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diff --git a/7760.txt b/7760.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d0294c --- /dev/null +++ b/7760.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1272 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook Falkland, by E. B. Lytton, Book 4. +#187 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: Falkland, Book 4. + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7760] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on May 27, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FALKLAND, BY LYTTON, V4 *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + + + +FALKLAND + +By Edward Bulwer-Lytton + + +BOOK IV. + +FROM MRS. ST.JOHN TO ERASMUS FALKLAND, ESQ. + +At last I can give a more favourable answer to your letters. Emily is +now quite out of danger. Since the day you forced yourself, with such a +disinterested regard for her health and reputation, into her room, she +grew (no thanks to your forbearance) gradually better. I trust that she +will be able to see you in a few days. I hope this the more, because she +now feels and decides that it will be for the last time. You have, it is +true, injured her happiness for life her virtue, thank Heaven, is yet +spared; and though you have made her wretched, you will never, I trust, +succeed in making her despised. + +You ask me, with some menacing and more complaint, why I am so bitter +against you. I will tell you. I not only know Emily, and feel +confident, from that knowledge, that nothing can recompense her for the +reproaches of conscience, but I know you, and am convinced that you are +the last man to render her happy. I set aside, for the moment, all rules +of religion and morality in general, and speak to you (to use the cant +and abused phrase) "without prejudice" as to the particular instance. +Emily's nature is soft and susceptible, yours fickle and wayward in the +extreme. The smallest change or caprice in you, which would not be +noticed by a mind less delicate, would wound her to the heart. You know +that the very softness of her character arises from its want of strength. +Consider, for a moment, if she could bear the humiliation and disgrace +which visit so heavily the offences of an English wife? She has been +brought up in the strictest notions of morality; and, in a mind, not +naturally strong, nothing can efface the first impressions of education. +She is not--indeed she is not--fit for a life of sorrow or degradation. +In another character, another line of conduct might be desirable; but +with regard to her, pause, Falkland, I beseech you, before you attempt +again to destroy her for ever. I have said all. Farewell. + +Your, and above all, Emily's friend. + + + +FROM ERASMUS FALKLAND, ESQ., TO LADY EMILY MANDEVILLE. + +You will see me, Emily, now that you are recovered sufficiently to do so +without danger. I do not ask this as a favour. If my love has deserved, +anything from yours, if past recollections give me any claim over you, if +my nature has not forfeited the spell which it formerly possessed upon +your own, I demand it as a right. + +The bearer waits for your answer. + + + +FROM LADY EMILY MANDEVILLE TO ERASMUS FALKLAND, ESQ. + +See you, Falkland! Can you doubt it? Can you think for a moment that +your commands can ever cease to become a law to me? Come here whenever +you please. If, during my illness, they have prevented it, it was +without my knowledge. I await you; but I own that this interview will +be the last, if I can claim anything from your mercy. + + + +FROM ERASMUS FALKLAND, ESQ., TO LADY EMILY MANDEVILLE. + +I have seen you, Emily, and for the last time! My eyes are dry--my hand +does not tremble. I live, move, breathe, as before--and yet I have seen +you for the last time! You told me--even while you leaned on my bosom, +even while your lip pressed mine--you told me (and I saw your sincerity) +to spare you, and to see you no more. You told me you had no longer any +will, any fate of your own; that you would, if I still continued to +desire it, leave friends, home, honour, for me; but you did not disguise +from me that you would, in so doing, leave happiness also. You did not +conceal from me that I was not sufficient to constitute all your world: +you threw yourself, as you had done once before, upon what you called my +generosity: you did not deceive yourself then; you have not deceived +yourself now. In two weeks I shall leave England, probably for ever. +I have another country still more dear to me, from its afflictions and +humiliation. Public ties differ but little in their nature from private; +and this confession of preference of what is debased to what is exalted, +will be an answer to Mrs. St. John's assertion, that we cannot love in +disgrace as we can in honour. Enough of this. In the choice, my poor +Emily, that you have made, I cannot reproach you. You have done wisely, +rightly, virtuously. You said that this separation must rest rather with +me than with yourself; that you would be mine the moment I demanded it. +I will not now or ever accept this promise. No one, much less one whom I +love so intensely, so truly as I do you, shall ever receive disgrace at +my hands, unless she can feel that that disgrace would be dearer to her +than glory elsewhere; that the simple fate of being mine was not so much +a recompense as a reward; and that, in spite of worldly depreciation and +shame, it would constitute and concentrate all her visions of happiness +and pride. I am now going to bid you farewell. May you--I say this +disinterestedly, and from my very heart--may you soon forget how much you +have loved and yet love me! For this purpose, you cannot have a better +companion than Mrs. St. John. Her opinion of me is loudly expressed, and +probably true; at all events, you will do wisely to believe it. You will +hear me attacked and reproached by many. I do not deny the charges; you +know best what I have deserved from you. God bless you, Emily. Wherever +I go, I shall never cease to love you as I do now. May you be happy in +your child and in your conscience! Once more, God bless you, and +farewell! + + + +FROM LADY EMILY MANDEVILLE TO ERASMUS FALKLAND, ESQ. + +O Falkland! You have conquered! I am yours--yours only--Wholly and +forever. When your letter came, my hand trembled so, that I could not +open it for several minutes; and when I did, I felt as if the very earth +had passed from my feet. You were going from your country; you were +about to be lost to me for ever. I could restrain myself no longer; all +my virtue, my pride, forsook me at once. Yes, yes, you are indeed my +world. I will fly with you anywhere--everywhere. Nothing can be +dreadful, but not seeing you; I would be a servant--a slave--a dog, +as long as I could be with you; hear one tone of your voice, catch one +glance of your eye. I scarcely see the paper before me, my thoughts are +so straggling and confused. Write to me one word, Falkland; one word, +and I will lay it to my heart, and be happy. + + + +FROM ERASMUS FALKLAND TO LADY EMILY MANDEVILLE. + +-------- Hotel, London. + +I hasten to you, Emily--my own and only love. Your letter has restored +me to life. To-morrow we shall meet. + + +It was with mingled feelings, alloyed and embittered, in spite of the +burning hope which predominated over all, that Falkland returned to +E------. He knew that he was near the completion of his most ardent +wishes; that he was within the grasp of a prize which included all the +thousand objects of ambition, into which, among other men, the desires +are divided; the only dreams he had ventured to form for years were about +to kindle into life. He had every reason to be happy;--such is the +inconsistency of human nature, that he was almost wretched. The morbid +melancholy, habitual to him, threw its colourings over every emotion and +idea. He knew the character of the woman whose affections he had +seduced; and he trembled to think of the doom to which he was about to +condemn her. With this, there came over his mind a long train of dark +and remorseful recollections. Emily was not the only one whose +destruction he had prepared. All who had loved him, he had repaid with +ruin; and one--the first--the fairest--and the most loved, with death. + +That last remembrance, more bitterly than all, possessed him. It will be +recollected that Falkland, in the letters which begin this work, speaking +of the ties he had formed after the loss of his first love, says, that it +was the senses, not the affections, that were engaged. Never, indeed, +since her death, till he met Emily, had his heart been unfaithful to her +memory. Alas! none but those who have cherished in their souls an image +of the death; who have watched over it for long and bitter years in +secrecy and gloom; who have felt that it was to them as a holy and fairy +spot which no eye but theirs could profane; who have filled all things +with recollections as with a spell, and made the universe one wide +mausoleum of the lost;--none but those can understand the mysteries of +that regret which is shed over every after passion, though it be more +burning and intense; that sense of sacrilege with which we fill up the +haunted recesses of the spirit with a new and a living idol and +perpetrate the last act of infidelity to that buried love, which the +heavens that now receive her, the earth where we beheld her, tell us, +with, the unnumbered voices of Nature, to worship with the incense of our +faith. + +His carriage stopped at the lodge. The woman who opened the gates gave +him the following note + +"Mr. Mandeville is returned; I almost fear that he suspects our +attachment. Julia says, that if you come again to E------, she will +inform him. I dare not, dearest Falkland, see you here. What is to be +done? I am very ill and feverish: my brain burns so, that I can think, +feel, remember nothing, but the one thought, feeling, and remembrance-- +that through shame, and despite of guilt, in life, and till death, I am +yours. E. M." + +As Falkland read this note, his extreme and engrossing love for Emily +doubled with each word: an instant before, and the certainty of seeing +her had suffered his mind to be divided into a thousand objects; now, +doubt united them once more into one. + +He altered his route to L------, and despatched from thence a short note +to Emily, imploring her to meet him that evening by the lake, in order to +arrange their ultimate flight. Her answer was brief, and blotted with +her tears; but it was assent. + +During the whole of that day, at least from the moment she received +Falkland's letter, Emily was scarcely sensible of a single idea: she sat +still and motionless, gazing on vacancy, and seeing nothing within her +mind, or in the objects which surrounded her, but one dreary blank. +Sense, thought, feeling, even remorse, were congealed and frozen; and the +tides of emotion were still, bid they were ice! + +As Falkland's servant had waited without to deliver the note to Emily, +Mrs. St. John had observed him: her alarm and surprise only served to +quicken her presence of mind. She intercepted Emily's answer under +pretence of giving it herself to Falkland's servant. She read it, and +her resolution was formed. After carefully resealing and delivering it +to the servant, she went at once to Mr. Mandeville, and revealed Lady +Emily's attachment to Falkland. In this act of treachery, she was solely +instigated by her passions; and when Mandeville, roused from his wonted +apathy to a paroxysm of indignation, thanked her again and again for the +generosity of friendship which he imagined was all that actuated her +communication, he dreamed not of the fierce and ungovernable jealousy +which envied the very disgrace which her confession was intended to +award. Well said the French enthusiast, "that the heart, the most serene +to appearance, resembles that calm and glassy fountain which cherishes +the monster of the Nile in the bosom of its waters." Whatever reward +Mrs. St. John proposed to herself in this action, verily she has had the +recompense that was her due. Those consequences of her treachery, which +I hasten to relate, have ceased to others--to her they remain. Amidst +the pleasures of dissipation, one reflection has rankled at her mind; one +dark cloud has rested between the sunshine and her soul; like the +murderer in Shakespeare, the revel where she fled for forgetfulness has +teemed to her with the spectres of remembrance. O thou untameable +conscience! thou that never flatterest--thou that watchest over the human +heart never to slumber or to sleep--it is thou that takest from us the +present, barrest to us the future, and knittest the eternal chain that +binds us to the rock and the vulture of the past! + +The evening came on still and dark; a breathless and heavy apprehension +seemed gathered over the air: the full large clouds lay without motion in +the dull sky, from between which, at long and scattered intervals, the +wan stars looked out; a double shadow seemed to invest the grouped and +gloomy trees that stood unwaving in the melancholy horizon. The waters +of the lake lay heavy and unagitated as the sleep of death; and the +broken reflections of the abrupt and winding banks rested upon their +bosoms, like the dreamlike remembrance of a former existence. + +The hour of the appointment was arrived: Falkland stood by the spot, +gazing upon the lake before him; his cheek was flushed, his hand was +parched and dry with the consuming fire within him. His pulse beat thick +and rapidly; the demon of evil passions was upon his soul. He stood so +lost in his own reflections, that he did not for some moments perceive +the fond and tearful eye which was fixed upon him on that brow and lip, +thought seemed always so beautiful, so divine, that to disturb its repose +was like a profanation of something holy; and though Emily came towards +him with a light and hurried step, she paused involuntarily to gaze upon +that noble countenance which realised her earliest visions of the beauty +and majesty of love. He turned slowly, and perceived her; he came to her +with his own peculiar smile; he drew her to his bosom in silence; he +pressed his lips to her forehead: she leaned upon his bosom, and forgot +all but him. Oh! if there be one feeling which makes Love, even guilty +Love, a god, it is the knowledge that in the midst of this breathing +world he reigns aloof and alone; and that those who are occupied with his +worship know nothing of the pettiness, the strife, the bustle which, +pollute and agitate the ordinary inhabitants of earth! What was now to +them, as they stood alone in the deep stillness of Nature, everything +that had engrossed them before they had met and loved? Even in her, the +recollections of guilt and grief subsided: she was only sensible of one +thought--the presence of the being who stood beside her, + + That ocean to the rivers of her soul. + +They sat down beneath an oak: Falkland stooped to kiss the cold and pale +cheek that still rested upon his breast. His kisses were like lava: the +turbulent and stormy elements of sin and desire were aroused even to +madness within him. He clasped her still nearer to his bosom: her lips +answered to his own: they caught perhaps something of the spirit which +they received: her eyes were half-closed; the bosom heaved wildly that +was pressed to his beating and burning heart. The skies grew darker and +darker as the night stole over them: one low roll of thunder broke upon +the curtained and heavy air--they did not hear it; and yet it was the +knell of peace--virtue--hope--lost, lost for ever to their souls! + +They separated as they had never done before. In Emily's bosom there was +a dreary void--a vast blank-over which there went a low deep voice like a +Spirit's--a sound indistinct and strange, that spoke a language she knew +not; but felt that it told of woe-guilt-doom. Her senses were stunned: +the vitality of her feelings was numbed and torpid: the first herald of +despair is insensibility. "Tomorrow then," said Falkland--and his voice +for the first time seemed strange and harsh to her--"we will fly hence +for ever: meet me at daybreak--the carriage shall be in attendance--we +cannot now unite too soon--would that at this very moment we were +prepared!"--"To-morrow!" repeated Emily, "at daybreak!" and as she clung +to him, he felt her shudder: "to-morrow-ay-to-morrow!--" one kiss--one +embrace--one word--farewell--and they parted. + +Falkland returned to L------, a gloomy foreboding rested upon his mind: +that dim and indescribable fear, which no earthly or human cause can +explain--that shrinking within self--that vague terror of the future +--that grappling, as it were, with some unknown shade--that wandering of +the spirit--whither?--that cold, cold creeping dread--of what? As he +entered the house, he met his confidential servant. He gave him orders +respecting the flight of the morrow, and then retired into the chamber +where he slept. It was an antique and large room: the wainscot was of +oak; and one broad and high window looked over the expanse of country +which stretched beneath. He sat himself by the casement in silence-- +he opened it: the dull air came over his forehead, not with a sense of +freshness, but, like the parching atmosphere of the east, charged with a +weight and fever that sank heavy into his soul. He turned:--he threw +himself upon the bed, and placed his hands over his face. His thoughts +were scattered into a thousand indistinct forms, but over all, there was +one rapturous remembrance; and that was, that the morrow was to unite him +for ever to her whose possession had only rendered her more dear. +Meanwhile, the hours rolled on; and as he lay thus silent and still, the +clock of the distant church struck with a distinct and solemn sound upon +his ear. It was the half-hour after midnight. At that moment an icy +thrill ran, slow and curdling, through his veins. His heart, as if with +a presentiment of what was to follow, beat violently, and then stopped; +life itself seemed ebbing away; cold drops stood upon his forehead; his +eyelids trembled, and the balls reeled and glazed, like those of a dying +man; a deadly fear gathered over him, so that his flesh quivered, and +every hair in his head seemed instinct with a separate life, the very +marrow of his bones crept, and his blood waxed thick and thick, as if +stagnating into an ebbless and frozen substance. He started in a wild +and unutterable terror. There stood, at the far end of the room, a dim +and thin shape like moonlight, without outline or form; still, and +indistinct, and shadowy. He gazed on, speechless and motionless; his +faculties and senses seemed locked in an unnatural trance. By degrees +the shape became clearer and clearer to his fixed and dilating eye. He +saw, as through a floating and mist-like veil, the features of Emily; but +how changed!--sunken and hueless, and set in death. The dropping lip, +from which there seemed to trickle a deep red stain like blood; the +lead-like and lifeless eye; the calm, awful, mysterious repose which +broods over the aspect of the dead;--all grew, as it were, from the hazy +cloud that encircled them for one, one brief, agonising moment, and then +as suddenly faded away. The spell passed from his senses. He sprang +from the bed with a loud cry. All was quiet. There was not a trace of +what he had witnessed. The feeble light of the skies rested upon the +spot where the apparition had stood; upon that spot he stood also. He +stamped upon the floor--it was firm beneath his footing. He passed his +hands over his body--he was awake--he was unchanged: earth, air, heaven, +were around him as before. What had thus gone over his soul to awe and +overcome it to such weakness? To these questions his reason could return +no answer. Bold by nature, and sceptical by philosophy, his mind +gradually recovered its original tone: he did not give way to conjecture; +he endeavoured to discard it; he sought by natural causes to account for +the apparition he had seen or imagined; and, as he felt the blood again +circulating in its accustomed courses, and the night air coming chill +over his feverish frame, he smiled with a stern and scornful bitterness +at the terror which had so shaken, and the fancy which had so deluded, +his mind. + +Are there not "more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our +philosophy"? A Spirit may hover in the air that we breathe: the depth of +our most secret solitudes may be peopled by the invisible; our uprisings +and our downsittings may be marked by a witness from the grave. In our +walks the dead may be behind us; in our banquets they may sit at the +board; and the chill breath of the night wind that stirs the curtains of +our bed may bear a message our senses receive not, from lips that once +have pressed kisses on our own! Why is it that at moments there creeps +over us an awe, a terror, overpowering, but undefined? Why is it that we +shudder without a cause, and feel the warm life-blood stand still in its +courses? Are the dead too near? Do unearthly wings touch us as they +flit around? Has our soul any intercourse which the body shares not, +though it feels, with the supernatural world--mysterious revealings-- +unimaginable communion--a language of dread and power, shaking to its +centre the fleshly barrier that divides the spirit from its race? + +How fearful is the very life which we hold! We have our being beneath a +cloud, and are a marvel even to ourselves. There is not a single thought +which has its affixed limits. Like circles in the water, our researches +weaken as they extend, and vanish at last into the immeasurable and +unfathomable space of the vast unknown. We are like children in the +dark; we tremble in a shadowy and terrible void, peopled with our +fancies! Life is our real night, and the first gleam of the morning, +which brings us certainty, is death. + +Falkland sat the remainder of that night by the window watching the +clouds become gray as the dawn rose, and its earliest breeze awoke. He +heard the trampling of the horses beneath: he drew his cloak round him, +and descended. It was on a turning of the road beyond the lodge that he +directed the carriage to wait, and he then proceeded to the place +appointed. Emily was not yet there. He walked to and fro with an +agitated and hurried step. The impression of the night had in a great +measure been effaced from his mind, and he gave himself up without +reserve to the warm and sanguine hopes which he had so much reason to +conceive. He thought too, at moments, of those bright climates beneath +which he designed their asylum, where the very air is music, and the +light is like the colourings of love; and he associated the sighs of a +mutual rapture with the fragrance of myrtles, and the breath of a Tuscan +heaven. Time glided on. The hour was long past, yet Emily came not! +The sun rose, and Falkland turned in dark and angry discontent from its +beams. With every moment his impatience increased, and at last he could +restrain himself no longer. He proceeded towards the house. He stood +for some time at a distance; but as all seemed still hushed in repose, he +drew nearer and nearer till he reached the door: to his astonishment it +was open. He saw forms passing rapidly through the hall. He heard a +confused and indistinct murmur. At length he caught a glimpse of Mrs. +St. John. He could command himself no more. He sprang forwards-- +entered the door--the hall--and caught her by a part of her dress. He +could not speak, but his countenance said all which his lips refused. +Mrs. St. John burst into tears when she saw him. "Good God!" she said, +"why are you here? Is it possible you have yet learned--" Her voice +failed her. Falkland had by this time recovered himself. He turned to +the servants who gathered around him. "Speak," he said calmly. "What +has occurred?" "My lady--my lady!" burst at once from several tongues. +"What of her:" said Falkland, with a blanched cheek, but unchanging +voice. There was a pause. At that instant a man, whom Falkland +recognised as the physician of the neighbourhood, passed at the opposite +end of the hall. A light, a scorching and intolerable light, broke upon +him. "She is dying--she is dead, perhaps," he said, in a low sepulchral +tone, turning his eye around till it had rested upon every one present. +Not one answered. He paused a moment, as if stunned by a sudden shock, +and then sprang up the stairs. He passed the boudoir, and entered the +room where Emily slept. The shutters were only partially closed a faint +light broke through, and rested on the bed: beside it bent two women. +Them he neither heeded nor saw. He drew aside the curtains. He beheld +--the same as he had seen it in his vision of the night before--the +changed and lifeless countenance of Emily Mandeville! That face, still +so tenderly beautiful, was partially turned towards him. Some dark +stains upon the lip and neck told how she had died--the blood-vessel she +had broken before had burst again. The bland and soft eyes, which for +him never had but one expression, were closed; and the long and +disheveled tresses half hid, while they contrasted, that bosom, which had +but the night before first learned to thrill beneath his own. Happier in +her fate than she deserved, she passed from this bitter life ere the +punishment of her guilt had begun. She was not doomed to wither beneath +the blight of shame, nor the coldness of estranged affection. From him +whom she had so worshipped, she was not condemned to bear wrong nor +change. She died while his passion was yet in its spring--before a +blossom, a leaf, had faded; and she sank to repose while his kiss was yet +warm upon her lip, and her last breath almost mingled with his sigh. For +the woman who has erred, life has no exchange for such a death. Falkland +stood mute and motionless: not one word of grief or horror escaped his +lips. At length he bent down. He took the hand which lay outside the +bed; he pressed it; it replied not to the pressure, but fell cold and +heavy from his own. He put his cheek to her lips; not the faintest +breath came from them; and then for the first time a change passed over +his countenance: he pressed upon those lips one long and last kiss, and, +without word, or sign, or tear, he turned from the chamber. Two hours +afterwards he was found senseless upon the ground; it was upon the spot +where he had met Emily the night before. + +For weeks he knew nothing of this earth--he was encompassed with the +spectres of a terrible dream. All was confusion, darkness, horror--a +series and a change of torture! At one time he was hurried through the +heavens in the womb of a fiery star, girt above and below and around with +unextinguishable but unconsuming flames. Wherever he trod, as he +wandered through his vast and blazing prison, the molten fire was his +footing, and the breath of fire was his air. Flowers, and trees, and +hills were in that world as in ours, but wrought from one lurid and +intolerable light; and, scattered around, rose gigantic palaces and domes +of the living flame, like the mansions of the city of Hell. With every +moment there passed to and fro shadowy forms, on whose countenances was +engraven unutterable anguish; but not a shriek, not a groan, rung through +the red air; for the doomed, who fed and inhabited the flames, were +forbidden the consolation of voice. Above there sat, fixed and black, +a solid and impenetrable cloud-Night frozen into substance; and from the +midst there hung a banner of a pale and sickly flame, on which was +written "For Ever." A river rushed rapidly beside him. He stooped to +slake the agony of his thirst--the waves were waves of fire; and, as he +started from the burning draught, he longed to shriek aloud, and could +not. Then he cast his despairing eyes above for mercy; and saw on the +livid and motionless banner "For Ever." + +A change came o'er the spirit of his dream + +He was suddenly borne up on the winds and storms to the oceans of an +eternal winter. He fell stunned and unstruggling upon the ebbless and +sluggish waves. Slowly and heavily they rose over him as he sank: then +came the lengthened and suffocating torture of that drowning death--the +impotent and convulsive contest with the closing waters--the gurgle, the +choking, the bursting of the pent breath, the flutter of the heart, its +agony, and its stillness. He recovered. He was a thousand fathoms +beneath the sea, chained to a rock round which the heavy waters rose as a +wall. He felt his own flesh rot and decay, perishing from his limbs +piece by piece; and he saw the coral banks, which it requires a thousand +ages to form, rise slowly from their slimy bed; and spread atom by atom, +till they became a shelter for the leviathan: their growth, was his only +record of eternity; and ever and ever, around and above him, came vast +and misshapen things--the wonders of the secret deeps; and the sea- +serpent, the huge chimera of the north, made its resting-place by his +side, glaring upon him with a livid and death-like eye, wan, yet burning +as an expiring seta. But over all, in every change, in every moment of +that immortality, there was present one pale and motionless countenance, +never turning from his own. The fiends of hell, the monsters of the +hidden ocean, had no horror so awful as _the human face of the dead whom +he had loved_. + +The word of his sentence was gone forth. Alike through that delirium and +its more fearful awakening, through the past, through the future, through +the vigils of the joyless day, and the broken dreams of the night, there +was a charm upon his soul--a hell within himself; and the curse of his +sentence was--never to forget! + +When, Lady Emily returned home on that guilty and eventful night, she +stole at once to her room: she dismissed her servant, and threw herself +upon the ground in that deep despair which on this earth can never again +know hope. She lay there without the power to weep, or the courage to +pray--how long, she knew not. Like the period before creation, her mind +was a chaos of jarring elements, and knew neither the method of +reflection nor the division of time. + +As she rose, she heard a slight knock at the door, and her husband +entered. Her heart misgave her; and when she saw him close the door +carefully before he approached her, she felt as if she could have sunk +into the earth, alike from her internal shame, and her fear of its +detection. + +Mr. Mandeville was a weak, commonplace character; indifferent in ordinary +matters, but, like most imbecile minds, violent and furious when aroused. +"Is this, Madam, addressed to you?" he cried, in a voice of thunder, as +he placed a letter before her (it was one of Falkland's); "and this, and +this, Madam?" said he, in a still louder tone, as he flung them out one +after another from her own escritoire, which he had broken open. + +Emily sank back, and gasped for breath. Mandeville rose, and, laughing +fiercely, seized her by the arm. He grasped it with all his force. She +uttered a faint scream of terror: he did not heed it; he flung her from +him, and as she fell upon the ground, the blood gushed in torrents from +her lips. In the sudden change of feeling which alarm created, he raised +her in his arms. She was a corpse! At that instant the clock struck +upon his ear with a startling and solemn sound: it was the half-hour +after midnight. + +The grave is now closed upon that soft and erring heart, with its +guiltiest secret unrevealed. She went to that last home with a blest and +unblighted name; for her guilt was unknown, and her virtues are yet +recorded in the memories of the Poor. + +They laid her in the stately vaults of her ancient line, and her bier was +honoured with tears from hearts not less stricken, because their sorrow, +if violent, was brief. For the dead there are many mourners, but only +one monument--the bosom which loved them best. The spot where the hearse +rested, the green turf beneath, the surrounding trees, the gray tower of +the village church, and the proud halls rising beyond,--all had witnessed +the childhood, the youth, the bridal-day of the being whose last rites +and solemnities they were to witness now. The very bell which rang for +her birth had rung also for the marriage peal; it now tolled for her +death. But a little while, and she had gone forth from that home of her +young and unclouded years, amidst the acclamations and blessings of all, +a bride, with the insignia of bridal pomp--in the first bloom of her +girlish beauty--in the first innocence of her unawakened heart, weeping, +not for the future she was entering, but for the past she was about to +leave, and smiling through her tears, as if innocence had no business +with grief. On the same spot, where he had then waved his farewell, +stood the father now. On the grass which they had then covered, flocked +the peasants whose wants her childhood had relieved; by the same priest +who had blessed her bridals, bent the bridegroom who had plighted its +vow. There was not a tree, not a blade of grass withered. The day +itself was bright and glorious; such was it when it smiled upon her +nuptials. And size--she-but four little years, and all youth's innocence +darkened, and earth's beauty come to dust! Alas! not for her, but the +mourner whom she left! In death even love is forgotten; but in life +there is no bitterness so utter as to feel everything is unchanged, +except the One Being who was the soul of all--to know the world is the +same, but that its sunshine is departed. + + +The noon was still and sultry. Along the narrow street of the small +village of Lodar poured the wearied but yet unconquered band, which +embodied in that district of Spain the last hope and energy of freedom. +The countenances of the soldiers were haggard and dejected; they +displayed even less of the vanity than their accoutrements exhibited of +the pomp and circumstances of war. Yet their garments were such as even +the peasants had disdained: covered with blood and dust, and tattered +into a thousand rags, they betokened nothing of chivalry but its +endurance of hardship; even the rent and sullied banners drooped sullenly +along their staves, as if the winds themselves had become the minions of +fortune, and disdained to swell the insignia of those whom she had +deserted. The glorious music of battle was still. An air of dispirited +and defeated enterprise hung over the whole army. "Thank Heaven," said +the chief, who closed the last file as it marched--on to its scanty +refreshment and brief repose; "thank Heaven, we are at least out of the +reach of pursuit; and the mountains, those last retreats of liberty, are +before us!" "True, Don Rafael," replied the youngest of two officers who +rode by the side of the commander; "and if we can cut our passage to +Mina, we may yet plant the standard of the Constitution in Madrid." +"Ay," added the elder officer, "and I sing Riego's hymn in the place of +the Escurial!" "Our sons may!" said the chief, who was indeed Riego +himself, "but for us--all hope is over! Were we united, we could +scarcely make head against the armies of France; and divided as we are, +the wonder is that we have escaped so long. Hemmed in by invasion, our +great enemy has been ourselves. Such has been the hostility faction has +created between Spaniard and Spaniard, that we seem to have none left to +waste upon Frenchmen. We cannot establish freedom if men are willing to +be slaves. We have no hope, Don Alphonso--no hope--but that of death!" +As Riego concluded this desponding answer, so contrary to his general +enthusiasm, the younger officer rode on among the soldiers, cheering them +with words of congratulation and comfort; ordering their several +divisions; cautioning them to be prepared at a moment's notice; and +impressing on their remembrance those small but essential points of +discipline, which a Spanish troop might well be supposed to disregard. +When Riego and his companion entered the small and miserable hovel which +constituted the headquarters of the place, this man still remained +without; and it was not till he had slackened the girths of his +Andalusian horse, and placed before it the undainty provender which the +_ecurie_ afforded that he thought of rebinding more firmly the bandages +wound around a deep and painful sabre cut in the left arm, which for +several hours had been wholly neglected. The officer, whom Riego had +addressed by the name of Alphonso, came out of the hut just as his +comrade was vainly endeavouring, with his teeth and one hand, to replace +the ligature. As he assisted him, he said, "You know not, my dear +Falkland, how bitterly I reproach myself for having ever persuaded you to +a cause where contest seems to have no hope, and danger no glory." +Falkland smiled bitterly. "Do not deceive yourself, my dear uncle," said +he; "your persuasions would have been unavailing but for the suggestions +of my own wishes. I am not one of those enthusiasts who entered on your +cause with high hopes and chivalrous designs: I asked but forgetfulness +and excitement--I have found them! I would not exchange a single pain +I have endured for what would have constituted the pleasures of other +men:--but enough of this. What time, think you, have we for repose?" +"Till the evening," answered Alphonso; "our route will then most probably +be directed to the Sierre Morena. The General is extremely weak and +exhausted, and needs a longer rest than we shall gain. It is singular +that with such weak health he should endure so great an excess of +hardship and fatigue." During this conversation they entered the hut. +Riego was already asleep. As they seated themselves to the wretched +provision of the place, a distant and indistinct noise was heard. It +carne first on their ears like the birth of the mountain wind-low, and +hoarse, and deep: gradually it grew loud and louder, and mingled with +other sounds which they defined too well--the hum, the murmur, the +trampling of steeds, the ringing echoes of the rapid march of armed men! +They heard and knew the foe was upon them!--a moment more, and the drum +beat to arms. "By St. Pelagio," cried Riego, who had sprung from his +light sleep at the first sound of the approaching danger, unwilling to +believe his fears, "it cannot be: the French are far behind:" and then, +as the drum beat, his voice suddenly changed, "the enemy? the enemy! +D'Aguilar, to horse!" and with those words he rushed out of the hut. The +soldiers, who had scarcely begun to disperse, were soon re-collected. In +the mean while the French commander, D'Argout, taking advantage of the +surprise he had occasioned, poured on his troops, which consisted solely +of cavalry, undaunted and undelayed by the fire of the posts. On, on +they drove like a swift cloud charged with thunder, and gathering wrath +as it hurried by, before it burst in tempest on the beholders. They did +not pause till they reached the farther extremity of the village: there +the Spanish infantry were already formed into two squares. "Halt!" cried +the French commander: the troop suddenly stopped confronting the nearer +square. There was one brief pause-the moment before the storm. +"Charge!" said D' Argout, and the word rang throughout the line up to the +clear and placid sky. Up flashed the steel like lightning; on went the +troop like the clash of a thousand waves when the sun is upon them; and +before the breath of the riders was thrice drawn, came the crash--the +shock--the slaughter of battle. The Spaniards made but a faint +resistance to the impetuosity of the onset: they broke on every side +beneath the force of the charge, like the weak barriers of a rapid and +swollen stream; and the French troops, after a brief but bloody victory +(joined by a second squadron from the rear), advanced immediately upon +the Spanish cavalry. Falkland was by the side of Riego. As the troop +advanced, it would have been curious to notice the contrast of expression +in the face of each; the Spaniard's features lighted up with the daring +enthusiasm of his nature; every trace of their usual languor and +exhaustion vanished beneath the unconquerable soul that blazed out the +brighter for the debility of the frame; the brow knit; the eye flashing; +the lip quivering:--and close beside, the calm, stern; passionless repose +that brooded over the severe yet noble beauty of Falkland's countenance. +To him danger brought scorn, not enthusiasm: he rather despised than +defied it. "The dastards! they waver," said Riego, in an accent of +despair, as his troop faltered beneath the charge of the French: and so +saying, he spurred his steed on to the foremost line. The contest was +longer, but not less decisive, than the one just concluded. The +Spaniards, thrown into confusion by the first shock, never recovered +themselves. Falkland, who, in his anxiety to rally and inspirit the +soldiers, had advanced with two other officers beyond the ranks, was soon +surrounded by a detachment of dragoons: the wound in his left arm +scarcely suffered him to guide his horse: he was in the most imminent +danger. At that moment D'Aguilar, at the head of his own immediate +followers, cut his way into the circle, and covered Falkland's retreat; +another detachment of the enemy came up, and they were a second time +surrounded. In the mean while, the main body of the Spanish cavalry were +flying in all directions, and Riego's deep voice was heard at intervals, +through the columns of smoke and dust, calling and exhorting them in +vain. D'Aguilar and his scanty troop, after a desperate skirmish, broke +again through the enemy's line drawn up against their retreat. The rank +closed after them like waters when the object that pierced them has sunk: +Falkland and his two companions were again environed: he saw his comrades +cut to the earth before him. He pulled up his horse for one moment, +clove down with one desperate blow the dragoon with whom he was engaged, +and then setting his spurs to the very rowels into his horse, dashed at +once through the circle of his foes. His remarkable presence of mind, +and the strength and sagacity of his horse, befriended him. Three sabres +flashed before him, and glanced harmless from his raised sword, like +lightning on the water. The circle was passed! As he galloped towards +Riego, his horse started from a dead body that lay across his path. He +reined up for one instant, for the countenance, which looked upwards, +struck him as familiar. What was his horror, when in that livid and +distorted face he recognised his uncle! The thin grizzled hairs were +besprent with gore and brains, and the blood yet oozed from the spot +where the ball had passed through his temple. Falkland had but a brief +interval for grief; the pursuers were close behind: he heard the snort of +the foremost horse before he again put spurs into his own. Riego was +holding a hasty consultation with his principal officers. As Falkland +rode breathless up to them, they had decided on the conduct expedient to +adopt. They led the remaining square of infantry towards the chain of +mountains against which the village, as it were, leaned; and there the +men dispersed in all directions. "For us," said Riego to the followers +on horseback who gathered around him, "for us the mountains still promise +a shelter. We must ride, gentlemen, for our lives--Spain will want them +yet." + +Wearied