Waverley Novels — Volume 12
Page 28
CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FIFTH.
Heaven knows its time; the bullet has its billet, Arrow and javelin each its destined purpose; The fated beasts of Nature's lower strain Have each their separate task. OLD PLAY.
Agelastes, after crossing the Emperor in the manner we have alreadydescribed, and after having taken such measures as occurred to him toensure the success of the conspiracy, returned to the lodge of hisgarden, where the lady of the Count of Paris still remained, her onlycompanion being an old woman named Vexhelia, the wife of the soldierwho accompanied Bertha to the camp of the Crusaders; the kind-heartedmaiden having stipulated that, during her absence, her mistress was notto be left without an attendant, and that attendant connected with theVarangian guard. He had been all day playing the part of the ambitiouspolitician, the selfish time-server, the dark and subtle conspirator;and now it seemed, as if to exhaust the catalogue of his various partsin the human drama, he chose to exhibit himself in the character of thewily sophist, and justify, or seem to justify, the arts by which he hadrisen to wealth and eminence, and hoped even now to arise to royaltyitself.
"Fair Countess," he said, "what occasion is there for your wearing thisveil of sadness over a countenance so lovely?"
"Do you suppose me," said Brenhilda, "a stock, or stone, or a creaturewithout the feelings of a sensitive being, that I should enduremortification, imprisonment, danger and distress, without expressingthe natural feelings of humanity? Do you imagine that to a lady likeme, as free as the unreclaimed falcon, you can offer the insult ofcaptivity, without my being sensible to the disgrace, or incensedagainst the authors of it? And dost thou think that I will receiveconsolation at thy hands--at thine--one of the most active artificersin this web of treachery in which I am so basely entangled?"
"Not entangled certainly by my means"--answered Agelastes; "clap yourhands, call for what you wish, and the slave who refuses instantobedience had better been unborn. Had I not, with reference to yoursafety and your honour, agreed for a short time to be your keeper, thatoffice would have been usurped by the Caesar, whose object you know,and may partly guess the modes by which it would be pursued. Why thendost thou childishly weep at being held for a short space in anhonourable restraint, which the renowned arms of your husband willprobably put an end to long ere to-morrow at noon?"
"Canst thou not comprehend," said the Countess, "thou man of manywords, but of few honourable thoughts, that a heart like mine, whichhas been trained in the feelings of reliance upon my own worth andvalour, must be necessarily affected with shame at being obliged toaccept, even from the sword of a husband, that safety which I wouldgladly have owed only to my own?"
"Thou art misled, Countess," answered the philosopher, "by thy pride, afailing predominant in woman. Thinkest thou there has been no offensiveassumption in laving aside the character of a mother and a wife, andadopting that of one of those brain-sick female fools, who, like thebravoes of the other sex, sacrifice every thing that is honourable oruseful to a frantic and insane affectation of courage? Believe me, fairlady, that the true system of virtue consists in filling thine ownplace gracefully in society, breeding up thy children, and delightingthose of the other sex, and any thing beyond this, may well render theehateful or terrible, but can add nothing to thy amiable qualities."
"Thou pretendest," said the Countess, "to be a philosopher; methinksthou shouldst know, that the fame which hangs its chaplet on the tombof a brave hero or heroine, is worth all the petty engagements in whichordinary persons spend the current of their time. One hour of life,crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks,is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, inwhich men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through amarsh, without either honour or observation."
"Daughter," said Agelastes, approaching near to the lady, "it is withpain I see you bewildered in errors which a little calm reflectionmight remove. We may flatter ourselves, and human vanity usually doesso, that beings infinitely more powerful than those belonging to merehumanity, are employed daily in measuring out the good and evil of thisworld, the termination of combats, or the fate of empires, according totheir own ideas of what is right or wrong, or, more properly, accordingto what we ourselves conceive to be such. The Greek heathens, renownedfor their wisdom, and glorious for their actions, explained to men ofordinary minds the supposed existence of Jupiter and his Pantheon,where various deities presided over various virtues and vices, andregulated the temporal fortune and future happiness of such aspractised them. The more learned and wise of the ancients rejected suchthe vulgar interpretation, and wisely, although affecting a deferenceto the public faith, denied before their disciples in private, thegross fallacies of Tartarus and Olympus, the vain doctrines concerningthe gods themselves, and the extravagant expectations which the vulgarentertained of an immortality, supposed to be possessed by creatureswho were in every respect mortal, both in the conformation of theirbodies, and in the internal belief of their souls. Of these wrise andgood men some granted the existence of the supposed deities, but deniedthat they cared about the actions of mankind any more than those of theinferior animals. A merry, jovial, careless life, such as the followersof Epicurus would choose for themselves, was what they assigned forthose gods whose being they admitted. Others, more bold or moreconsistent, entirely denied the existence of deities who apparently hadno proper object or purpose, and believed that such of them, whosebeing and attributes were proved to us by no supernatural appearances,had in reality no existence whatever."
"Stop, wretch!" said the Countess, "and know that thou speakest not toone of those blinded heathens, of whose abominable doctrines you aredetailing the result. Know, that if an erring, I am nevertheless asincere daughter of the Church, and this cross displayed on myshoulder, is a sufficient emblem of the vows I have undertaken in itscause. