,--that stubborn lip,--that heavy, yet not stolid expression,--all +seem to warrant a resemblance to that singular and fortunate man, to +whom folly appears to have been as great an instrument of success as +wisdom, and who rose to the supreme power perhaps no less from a +pitiable fanaticism than an admirable genius. So true is it that great +men often soar to their height by qualities the least obvious to the +spectator, and (to stoop to a low comparison) resemble that animal* in +which a common ligament supplies the place and possesses the property of +wings." + + +* The flying squirrel. + + +The old man smiled very slightly as I made this remark. "If this be +true," said he, with an impressive tone, "though we may wonder less at +the talents of the Protector, we must be more indulgent to his +character, nor condemn him for insincerity when at heart he himself was +deceived." + +"It is in that light," said I, "that I have always viewed his conduct. +And though myself, by prejudice, a Cavalier and a Tory, I own that +Cromwell (hypocrite as he is esteemed) appears to me as much to have +exceeded his royal antagonist and victim in the virtue of sincerity, as +he did in the grandeur of his genius and the profound consistency of his +ambition." + +"Sir," said my host, with a warmth that astonished me, "you seem to have +known that man, so justly do you judge him. Yes," said he, after a +pause, "yes, perhaps no one ever so varnished to his own breast his +designs; no one, so covetous of glory, was ever so duped by conscience; +no one ever rose to such a height through so few acts that seemed to +himself worthy of remorse." + +At this part of our conversation, the servant, entering, announced +dinner. We adjourned to another room, and partook of a homely yet not +uninviting repast. When men are pleased with each other, conversation +soon gets beyond the ordinary surfaces to talk; and an exchange of +deeper opinions was speedily effected by what old Barnes* quaintly +enough terms, "The gentleman-usher of all knowledge,--Sermocination!" + + +* In the "Gerania." + + +It was a pretty, though small room, where we dined; and I observed that +in this apartment, as in the other into which I had been at first +ushered, there were several books scattered about, in that confusion and +number which show that they have become to their owner both the choicest +luxury and the least dispensable necessary. So, during dinner-time, we +talked principally upon books, and I observed that those which my host +seemed to know the best were of the elegant and poetical order of +philosophers, who, more fascinating than deep, preach up the blessings +of a solitude which is useless, and a content which, deprived of +passion, excitement, and energy, would, if it could ever exist, only be +a dignified name for vegetation. + +"So," said he, "when, the dinner being removed, we were left alone with +that substitute for all society,--wine! "so you are going to town: in +four hours more you will be in that great focus of noise, falsehood, +hollow joy, and real sorrow. Do you know that I have become so wedded +to the country that I cannot but consider all those who leave it for the +turbulent city, in the same light, half wondering, half compassionating, +as that in which the ancients regarded the hardy adventurers who left +the safe land and their happy homes, voluntarily to expose themselves in +a frail vessel to the dangers of an uncertain sea? Here, when I look +out on the green fields and the blue sky, the quiet herds basking in the +sunshine or scattered over the unpolluted plains, I cannot but exclaim +with Pliny, 'This is the true Movoetov!' this is the source whence flow +inspiration to the mind and tranquillity to the heart! And in my love +of Nature--more confiding and constant than ever is the love we bear to +women--I cry with the tender and sweet Tibullus,-- + + + "'Ego composito securus acervo + Despiciam dites, despiciamque famem.'"* + + +* "Satisfied with my little hoard, I can despise wealth, and fear not +hunger." + + +"These," said I, "are the sentiments we all (perhaps the most restless +of us the most passionately) at times experience. But there is in our +hearts some secret but irresistible principle that impels us, as a +rolling circle, onward, onward, in the great orbit of our destiny; nor +do we find a respite until the wheels on which we move are broken--at +the tomb." + +"Yet," said my host, "the internal principle you speak of can be +arrested before the grave,--at least stilled and impeded. You will +smile incredulously, perhaps (for I see you do not know who I am), when +I tell you that I might once have been a monarch, and that obscurity +seemed to me more enviable than empire; I resigned the occasion: the +tide of fortune rolled onward, and left me safe but solitary and +forsaken upon the dry land. If you wonder at my choice, you will wonder +still more when I tell you that I have never repented it." + +Greatly surprised, and even startled, I heard my host make this strange +avowal. "Forgive me," said I, "but you have powerfully excited my +interest; dare I inquire from whose experience I am now deriving a +lesson?" + +"Not yet," said my host, smiling, "not till our conversation is over, +and you have bid the old anchorite adieu, in all probability forever: +you will then know that you have conversed with a man, perhaps more +universally neglected and contemned than any of his contemporaries. +Yes," he continued, "yes, I resigned power, and I got no praise for my +moderation, but contempt for my folly; no human being would believe that +I could have relinquished that treasure through a disregard for its +possession which others would only have relinquished through an +incapacity to retain it; and that which, had they seen it recorded in an +ancient history, men would have regarded as the height of philosophy, +they despised when acted under their eyes, as the extremest abasement of +imbecility. Yet I compare my lot with that of the great man whom I was +expected to equal in ambition, and to whose grandeur I might have +succeeded; and am convinced that in this retreat I am more to be envied +than he in the plenitude of his power and the height of his renown; yet +is not happiness the aim of wisdom? if my choice is happier than his, is +it not wiser?" + +"Alas," thought I, "the wisest men seldom have the loftiest genius, and +perhaps happiness is granted rather to mediocrity of mind than to +mediocrity of circumstance;" but I did not give so uncourteous a reply +to my host an audible utterance; on the contrary, "I do not doubt," said +I, as I rose to depart, "the wisdom of a choice which has brought you +self-gratulation. And it has been said by a man both great and good, a +man to whose mind was open the lore of the closet and the experience of +courts that, in wisdom or in folly, 'the only difference between one man +and another, is whether a man governs his passions or his passions him.' +According to this rule, which indeed is a classic and a golden aphorism, +Alexander, on the throne of Persia, might have been an idiot to Diogenes +in his tub. And now, Sir, in wishing you farewell, let me again crave +your indulgence to my curiosity." + +"Not yet, not yet," answered my host; and he led me once more into the +other room. While they were preparing my horse, we renewed our +conversation. To the best of my recollection, we talked about Plato; +but I had now become so impatient to rejoin Isora that I did not accord +to my worthy host the patient attention I had hitherto given him. When +I took leave of him he blessed me, and placed a piece of paper in my +hand; "Do not open this," said he, "till you are at least two miles +hence; your curiosity will then be satisfied. If ever you travel this +road again, or if ever you pass by Cheshunt, pause and see if the old +philosopher is dead. Adieu!" + +And so we parted. + +You may be sure that I had not passed the appointed distance of two +miles very far, when I opened the paper and read the following words:-- + + +Perhaps, young stranger, at some future period of a life, which I +venture to foretell will be adventurous and eventful, it may afford you +a matter for reflection, or a resting-spot for a moral, to remember that +you have seen, in old age and obscurity, the son of him who shook an +empire, avenged a people, and obtained a throne, only to be the victim +of his own passions and the dupe of his own reason. I repeat now the +question I before put to you,--Was the fate of the great Protector +fairer than that of the despised and forgotten + RICHARD CROMWELL? + + +"So," thought I, "it is indeed with the son of the greatest ruler +England, or perhaps, in modern times, Europe has ever produced, that I +have held this conversation upon content! Yes, perhaps your fate is +more to be envied than that of your illustrious father; but who /would/ +envy it more? Strange that while we pretend that happiness is the +object of all desire, happiness is the last thing which we covet. Love +and wealth and pleasure and honour,--these are the roads which we take +so long that, accustomed to the mere travel, we forget that it was first +undertaken not for the course but the goal; and in the common +infatuation which pervades all our race, we make the toil the meed, and +in following the means forsake the end." + +I never saw my host again; very shortly afterwards he died:* I and Fate, +which had marked with so strong a separation the lives of the father and +the son, united in that death--as its greatest, so its only universal +blessing--the philosopher and the recluse with the warrior and the +chief! + + +* Richard Cromwell died in 1712--ED. + + + +CHAPTER V. + +IN WHICH THE HERO SHOWS DECISION ON MORE POINTS THAN ONE.