and exhausted as they were, that small and devoted troop fled on +into the recesses of the mountains for the remainder of that day +--twenty men out of the two thousand who had halted at Lodar. As the +evening stole over them, they entered into a narrow defile: the tall +hills rose on every side, covered with the glory of the setting sun, as +if Nature rejoiced to grant her bulwarks as a protection to liberty. A +small clear stream ran through the valley, sparkling with the last smile +of the departing day; and ever and anon, from the scattered shrubs and +the fragrant herbage, came the vesper music of the birds, and the hum of +the wild bee. + +Parched with thirst, and drooping with fatigue, the wanderers sprung +forward with one simultaneous cry of joy to the glassy and refreshing +wave which burst so unexpectedly upon them: and it was resolved that they +should remain for some hours in a spot where all things invited them to +the repose they so imperiously required. They flung themselves at once +upon the grass; and such was their exhaustion, that rest was almost +synonymous with sleep. Falkland alone could not immediately forget +himself in repose: the face of his uncle, ghastly and disfigured, glared +upon his eyes whenever he closed them. Just, however, as he was sinking +into an unquiet and fitful doze, he heard steps approaching: he started +up, and perceived two men, one a peasant, the other in the dress of a +hermit. They were the first human beings the wanderers had met; and when +Falkland gave the alarm to Riego, who slept beside him, it was +immediately proposed to detain them as guides to the town of Carolina, +where Riego had hopes of finding effectual assistance, or the means of +ultimate escape. The hermit and his companion refused, with much +vehemence, the office imposed upon them; but Riego ordered them to be +forcibly detained. He had afterwards reason bitterly to regret this +compulsion. + +Midnight came on in all the gorgeous beauty of a southern heaven, and +beneath its stars they renewed their march. As Falkland rode by the side +of Riego, the latter said to him in a low voice, "There is yet escape for +you and my followers: none for me: they have set a price on my head, and +the moment I leave these mountains, I enter upon my own destruction." +"No, Rafael!" replied Falkland; "you can yet fly to England, that asylum +of the free, though ally of the despotic; the abettor of tyranny, but the +shelter of its victims!" Riego answered, with the same faint and +dejected tone, "I care not now what becomes of me! I have lived solely +for Freedom; I have made her my mistress, my hope, my dream: I have no +existence but in her. With the last effort of my country let me perish +also! I have lived to view liberty not only defeated, but derided: I +have seen its efforts not aided, but mocked. In my own country, those +only, who wore it, have been respected who used it as a covering to +ambition. In other nations, the free stood aloof when the charter of +their own rights was violated in the invasion of ours. I cannot forget +that the senate of that England, where you promise me a home, rang with +insulting plaudits when her statesman breathed his ridicule on our +weakness, not his sympathy for our cause; and I--fanatic--dreamer-- +enthusiast, as I may be called, whose whole life has been one unremitting +struggle for the opinion I have adopted, am at least not so blinded by my +infatuation, but I can see the mockery it incurs. If I die on the +scaffold to-morrow, I shall have nothing of martyrdom but its doom; not +the triumph--the incense--the immortality of popular applause: I should +have no hope to support me at such a moment, gleaned from the glories of +the future--nothing but one stern and prophetic conviction of the vanity +of that tyranny by which my sentence will be pronounced." Riego paused +for a moment before he resumed, and his pale and death-like countenance +received an awful and unnatural light from the intensity of the feeling +that swelled and burned within him. His figure was drawn up to its full +height, and his voice rang through the lonely hills with a deep and +hollow sound, that had in it a tone of prophecy, as he resumed "It is in +vain that they oppose OPINION; anything else they may subdue. They may +conquer wind, water, nature itself; but to the progress of that secret, +subtle, pervading spirit, their imagination can devise, their strength +can accomplish, no bar: its votaries they may seize, they may destroy; +itself they cannot touch. If they check it in one place, it invades them +in another. They cannot build a wall across the whole earth; and, even +if they could, it would pass over its summit! Chains cannot bind it, for +it is immaterial--dungeons enclose it, for it is universal. Over the +faggot and the scaffold--over the bleeding bodies of its defenders which +they pile against its path, it sweeps on with a noiseless but unceasing +march. Do they levy armies against it, it presents to them no palpable +object to oppose. Its camp is the universe; its asylum is the bosoms of +their own soldiers. Let them depopulate, destroy as they please, to each +extremity of the earth; but as long as they have a single supporter +themselves--as long as they leave a single individual into whom that +spirit can enter--so long they will have the same labours to encounter, +and the same enemy to subdue." + +As Riego's voice ceased, Falkland gazed upon him with a mingled pity and +admiration. Sour and ascetic as was the mind of that hopeless and +disappointed man, he felt somewhat of a kindred glow at the pervading and +holy enthusiasm of the patriot to whom he had listened; and though it was +the character of his own philosophy to question the purity of human +motives, and to smile at the more vivid emotions he had ceased to feel, +he bowed his soul in homage to those principles whose sanctity he +acknowledged, and to that devotion of zeal and fervour with which their +defender cherished and enforced them. Falkland had joined the +constitutionalists with respect, but not ardour, for their cause. He +demanded excitation; he cared little where he found it. He stood in this +world a being who mixed in all its changes, performed all its offices, +took, as if by the force of superior mechanical power, a leading share in +its events; but whose thoughts and soul were as offsprings of another +planet, imprisoned in a human form, and _longing for their home_! + +As they rode on, Riego continued to converse with that imprudent +unreserve which the openness and warmth of his nature made natural to +him: not one word escaped the hermit and the peasant (whose name was +Lopez Lara) as they rode on two mules behind Falkland and Riego. +"Remember," whispered the hermit to his comrade, "the reward!" "I do," +muttered the peasant. + +Throughout the whole of that long and dreary night, the--wanderers rode +on incessantly, and found themselves at daybreak near a farm-house: this +was Lara's own home. They made the peasant Lara knock; his own brother +opened the door. Fearful as they were of the detection to which so +numerous a party might conduce, only Riego, another officer (Don Luis de +Sylva), and Falkland entered the house. The latter, whom