--MORE OF +ISORA'S CHARACTER IS DEVELOPED. + +To use the fine image in the "Arcadia," it was "when the sun, like a +noble heart, began to show his greatest countenance in his lowest +estate," that I arrived at Isora's door. I had written to her once, to +announce my uncle's death and the day of my return: but I had not +mentioned in my letter my reverse of fortunes; I reserved that +communication till it could be softened by our meeting. I saw by the +countenance of the servant who admitted me that all was well: so I asked +no question; I flew up the stairs; I broke into Isora's chamber, and in +an instant she was in my arms. Ah, Love, Love! wherefore art thou so +transitory a pilgrim on the earth,--an evening cloud which hovers on our +horizon, drinking the hues of the sun, that grows ominously brighter as +it verges to the shadow and the night, and which, the moment that sun is +set, wanders on in darkness or descends in tears? + +"And now, my bird of Paradise," said I, as we sat alone in the apartment +I had fitted up as the banqueting-room, and on which, though small in +its proportions, I had lavished all the love of luxury and of show which +made one of my most prevailing weaknesses, "and now how has time passed +with you since we parted?" + +"Need you ask, Morton? Ah, have you ever noted a poor dog deserted by +its master, or rather not deserted, for that you know is not my case +yet," added Isora, playfully, "but left at home while the master went +abroad? have you noted how restless the poor animal is; how it refuses +all company and all comfort; how it goes a hundred times a day into the +room which its master is wont mostly to inhabit; how it creeps on the +sofa or the chair which the same absent idler was accustomed to press; +how it selects some article of his very clothing, and curls jealously +around it, and hides and watches over it as I have hid and watched over +this glove, Morton? Have you ever noted that humble creature whose +whole happiness is the smile of one being, when the smile was +away,--then, Morton, you can tell how my time has passed during your +absence." + +I answered Isora by endearments and by compliments. She turned away +from the latter. + +"Never call me those fine names, I implore you," she whispered; "call me +only by those pretty pet words by which I know you will never call any +one else. Bee and bird are my names, and mine only; but beauty and +angel are names you have given or may give to a hundred others! Promise +me, then, to address me only in your own language." + +"I promise, and lo, the seal to the promise. But tell me, Isora, do you +not love these rare scents that make an Araby of this unmellowed clime? +Do you not love the profusion of light which reflects so dazzling a +lustre on that soft cheek; and those eyes which the ancient romancer* +must have dreamed of when he wrote so prettily of "eyes that seemed a +temple where love and beauty were married"? Does not yon fruit take a +more tempting hue, bedded as it is in those golden leaves? Does not +sleep seem to hover with a downier wing over those sofas on which the +limbs of a princess have been laid? In a word, is there not in luxury +and in pomp a spell which no gentler or wiser mind would disdain?" + + +* Sir Philip Sydney, who, if we may judge from the number of quotations +from his works scattered in this book, seems to have been an especial +favourite with Count Devereux.--ED. + + +"It may be so!" said Isora, sighing; "but the splendour which surrounds +us chills and almost terrifies me. I think that every proof of your +wealth and rank puts me further from you: then, too, I have some +remembrance of the green sod, and the silver rill, and the trees upon +which the young winds sing and play; and I own that it is with the +country, and not the town, that all my ideas of luxury are wed." + +"But the numerous attendants, the long row of liveried hirelings, +through which you may pass, as through a lane, the caparisoned steeds, +the stately equipage, the jewelled tiara, the costly robe which matrons +imitate and envy, the music, which lulls you to sleep, the lighted show, +the gorgeous stage,--all these, the attributes or gifts of wealth, all +these that you have the right to hope you will one day or other command, +you will own are what you could very reluctantly forego." + +"Do you think so, Morton? Ah, I wish you were of my humble temper: the +more we limit and concentre happiness, the more certain, I think, we are +of securing it; they who widen the circle encroach upon the boundaries +of danger; and they who freight their wealth upon a hundred vessels are +more liable, Morton, are they not? to the peril of the winds and the +waves than they who venture it only upon one." + +"Admirably reasoned, my little sophist; but if the one ship sink?" + +"Why, I would embark myself in it as well as my wealth, and should sink +with it." + +"Well, well, Isora, your philosophy will, perhaps, soon be put to the +test. I will talk to you to-morrow of business." + +"And why not to-night?" + +"To-night, when I have just returned! No, to-night I will only talk to +you of love!" + +As may be supposed, Isora was readily reconciled to my change of +circumstances; and indeed that sum which seemed poverty to me appeared +positive wealth to her. But perhaps few men are by nature and +inclination more luxurious and costly than myself; always accustomed to +a profuse expenditure at my uncle's, I fell insensibly and /con amore/, +on my /debut/ in London, into all the extravagances of the age. Sir +William, pleased rather than discontented with my habits, especially as +they were attended with some /eclat/, pressed upon me proofs of his +generosity which, since I knew his wealth and considered myself his +heir, I did not scruple to accept, and at the time of my return to +London after his death, I had not only spent to the full the princely +allowance I had received from him, but was above half my whole fortune +in debt. However, I had horses and equipages, jewels and plate, and I +did not long wrestle with my pride before I obtained the victory, and +sent all my valuables to the hammer. They sold pretty well, all things +considered, for I had a certain reputation in the world for taste and +munificence; and when I had received the product and paid my debts, I +found that the whole balance in my favour, including, of course, my +uncle's legacy, was fifteen thousand pounds. + +It was no bad younger brother's portion, perhaps, but I was in no humour +to be made a younger brother without a struggle. So I went to the +lawyers; they looked at the will, considered the case, and took their +fees. Then the honestest of them, with the coolest air in the world, +told me to content myself with my legacy, for the cause was hopeless; +the will was sufficient to exclude a wilderness of elder sons. I need +not add that I left this lawyer with a very contemptible opinion of his +understanding. I went to another, he told me the same thing, only in a +different manner, and I thought him as great a fool as his fellow +practitioner. At last I chanced upon a little brisk gentleman, with a +quick eye and a sharp voice, who wore a wig that carried conviction in +every curl; had an independent, upright mien, and such a logical, +emphatic way of expressing himself, that I was quite charmed with him. +This gentleman scarce heard me out before he assured me that I had a +famous case of it, that he liked making quick work, and proceeding with +vigour, that he hated rogues, and delay, which was the sign of a rogue, +but not the necessary sign of law, that I was the most fortunate man +imaginable in coming to him, and, in short that I had nothing to do but +commence proceedings, and leave all the rest to him. I was very soon +talked into this proposal, and very soon embarked in the luxurious ocean +of litigation. + +Having settled this business so satisfactorily, I went to receive the +condolence and sympathy of St. John. Notwithstanding the arduous +occupations both of pleasure and of power, in which he was constantly +engaged, he had found time to call upon me very often, and to express by +letter great disappointment that I had neither received nor returned his +visits. Touched by the phenomenon of so much kindness in a statesman, I +paid him in return the only compliment in my power; namely, I asked his +advice, with a view of taking it. + +"Politics--politics, my dear Count," said he in answer to that request, +"nothing like it; I will get you a seat in the House by next week,--you +are just of age, I think,--Heavens! a man like you who has learning +enough for a German professor; assurance that would almost abash a +Milesian; a very pretty choice of words, and a pointed way of +consummating a jest,--why, with you by my side, my dear Count, I will +soon--" + +"St. John," said I, interrupting him, "you forget I am a Catholic!" + +"Ah, I did forget that," replied St. John, slowly. "Heaven help me, +Count, but I am sorry your ancestors were not converted; it was a pity +they should bequeath you their religion without the estate to support +it, for papacy has become a terrible tax to its followers." + +"I wonder," said I, "whether the earth will ever be governed by +Christians, not cavillers; by followers of our Saviour, not by +co-operators of the devil; by men who obey the former, and 'love one +another,' not by men who walk about with the latter (that roaring lion), +'seeking whom they may devour.' Intolerance makes us acquainted with +strange nonsense, and folly is never so ludicrous as when associated +with something sacred; it is then like Punch and his wife in Powell's +puppet-show, /dancing in the Ark/. For example, to tell those who +differ from us that they are in a delusion, and yet to persecute them +for that delusion, is to equal the wisdom of our forefathers, who, we +are told, in the 'Daemonologie' of the Scottish Solomon, 'burned a whole +monasterie of nunnes for being misled, not by men, but /dreames/!'" + +And being somewhat moved, I ran on for a long time in a very eloquent +strain, upon the disadvantages of intolerance; which, I would have it, +was a policy as familiar to Protestantism now as it had been to Popery +in the dark ages; quite forgetting that it is not the vice of a peculiar +sect, but of a ruling party. + +St. John, who thought or affected to think very differently from me on +these subjects, shook his head gently, but, with his usual good +breeding, deemed it rather too sore a subject for discussion. + +"I will tell you a discovery I have made," said I. + +"And what is it?" + +"Listen: that man is wisest who is happiest,--granted. What does +happiness consist in? Power, wealth, popularity, and, above all, +content! Well, then, no man ever obtains so much power, so much money, +so much popularity, and, above all, such thorough self-content as a +fool; a fool, therefore (this is no paradox), is the wisest of men. +Fools govern the world in purple: the wise laugh at them; but they laugh +in rags. Fools thrive at court; fools thrive in state chambers; fools +thrive in boudoirs; fools thrive in rich men's legacies. Who is so +beloved as a fool? Every man seeks him, laughs at him, and hugs him. +Who is so secure in his own opinion, so high in complacency, as a fool? +/sua virtute involvit/. Hark ye, St. John, let us turn fools: they are +the only potentates, the only philosophers of earth. Oh, motley, +'motley's your only wear!'" + +"Ha! ha!" laughed St. John; and, rising, he insisted upon carrying me +with him to the rehearsal of a new play, in order, as he said, to dispel +my spleen, and prepare me for ripe decision upon the plans to be adopted +for bettering my fortune. + +But, in good truth, nothing calculated to advance so comfortable and +praiseworthy an end seemed to present itself. My religion was an +effectual bar to any hope of rising in the state. Europe now began to +wear an aspect that promised universal peace, and the sword which I had +so poetically apostrophized was not likely to be drawn upon any more +glorious engagement than a brawl with the Mohawks, any incautious noses +appertaining to which fraternity I was fully resolved to slit whenever +they came conveniently in my way. To add to the unpromising state of my +worldly circumstances, my uncle's death had removed the only legitimate +barrier to the acknowledgment of my marriage with Isora, and it became +due to her to proclaim and publish that event. Now, if there be any +time in the world when a man's friends look upon him most coldly; when +they speak of his capacities of rising the most despondingly; when they +are most inclined, in short, to set him down as a silly sort of fellow, +whom it is no use inconveniencing one's self to assist,--it is at that +moment when he has made what the said friends are pleased to term an +imprudent marriage! It was, therefore, no remarkable instance of good +luck that the express time for announcing that I had contracted that +species of marriage was the express time for my wanting the assistance +of those kind-hearted friends. Then, too, by the pleasing sympathies in +worldly opinion, the neglect of one's friends is always so damnably +neighboured by the exultation of one's foes! Never was there a man who, +without being very handsome, very rude, or very much in public life, had +made unto himself more enemies than it had been my lot to make. How the +rascals would all sneer and coin dull jests when they saw me so down in +the world! The very old maids, who, so long as they thought me single, +would have declared that the will was a fraud, would, directly they +heard I was married, ask if Gerald was handsome, and assert, with a wise +look, that my uncle knew well what he was about. Then the joy of the +Lady Hasselton, and the curled lip of the haughty Tarleton! It is a +very odd circumstance, but it is very true, that the people we most +despise have the most influence over our actions; a man never ruins +himself by giving dinners to his father, or turning his house into a +palace in order to feast his bosom friend: on the contrary, 'tis the +poor devil of a friend who fares the worst, and starves on the family +joint, while mine host beggars himself to banquet "that disagreeable Mr. +A., who is such an insufferable ass," and mine hostess sends her husband +to the Fleet by vying with "that odious Mrs. B., who was always her +aversion!" + +Just in the same manner, no thought disturbed me, in the step I was +about to take, half so sorely as the recollection of Lady Hasselton the +coquette and Mr. Tarleton the gambler. However, I have said somewhere +or other that nothing selfish on a small scale polluted my love for +Isora,--nor did there. I had resolved to render her speedy and full +justice; and if I sometimes recurred to the disadvantages to myself, I +always had pleasure in thinking that they were /sacrifices/ to her. But +to my great surprise, when I first announced to Isora my intention of +revealing our marriage, I perceived in her countenance, always such a +traitor to her emotions, a very different expression from that which I +had anticipated. A deadly paleness spread over her whole face, and a +shudder seemed to creep through her frame. She attempted, however, to +smile away the alarm she had created in me; nor was I able to penetrate +the cause of an emotion so unlooked for. But I continued to speak of +the public announcement of our union as of a thing decided; and at +length she listened to me while I arranged the method of making it, and +sympathized in the future projects I chalked out for us to adopt. +Still, however, when I proposed a definite time for the re-celebration +of our nuptials, she ever drew back and hinted the wish for a longer +delay. + +"Not so soon, dear Morton," she would say tearfully, "not so soon; we +are happy now, and perhaps when you are with me always you will not love +me so well!" + +I reasoned against this notion, and this reluctance, but in vain; and +day passed on day, and even week on week, and our marriage was still +undeclared. I now lived, however, almost wholly with Isora, for busy +tongues could no longer carry my secret to my uncle; and, indeed, since +I had lost the fortune which I was expected to inherit, it is +astonishing how little people troubled their heads about my movements or +myself. I lived then almost wholly with Isora; and did familiarity +abate my love? Strange to say, it did not abate