nothing ever +seemed to render weary or forgetful, fixed his cold stern eye upon the +two brothers, and, seeing some signs pass between them, locked the door, +and so prevented their escape. For a few hours they reposed in the +stables with their horses, their drawn swords by their sides. On waking, +Riego found it absolutely necessary that his horse should be shod. Lopez +started up, and offered to lead it to Arguillas for that purpose. "No," +said Riego, who, though naturally imprudent, partook in this instance of +Falkland's habitual caution: "your brother shall go and bring hither the +farrier." Accordingly the brother went: he soon returned. "The +farrier," he said, "was already on the road." Riego and his companions, +who were absolutely fainting with hunger, sat down to breakfast; but +Falkland, who had finished first, and who had eyed the man since his +return with the most scrutinising attention, withdrew towards the window, +looking out from time to time with a telescope which they had carried +about them, and urging them impatiently to finish. "Why?" said Riego, +"famished men are good for nothing, either to fight or fly--and we must +wait for the farrier." "True," said Falkland, "but--" he stopped +abruptly. Sylva had his eyes on his face at that moment. Falkland's +colour suddenly changed: he turned round with a loud cry. "Up! up! +Riego! Sylva! We are undone--the soldiers are upon us!" "Arm!" cried +Riego, starting up. At that moment Lopez and his brother seized their +own carbines, and levelled them at the betrayed constitutionalists. "The +first who moves," cried the former, "is a dead man!" "Fools!" said +Falkland, with a calm bitterness, advancing deliberately towards them. +He moved only three steps--Lopez fired. Falkland staggered a few paces, +recovered himself, sprang towards Lara, clove him at one blow from the +skull to the jaw, and fell with his victim, lifeless upon the floor. +"Enough!" said Riego to the remaining peasant; "we are your prisoners; +bind us!" In two minutes more the soldiers entered, and they were +conducted to Carolina. Fortunately Falkland was known, when at Paris, to +a French officer of high rank then at Carolina. He was removed to the +Frenchman's quarters. Medical aid was instantly procured. The first +examination of his wound was decisive; recovery was hopeless! + +Night came on again, with her pomp of light and shade--the night that for +Falkland had no morrow. One solitary lamp burned in the chamber where he +lay alone with God and his own heart. He had desired his couch to be +placed by the window and requested his attendants to withdraw. The +gentle and balmy air stole over him, as free and bland as if it were to +breathe for him for ever; and the silver moonlight came gleaming through +the lattice and played upon his wan brow, like the tenderness of a bride +that sought to kiss him to repose. "In a few hours," thought he, as he +lay gazing on the high stars which seemed such silent witnesses of an +eternal and unfathomed mystery, "in a few hours either this feverish and +wayward spirit will be at rest for ever, or it will have commenced a new +career in an untried and unimaginable existence! In a very few hours I +may be amongst the very heavens that I survey--a part of their own +glory--a new link in a new order of beings--breathing amidst the elements +of a more gorgeous world--arrayed myself in the attributes of a purer and +diviner nature--a wanderer among the planets--an associate of angels--the +beholder of the arcana of the great God-redeemed, regenerate, immortal, +or--dust! + +"There is no OEdipus to solve the enigma of life. We are--whence came +we? We are not--whither do we go? All things in our existence have +their object: existence has none. We live, move, beget our species, +perish--and for what? We ask the past its moral; we question the gone +years of the reason of our being, and from the clouds of a thousand ages +there goes forth no answer. Is it merely to pant beneath this weary +load; to sicken of the sun; to grow old; to drop like leaves into the +grave; and to bequeath to our heirs the worn garments of toil and labour +that we leave behind? Is it to sail for ever on the same sea, ploughing +the ocean of time with new furrows, and feeding its billows with new +wrecks, or--" and his thoughts paused blinded and bewildered. + +No man, in whom the mind has not been broken by the decay of the body, +has approached death in full consciousness as Falkland did that moment, +and not thought intensely on the change he was about to undergo; and yet +what new discoveries upon that subject has any one bequeathed us? There +the wildest imaginations are driven from originality into triteness: +there all minds, the frivolous and the strong, the busy and the idle, are +compelled into the same path and limit of reflection. Upon that unknown +and voiceless gulf of inquiry broods an eternal and impenetrable gloom; +no wind breathes over it--no wave agitates its stillness: over the dead +and solemn calm there is no change propitious to adventure--there goes +forth no vessel of research, which is not driven, baffled and broken, +again upon the shore. + +The moon waxed high in her career. Midnight was gathering slowly over +the earth; the beautiful, the mystic hour, blent with a thousand +memories, hallowed by a thousand dreams, made tender to remembrance by +the vows our youth breathed beneath its star, and solemn by the olden +legends which are linked to its majesty and peace--the hour in which, men +should die; the isthmus between two worlds; the climax of the past day; +the verge of that which is to come; wrapping us in sleep after a weary +travail, and promising us a morrow which, since the first birth of +Creation has never failed. As the minutes glided on, Falkland felt +himself grow gradually weaker and weaker. The pain of his wound had +ceased, but a deadly sickness gathered over his heart: the room reeled +before his eyes, and the damp chill mounted from his feet up--up to the +breast in which the life-blood waxed dull and thick. + +As the hand of the clock pointed to the half-hour after midnight the +attendants who waited in the adjoining room heard a faint cry. They +rushed hastily into Falkland's chamber; they found him stretched half out +of the bed. His hand was raised towards the opposite wall; it dropped +gradually as they approached him; and his brow, which was at first stern +and bent, softened, shade by shade, into his usual serenity. But the dim +film gathered fast over his eye, and the last coldness upon his limbs. +He strove to raise himself as if to speak; the effort failed, and he fell +motionless on his face. They stood by the bed for some moments in +silence: at length they raised him. Placed against his heart was an open +locket of dark hair, which one hand still pressed convulsively. They +looked upon his countenance--(a single glance was sufficient)--it was +hushed--proud--passionless--the seal of Death was upon it. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FALKLAND, BY LYTTON, V4 *** + +****** This file should be named 7760.txt or 7760.zip ****** + +This eBook was produced by 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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