even the romance of it. +The reader may possibly remember a conversation with St. John recorded +in the Second Book of this history. "The deadliest foe to love," said +he (he who had known all love,--that of the senses and that also of the +soul!), "is not change, nor misfortune, nor jealousy, not wrath, nor +anything that flows from passion or emanates from fortune. The +deadliest foe to love is CUSTOM!" + +Was St. John right? I believe that in most instances he was; and +perhaps the custom was not continued in my case long enough for me to +refute the maxim. But as yet, the very gloss upon the god's wings was +fresh as on the first day when I had acknowledged his power. Still was +Isora to me the light and the music of existence! still did my heart +thrill and leap within me when her silver and fond voice made the air a +blessing! Still would I hang over her, when her beautiful features lay +hushed in sleep, and watch the varying hues of her cheek; and fancy, +while she slept, that in each low, sweet breath that my lips drew from +hers, was a whisper of tenderness and endearment! Still when I was +absent from her, my soul seemed to mourn a separation from its better +and dearer part, and the joyous senses of existence saddened and shrank +into a single want! Still was her presence to my heart as a breathing +atmosphere of poesy which circled and tinted all human things; still was +my being filled with that delicious and vague melancholy which the very +excess of rapture alone produces,--the knowledge we dare not breathe to +ourselves that the treasure in which our heart is stored is not above +the casualties of fate. The sigh that mingles with the kiss; the tear +that glistens in the impassioned and yearning gaze; the deep tide in our +spirit, over which the moon and the stars have power; the chain of +harmony within the thought which has a mysterious link with all that is +fair and pure and bright in Nature, knitting as it were loveliness with +love!--all this, all that I cannot express; all that to the young for +whom the real world has had few spells, and the world of visions has +been a home, who love at last and for the first time,--all that to them +are known were still mine. + +In truth, Isora was one well calculated to sustain and to rivet romance. +The cast of her beauty was so dreamlike, and yet so varying: her temper +was so little mingled with the common characteristics of woman; it had +so little of caprice, so little of vanity, so utter an absence of all +jealous and all angry feeling; it was so made up of tenderness and +devotion, and yet so imaginative and fairy-like in its fondness,--that +it was difficult to bear only the sentiments of earth for one who had so +little of earth's clay. She was more like the women whom one imagines +are the creations of poetry, and yet of whom no poetry, save that of +Shakspeare, reminds us; and to this day, when I go into the world, I +never see aught of our own kind which recalls her, or even one of her +features, to my memory. But when I am alone with Nature, methinks a +sweet sound or a new-born flower has something of familiar power over +those stored and deep impressions which do make her image, and it brings +her more vividly before my eyes than any shape or face of her own sex, +however beautiful it may be. + +There was also another trait in her character which, though arising in +her weakness, not her virtues, yet perpetuated the more dreamlike and +imaginary qualities of our passion: this was a melancholy superstition, +developing itself in forebodings and omens which interested, because +they were steeped at once in the poetry and in the deep sincerity of her +nature. She was impressed with a strong and uncontrollable feeling that +her fate was predestined to a dark course and an early end; and she drew +from all things around her something to feed the pensive character of +her thoughts. The stillness of noon; the holy and eloquent repose of +twilight, its rosy sky and its soft air, its shadows and its dews,--had +equally for her heart a whisper and a spell. The wan stars, where, from +the eldest time, man has shaped out a chart of the undiscoverable +future; the mysterious moon, to which the great ocean ministers from its +untrodden shrines; the winds, which traverse the vast air, pilgrims from +an eternal home to an unpenetrated bourne; the illimitable heavens, on +which none ever gazed without a vague craving for something that the +earth cannot give, and a vague sense of a former existence in which that +something was enjoyed; the holy night; that solemn and circling sleep, +which seems, in its repose, to image our death, and in its living worlds +to shadow forth the immortal realms which only through that death we can +survey,--all had, for the deep heart of Isora, a language of omen and of +doom. Often would we wander alone, and for hours together, by the quiet +and wild woods and streams that surrounded her retreat, and which we +both loved so well; and often, when the night closed over us, with my +arm around her, and our lips so near that our atmosphere was our mutual +breath, would she utter, in that voice which "made the soul plant itself +in the ears," the predictions which had nursed themselves at her heart. + +I remember one evening, in especial. The rich twilight had gathered +over us, and we sat by a slender and soft rivulet, overshadowed by some +stunted yet aged trees. We had both, before she spoke, been silent for +several minutes; and only when, at rare intervals, the birds sent from +the copse that backed us a solitary and vesper note of music, was the +stillness around us broken. Before us, on the opposite bank of the +stream, lay a valley, in which shadow and wood concealed all trace of +man's dwellings, save at one far spot, where, from a single hut, rose a +curling and thin vapour, like a spirit released from earth, and losing +gradually its earthier particles, as it blends itself with the loftier +atmosphere of heaven. + +It was then that Isora, clinging closer to me, whispered her forebodings +of death. "You will remember," said she, smiling faintly, "you will +remember me, in the lofty and bright career which yet awaits you; and I +scarcely know whether I would not sooner have that memory--free as it +will be from all recollection of my failings and faults, and all that I +have cost you, than incur the chance of your future coldness or decrease +of love." + +And when Isora turned, and saw that the tears stood in my eyes, she +kissed them away, and said, after a pause,-- + +"It matters not, my own guardian angel, what becomes of me: and now that +I am near you, it is wicked to let my folly cost you a single pang. But +why should you grieve at my forebodings? there is nothing painful or +harsh in them to me, and I interpret them thus: 'If my life passes away +before the common date, perhaps it will be a sacrifice to yours.' And +it will, Morton--it will. The love I bear to you I can but feebly +express now; all of us wish to prove our feelings, and I would give one +proof of mine for you. It seems to me that I was made only for one +purpose--to love you; and I would fain hope that my death may be some +sort of sacrifice to you--some token of the ruling passion and the whole +object of my life." + +As Isora said this, the light of the moon, which had just risen, shone +full upon her cheek, flushed as it was with a deeper tint than it +usually wore; and in her eye--her features--her forehead--the lofty +nature of her love seemed to have stamped the divine expression of +itself. + +Have I lingered too long on these passages of life? They draw near to a +close, and a more adventurous and stirring period of manhood will +succeed. Ah, little could they, who in after years beheld in me but the +careless yet stern soldier--the wily and callous diplomatist--the +companion alternately so light and so moodily reserved--little could +they tell how soft, and weak, and doting my heart was once! + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +AN UNEXPECTED MEETING.--CONJECTURE AND ANTICIPATION. + +THE day for the public solemnization of our marriage was at length +appointed. In fact, the plan for the future that appeared to me most +promising was to proffer my services to some foreign court, and that of +Russia held out to me the greatest temptation. I was therefore anxious, +as soon as possible, to conclude the rite of a second or public +nuptials, and I purposed leaving the country within a week afterwards. +My little lawyer assured me that my suit would go on quite as well in my +absence, and whenever my presence was necessary he would be sure to +inform me of it. I did not doubt him in the least--it is a charming +thing to have confidence in one's man of business. + +Of Montreuil I now saw nothing; but I accidentally heard that he was on +a visit to Gerald, and that the latter had already made the old walls +ring with premature hospitality. As for Aubrey, I was in perfect +ignorance of his movements; and the unsatisfactory shortness of his last +letter, and the wild expressions so breathing of fanaticism in the +postscript, had given me much anxiety and alarm on his account. I +longed above all to see him, to talk with him over old times and our +future plans, and to learn whether no new bias could be given to a +temperament which seemed to lean so strongly towards a self-punishing +superstition. It was about a week before the day fixed for my public +nuptials that I received at last from him the following letter:-- + + +MY DEAREST BROTHER,--I have been long absent from home,--absent on +affairs on which we will talk hereafter. I have not forgotten you, +though I have been silent, and the news of my poor uncle's death has +shocked me greatly. On my arrival here I learned your disappointment +and your recourse to law. I am not so much surprised, though I am as +much grieved as yourself, for I will tell you now what seemed to me +unimportant before. On receiving your letter, requesting consent to +your designed marriage, my uncle seemed greatly displeased as well as +vexed, and afterwards he heard much that displeased him more; from what +quarter came his news I know not, and he only spoke of it in innuendoes +and angry insinuations. As far as I was able I endeavoured to learn his +meaning, but could not, and to my praises of you I thought latterly he +seemed to lend but a cold ear; he told me at last, when I was about to +leave him, that you had acted ungratefully to him, and that he should +alter his will. I scarcely thought of this speech at the time, or +rather I considered it as the threat of a momentary anger. Possibly, +however, it was the prelude to that disposition of property which has so +wounded you: I observe, too, that the will bears date about that period. +I mention this fact to you; you can draw from it what inference you +will: but I do solemnly believe that Gerald is innocent of any fraud +towards you. + +I am all anxiety to hear whether your love continues. I beseech you to +write to me instantly and inform me on that head as on all others. We +shall meet soon. + + Your ever affectionate Brother, + + AUBREY DEVEREUX. + + +There was something in this letter that vexed and displeased me: I +thought it breathed a tone of unkindness and indifference, which my +present circumstances rendered peculiarly inexcusable. So far, +therefore, from answering it immediately, I resolved not to reply to it +till after the solemnization of my marriage. The anecdote of my uncle +startled me a little when I coupled it with the words my uncle had used +towards myself on his death-bed; namely, in hinting that he had heard +some things unfavourable to Isora, unnecessary then to repeat; but still +if my uncle had altered his intentions towards me, would he not have +mentioned the change and its reasons? Would he have written to me with +such kindness, or received me with such affection? I could not believe +that he would; and my opinions of the fraud and the perpetrator were not +a whit changed by Aubrey's epistle. It was clear, however, that he had +joined the party against me; and as my love for him was exceedingly +great, I was much wounded by the idea. + +"All leave me," said I, "upon this reverse,--all but Isora!" and I +thought with renewed satisfaction on the step which was about to insure +to her a secure home and an honourable station. My fears lest Isora +should again be molested by her persecutor were now pretty well at rest; +having no doubt in my own mind as to that persecutor's identity, I +imagined that in his new acquisition of wealth and pomp, a boyish and +unreturned love would easily be relinquished; and that, perhaps, he +would scarcely regret my obtaining the prize himself had sought for, +when in my altered fortunes it would be followed by such worldly +depreciation. In short, I looked upon him as possessing a +characteristic common to most bad men, who are never so influenced by +love as they are by hatred; and imagined, therefore, that if he had lost +the object of the love, he could console himself by exulting over any +decline of prosperity in the object of the hate. + +As the appointed day drew near, Isora's despondency seemed to vanish, +and she listened, with her usual eagerness in whatever interested me, to +my Continental schemes of enterprise. I resolved that our second +wedding, though public, should be modest and unostentatious, suitable +rather to our fortunes than our birth. St. John, and a few old friends +of the family, constituted all the party I invited, and I requested them +to keep my marriage secret until the very day for celebrating it +arrived. I did this from a desire of avoiding compliments intended as +sarcasms, and visits rather of curiosity than friendship. On flew the +days, and it was now the one preceding my wedding. I was dressing to go +out upon a matter of business connected with the ceremony, and I then, +as I received my hat from Desmarais, for the first time thought it +requisite to acquaint that accomplished gentleman with the rite of the +morrow. Too well bred was Monsieur Desmarais to testify any other +sentiment than pleasure at the news; and he received my orders and +directions for the next day with more than the graceful urbanity which +made one always feel quite honoured by his attentions. + +"And how goes on the philosophy?" said I: "faith, since I am about to be +married, I shall be likely to require its consolations." + +"Indeed, Monsieur," answered Desmarais, with that expression of +self-conceit which was so curiously interwoven with the obsequiousness +of his address, "indeed, Monsieur, I have been so occupied of late in +preparing a little powder very essential to dress, that I have not had +time for any graver, though not perhaps more important, avocations." + +"Powder--and what is it?" + +"Will Monsieur condescend to notice its effect?" answered Desmarais, +producing a pair of gloves which were tinted of the most delicate +flesh-colour; the colouring was so nice, that when the gloves were on, +it would have been scarcely possible, at any distance, to distinguish +them from the naked flesh. + +"'Tis a rare invention," said I. + +"Monsieur is very good, but I flatter myself it is so," rejoined +Desmarais; and he forthwith ran on far more earnestly on the merits of +his powder than I had ever heard him descant on the beauties of +Fatalism. I cut him short in the midst of his harangue: too much +eloquence in any line is displeasing in one's dependant. + +I had just concluded my business abroad, and was returning homeward with +downcast eyes and in a very abstracted mood, when I was suddenly +startled by a loud voice that exclaimed in a tone of surprise: +"What!--Count Devereux,--how fortunate!" + +I looked up, and saw a little dark man, shabbily dressed; his face did +not seem unfamiliar to me, but I could not at first remember where I had +seen it: my look, I suppose, testified my want of memory, for he said, +with a low bow,-- + +"You have forgotten me, Count, and I don't wonder at it; so please you, +I am the person who once brought you a letter from France to Devereux +Court." + +At this, I recognized the bearer of that epistle which had embroiled me +with the Abbe Montreuil. I was too glad of the meeting to show any +coolness in my reception of the gentleman, and to speak candidly, I +never saw a gentleman less troubled with /mauvaise honte/. + +"Sir!" said he, lowering his voice to a whisper, "it is most fortunate +that I should thus have met you; I only came to town this morning, and +for the sole purpose of seeking you out. I am charged with a packet, +which I believe will be of the greatest importance to your interests. +But," he added, looking round, "the streets are no proper place for my +communication; /parbleu/, there are those about who hear whispers +through stone walls: suffer me to call upon you to-morrow." + +"To-morrow! it is a day of great business with me, but I can possibly +spare you a few moments, if that will suffice; or, on the day after, +your own pleasure may be the sole limit of our interview." + +"/Parbleu/, Monsieur, you are very obliging,--very; but I will tell you +in one word who I am and what is my business. My name is Marie Oswald: +I was born in France, and I am the half-brother of that Oswald who drew +up your uncle's will." + +"Good Heavens!" I exclaimed; "is it possible that you know anything of +that affair?" + +"Hush--yes, all! my poor brother is just dead; and, in a word, I am +charged with a packet given me by him on his death-bed. Now, will you +see me if I bring it to-morrow?" + +"Certainly; can I not see you to-night?" + +"To-night?--No, not well; /parbleu/! I want a little consideration as +to the reward due to me for my eminent services to your lordship. No: +let it be to-morrow." + +"Well! at what hour? I fear it must be in the evening." + +"Seven, /s'il vous plait/, Monsieur." + +"Enough! be it so." + +And Mr. Marie Oswald, who seemed, during the whole of this short +conference, to have been under some great apprehension of being seen or +overheard, bowed, and vanished in an instant, leaving my mind in a most +motley state of incoherent, unsatisfactory, yet sanguine conjecture. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE EVENTS OF A SINGLE NIGHT.--MOMENTS MAKE THE HUES IN WHICH YEARS ARE +COLOURED. + +MEN of the old age! what wonder that in the fondness of a dim faith, and +in the vague guesses which, from the frail ark of reason, we send to +hover over a dark and unfathomable abyss,--what wonder that ye should +have wasted hope and life in striving to penetrate the future! What +wonder that ye should have given a language to the stars, and to the +night a spell, and gleaned from the uncomprehended earth an answer to +the enigmas of Fate! We are like the sleepers who, walking under the +influence of a dream, wander by the verge of a precipice, while, in +their own deluded vision, they perchance believe themselves surrounded +by bowers of roses, and accompanied by those they love. Or, rather like +the blind man, who can retrace every step of the path he has /once/ +trodden, but who can guess not a single inch of that which he has not +yet travelled, our Reason can re-guide us over the roads of past +experience with a sure and unerring wisdom, even while it recoils, +baffled and bewildered, before the blackness of the very moment whose +boundaries we are about to enter. + +The few friends I had invited to my wedding were still with me, when one +of my servants, not Desmarais, informed me that Mr. Oswald waited for +me. I went out to him. + +"/Parbleu/!" said he, rubbing his hands, "I perceive it is a joyous time +with you, and I don't wonder you can only spare me a few moments." + +The estates of Devereux were not to be risked for a trifle, but I +thought Mr. Marie Oswald exceedingly impertinent. "Sir," said I, very +gravely, "pray be seated; and now to business. In the first place may I +ask to whom I am beholden for sending you with that letter you gave me +at Devereux Court? and, secondly, what that letter contained? for I +never read it." + +"Sir," answered the man, "the history of the letter is perfectly +distinct from that of the will, and the former (to discuss the least +important first) is briefly this. You have heard, Sir, of the quarrels +between Jesuit and Jansenist?" + +"I have." + +"Well--but first, Count, let me speak of myself. There were three young +men of the same age, born in the same village in France, of obscure +birth each, and each desirous of getting on in the world. Two were +deuced clever fellows, the third, nothing particular. One of the two at +present shall be nameless; the third, 'who was nothing particular' (in +his own opinion, at least, though his friends may think differently), +was Marie Oswald. We soon separated: I went to Paris, was employed in +different occupations, and at last became secretary, and (why should I +disavow it?) valet to a lady of quality and a violent politician. She +was a furious Jansenist; of course I adopted her opinions. About this +time, there was much talk among the Jesuits of the great genius and deep +learning of a young member of the order, Julian Montreuil. Though not +residing in the country, he had sent one or two books to France, which +had been published and had created a great sensation. Well, Sir, my +mistress was the greatest /intriguante/ of her party: she was very rich, +and tolerably liberal; and, among other packets of which a messenger +from England was /carefully/ robbed, between Calais and Abbeville (you +understand me, sir, /carefully/ robbed, /parbleu/! I wish I were robbed +in the same manner, every day in my life!), was one from the said Julian +Montreuil to a political friend of his. Among other letters in this +packet--all of importance--was one descriptive of the English family +with whom he resided. It hit them all, I am told, off to a hair; and it +described, in particular, one, the supposed inheritor of the estates, a +certain Morton, Count Devereux. Since you say you did not read the +letter, I spare your blushes, Sir, and I don't dwell upon what he said +of your talent, energy, ambition, etc. I will only tell you that he +dilated far more upon your prospects than your powers; and that he +expressly stated what was his object in staying in your family and +cultivating your friendship,--he expressly stated that L30,000 a year +would be particularly serviceable to a certain political cause which he +had strongly at heart." + +"I understand you," said I, "the Chevalier's?" + +"Exactly. 'This sponge,' said Montreuil, I remember the very +phrase,--'this sponge will be well filled, and I am handling it softly +now in order to squeeze its juices hereafter according to the uses of +the party we have so strongly at heart.'" + +"It was not a metaphor very flattering to my understanding," said I. + +"True, Sir. Well, as soon as my mistress learned this she remembered +that your father, the Marshal, had been one of her /plus chers amis/; in +a word, if scandal says true, he had been /the cher ami/. However, she +was instantly resolved to open your eyes, and ruin the /maudit Jesuite/: +she enclosed the letter in an envelope and sent me to England with it. +I came, I gave it you, and I discovered, in that moment, when the Abbe +entered, that this Julian Montreuil was an old acquaintance of my +own,--was one of the two young men who I told you were such deuced +clever fellows. Like many other adventurers, he had changed his name on +entering the world and I had never till now suspected that Julian +Montreuil was Bertrand Collinot. Well, when I saw what I had done, I +was exceedingly sorry, for I had liked my companion well enough not to +wish to hurt him; besides, I was a little afraid of him. I took horse, +and went about some other business I had to execute, nor did I visit +that part of the country again, till a week ago (now I come to the other +business), when I was summoned to the death-bed of my half-brother the +attorney, peace be with him! He suffered much from hypochondria in his +dying moments,--I believe it is the way with people of his +profession,--and he gave me a sealed packet, with a last injunction to +place it in your hands and your hands only. Scarce was he dead--(do not +think I am unfeeling, Sir, I had seen very little of him, and he was +only my half-brother, my father having married, for a second wife, a +foreign lady who kept an inn, by whom he was blessed with +myself)--scarce, I say, was he dead when I hurried up to town. +Providence threw you in my way, and you shall have the document upon two +conditions." + +"Which are, first to reward you; secondly, to--" + +"To promise you will not open the packet for seven days." + +"The devil! and why?" + +"I will tell you candidly: one of the papers in the packet I believe to +be my brother's written confession,--nay, I know it is,--and it will +criminate one I have a love for, and who, I am resolved, shall have a +chance of escape." + +"Who is that one? Montreuil?" + +"No: I do not refer to him; but I cannot tell you more. I require the +promise, Count: it is indispensable. If you don't give it me, +/parbleu/, you shall not have the packet." + +There was something so cool, so confident, and so impudent about this +man, that I did not well know whether to give way to laughter or to +indignation. Neither, however, would have been politic in my situation; +and, as I said before, the estates of Devereux were not to be risked for +a trifle. + +"Pray," said I, however, with a shrewdness which I think did me +credit,--"pray, Mr. Marie Oswald, do you expect the reward before the +packet is opened?" + +"By no means," answered the gentleman who in his own opinion was nothing +particular; "by no means; nor until you and your lawyers are satisfied +that the papers enclosed in the packet are sufficient fully to restore +you to the heritage of Devereux Court and its demesnes." + +There was something fair in this; and as the only penalty to me incurred +by the stipulated condition seemed to be the granting escape to the +criminals, I did not think it incumbent upon me to lose my cause from +the desire of a prosecution. Besides, at that time, I felt too happy to +be revengeful; and so, after a moment's consideration, I conceded to the +proposal, and gave my honour as a gentleman--Mr. Oswald obligingly +dispensed with an oath--that I would not open the packet till the end of +the seventh day. Mr. Oswald then drew forth a piece of paper, on which +sundry characters were inscribed, the purport of which was that, if, +through the papers given me by Marie Oswald, my lawyers were convinced +that I could become master of my uncle's property, now enjoyed by Gerald +Devereux, I should bestow on the said Marie L5000: half on obtaining +this legal opinion, half on obtaining possession of the property. I +could not resist a smile when I observed that the word of a gentleman +was enough surety for the safety of the man he had a love for, but that +Mr. Oswald required a written bond for the safety of his reward. One is +ready enough to trust one's friends to the conscience of another, but as +long as a law can be had instead, one is rarely so credulous in respect +to one's money. + +"The reward shall be doubled if I succeed," said I, signing the paper; +and Oswald then produced a packet, on which was writ, in a trembling +hand,--"For Count Morton Devereux,--private,--and with haste." As soon +as he had given me this precious charge, and reminded me again of my +promise, Oswald withdrew. I placed the packet in my bosom, and returned +to my guests. + +Never had my spirit been so light as it was that evening. Indeed the +good people I had assembled thought matrimony never made a man so little +serious before. They did not however stay long, and the moment they +were gone I hastened to my own sleeping apartment to secure the treasure +I had acquired. A small escritoire stood in this room, and in it I was +accustomed to keep whatever I considered most precious. With many a +wistful look and murmur at my promise, I consigned the packet to one of +the drawers of this escritoire. As I was locking the drawer, the sweet +voice of Desmarais accosted me. Would Monsieur, he asked, suffer him to +visit a friend that evening, in order to celebrate so joyful an event in +Monsieur's destiny? It was not often that he was addicted to vulgar +merriment, but on such an occasion he owned that he was tempted to +transgress his customary habits, and he felt that Monsieur, with his +usual good taste, would feel offended if his servant, within Monsieur's +own house, suffered joy to pass the limits of discretion, and enter the +confines of noise and inebriety, especially as Monsieur had so +positively interdicted all outward sign of extra hilarity. He implored +/mille pardons/ for the presumption of his request. + +"It is made with your usual discretion; there are five guineas for you: +go and get drunk with your friend, and be merry instead of wise. But, +tell me, is it not beneath a philosopher to be moved by anything, +especially anything that occurs to another,--much less to get drunk upon +it?" + +"Pardon me, Monsieur," answered Desmarais, bowing to the ground: "one +ought to get drunk sometimes, because the next morning one is sure to be +thoughtful; and, moreover, the practical philosopher ought to indulge +every emotion, in order to judge how that emotion would affect another; +at least, this is my opinion." + +"Well, go." + +"My most grateful thanks be with Monsieur; Monsieur's nightly toilet is +entirely prepared." + +And away went Desmarais, with the light, yet slow, step with which he +was accustomed to combine elegance with dignity. + +I now passed into the room I had prepared for Isora's /boudoir/. I +found her leaning by the window, and I perceived that she had been in +tears. As I paused to contemplate her figure so touchingly, yet so +unconsciously mournful in its beautiful and still posture, a more joyous +sensation than was wont to mingle with my tenderness for her swelled at +my heart. "Yes," thought I, "you are no longer the solitary exile, or +the persecuted daughter of a noble but ruined race; you are not even the +bride of a man who must seek in foreign climes, through danger and +through hardship, to repair a broken fortune and establish an +adventurer's name! At last the clouds have rolled from the bright star +of your fate: wealth, and pomp, and all that awaits the haughtiest of +England's matrons shall be yours." And at these thoughts Fortune seemed +to me a gift a thousand times more precious than--much as my luxuries +prized it--it had ever seemed to me before. + +I drew near and laid my hand upon Isora's shoulder, and kissed her +cheek. She did not turn round, but strove, by bending over my hand and +pressing it to her lips, to conceal that she had been weeping. I +thought it kinder to favour the artifice than to complain of it. I +remained silent for some moments, and I then gave vent to the sanguine +expectations for the future which my new treasure entitled me to form. +I had already narrated to her the adventure of the day before: I now +repeated the purport of my last interview with Oswald; and, growing more +and more elated as I proceeded, I dwelt at last upon the description of +my inheritance, as glowingly as if I had already recovered it. I +painted to her imagination its rich woods and its glassy lake, and the +fitful and wandering brook that, through brake and shade, went bounding +on its wild way; I told her of my early roamings, and dilated with a +boy's rapture upon my favourite haunts. I brought visibly before her +glistening and eager eyes the thick copse where hour after hour, in +vague verses and still vaguer dreams, I had so often whiled away the +day; the old tree which I had climbed to watch the birds in their glad +mirth, or to listen unseen to the melancholy sound of the forest deer; +the antique gallery and the vast hall which, by the dim twilights, I had +paced with a religious awe, and looked upon the pictured forms of my +bold fathers, and mused high and ardently upon my destiny to be; the old +gray tower which I had consecrated to myself, and the unwitnessed path +which led to the yellow beach, and the wide gladness of the solitary +sea; the little arbour which my earliest ambition had reared, that +looked out upon the joyous flowers and the merry fountain, and, through +the ivy and the jessamine, wooed the voice of the bird, and the murmur +of the summer bee; and, when I had exhausted my description, I turned to +Isora, and said in a lower tone, "And I shall visit these once more, and +with you!" + +Isora sighed faintly, and it was not till I had pressed her to speak +that she said:-- + +"I wish I could deceive myself, Morton, but I cannot--I cannot root from +my heart an impression that I shall never again quit this dull city with +its gloomy walls and its heavy air. A voice within me seems to say, +'Behold from this very window the boundaries of your living +wanderings!'" + +Isora's words froze all my previous exaltation. "It is in vain," said +I, after chiding her for her despondency, "it is in vain to tell me that +you have for this gloomy notion no other reason than that of a vague +presentiment. It is time now that I should press you to a greater +confidence upon all points consistent with your oath to our mutual enemy +than you have hitherto given me. Speak, dearest, have you not some yet +unrevealed causes for alarm?" + +It was but for a moment that Isora hesitated before she answered with +that quick tone which indicates that we force words against the will. + +"Yes, Morton, I /will/ tell you now, though I would not before the event +of this day. On the last day that I saw that fearful man, he said, 'I +warn you, Isora d'Alvarez, that my love is far fiercer than hatred; I +warn you that your bridals with Morton Devereux shall be stained with +blood. Become his wife, and you perish! Yea, though I suffer hell's +tortures forever and forever from that hour, my own hand shall strike +you to the heart!' Morton, these words have thrilled through me again +and again, as if again they were breathed in my very ear; and I have +often started at night and thought the very knife glittered at my +breast. So long as our wedding was concealed, and concealed so closely, +I was enabled to quiet my fears till they scarcely seemed to exist. But +when our nuptials were to be made public, when I knew that they were to +reach the ears of that fierce and unaccountable being, I thought I heard +my doom pronounced. This, mine own love, must excuse your Isora, if she +seemed ungrateful for your generous eagerness to announce our union. +And perhaps she would not have acceded to it so easily as she has done +were it not that, in the first place, she felt it was beneath your wife +to suffer any terror so purely selfish to make her shrink from the proud +happiness of being yours in the light of day; and if she had not felt +[here Isora hid her blushing face in my bosom] that she was fated to +give birth to another, and that the announcement of our wedded love had +become necessary to your honour as to mine!" + +Though I was in reality awed even to terror by learning from Isora's lip +so just a cause for her forebodings,--though I shuddered with a horror +surpassing even my wrath, when I heard a threat so breathing of deadly +and determined passions,--yet I concealed my emotions, and only thought +of cheering and comforting Isora. I represented to her how guarded and +vigilant should ever henceforth be the protection of her husband; that +nothing should again separate him from her side; that the extreme malice +and fierce persecution of this man were sufficient even to absolve her +conscience from the oath of concealment she had taken; that I would +procure from the sacred head of our Church her own absolution from that +vow; that the moment concealment was over, I could take steps to prevent +the execution of my rival's threats; that, however near to me he might +be in blood, no consequences arising from a dispute between us could be +so dreadful as the least evil to Isora; and moreover, to appease her +fears, that I would solemnly promise he should never sustain personal +assault or harm from my hand; in short, I said all that my anxiety could +dictate, and at last I succeeded in quieting her fears, and she smiled +as brightly as the first time I had seen her in the little cottage of +her father. She seemed, however, averse to an absolution from her oath, +for she was especially scrupulous as to the sanctity of those religious +obligations; but I secretly resolved that her safety absolutely required +it, and that at all events I would procure absolution from my own +promise to her. + +At last Isora, turning from that topic, so darkly interesting, pointed +to the heavens, which, with their thousand eyes of light, looked down +upon us. "Tell me, love," said she, playfully, as her arm embraced me +yet more closely, "if, among yonder stars we could choose a home, which +should we select?" + +I pointed to one which lay to the left of the moon, and which, though +not larger, seemed to burn with an intenser lustre than the rest. Since +that night it has ever been to me a fountain of deep and passionate +thought, a well wherein fears and hopes are buried, a mirror in which, +in stormy times, I have fancied to read my destiny, and to find some +mysterious omen of my intended deeds, a haven which I believe others +have reached before me, and a home immortal and unchanging, where, when +my wearied and fettered soul is escaped, as a bird, it shall flee away, +and have its rest at last. + +"What think you of my choice?" said I. Isora looked upward, but did not +answer; and as I gazed upon her (while the pale light of heaven streamed +quietly upon her face) with her dark eyes, where the tear yet lingered, +though rather to soften than to dim; with her noble, yet tender +features, over which hung a melancholy calm; with her lips apart, and +her rich locks wreathing over her marble brow, and contrasted by a +single white rose (that rose I have now--I would not lose one withered +leaf of it for a kingdom!),--her beauty never seemed to me of so rare an +order, nor did my soul ever yearn towards her with so deep a love. + +It was past midnight. All was hushed in our bridal chamber. The single +lamp, which hung above, burned still and clear; and through the +half-closed curtains of the window, the moonlight looked in upon our +couch, quiet and pure and holy, as if it were charged with blessings. + +"Hush!" said Isora, gently; "do you not hear a noise below?" + +"Not a breath," said I; "I hear not a breath, save yours." + +"It was my fancy, then!" said Isora, "and it has ceased now;" and she +clung closer to my breast and fell asleep. I looked on her peaceful and +childish countenance, with that concentrated and full delight with which +we clasp all that the universe holds dear to us, and feel as if the +universe held nought beside,--and thus sleep also crept upon me. + +I awoke suddenly; I felt Isora trembling palpably by my side. Before I +could speak to her, I saw standing at a little distance from the bed, a +man wrapped in a long dark cloak and masked; but his eyes shone through +the mask, and they glared full upon me. He stood with his arms folded, +and perfectly motionless; but at the other end of the room, before the +escritoire in which I had locked the important packet, stood another +man, also masked, and wrapped in a disguising cloak of similar hue and +fashion. This man, as if alarmed, turned suddenly, and I perceived then +that the escritoire was already opened, and that the packet was in his +hand. I tore myself from Isora's clasp--I stretched my hand to the +table by my bedside, upon which I had left my sword,--it was gone! No +matter! I was young, strong, fierce, and the stake at hazard was great. +I sprang from the bed, I precipitated myself upon the man who held the +packet. With one hand I grasped at the important document, with the +other I strove to tear the mask from the robber's face. He endeavoured +rather to shake me off than to attack me; and it was not till I had +nearly succeeded in unmasking him that he drew forth a short poniard, +and stabbed me in the side. The blow, which seemed purposely aimed to +save a mortal part, staggered me, but only for an instant. I renewed my +grip at the packet--I tore it from the robber's hand, and collecting my +strength, now fast ebbing away, for one effort, I bore my assailant to +the ground, and fell struggling with him. + +But my blood flowed fast from my wound, and my antagonist, if less +sinewy than myself, had greatly the advantage in weight and size. Now +for one moment I was uppermost, but in the next his knee was upon my +chest, and his blade gleamed on high in the pale light of the lamp and +moon. I thought I beheld my death: would to God that I had! With a +piercing cry, Isora sprang from the bed, flung herself before the lifted +blade of the robber, and arrested his arm. This man had, in the whole +contest, acted with a singular forbearance, he did so now: he paused for +a moment and dropped his hand. Hitherto the other man had not stirred +from his mute position; he now moved one step towards us, brandishing a +poniard like his comrade's. Isora raised her hand supplicatingly +towards him, and cried out, "Spare him, spare /him/! Oh, mercy, mercy!" +With one stride the murderer was by my side; he muttered some words +which passion seemed to render inarticulate; and, half pushing aside his +comrade, his raised weapon flashed before my eyes, now dim and reeling. +I made a vain effort to rise: the blade descended; Isora, unable to +arrest it, threw herself before it; her blood, her heart's blood gushed +over me; I saw and felt no more. + +When I recovered my senses, my servants were round me; a deep red, wet +stain upon the sofa on which I was laid brought the whole scene I had +witnessed again before me--terrible and distinct. I sprang to my feet +and asked for Isora; a low murmur caught my ear: I turned and beheld a +dark form stretched on the bed, and surrounded, like myself, by gazers +and menials; I tottered towards that bed,--my bridal bed,--with a fierce +gesture motioned the crowd away; I heard my name breathed audibly; the +next moment I was by Isora's side. All pain, all weakness, all +consciousness of my wound, of my very self, were gone: life seemed +curdled into a single agonizing and fearful thought. I fixed my eyes +upon hers; and though /there/ the film was gathering dark and rapidly, I +saw, yet visible and unconquered, the deep love of that faithful and +warm heart which had lavished its life for mine. + +I threw my arms around her; I pressed my lips wildly to hers. +"Speak--speak!" I cried, and my blood gushed over her with the effort; +"in mercy speak!" + +Even in death and agony, the gentle being who had been as wax unto my +lightest wish struggled to obey me. "Do not grieve for me," she said, +in a tremulous and broken voice: "it is dearer to die for you than to +live!" + +Those were her last words. I felt her breath abruptly cease. The +heart, pressed to mine, was still! I started up in dismay; the light +shone full upon her face. O God! that I should live to write that Isora +was--no more! + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEVEREUX, BY LYTTON, BOOK III. *** + +********* This file should be named 7626.txt or 7626.zip ********** + +This eBook was produced by Dagny, + and David Widger, + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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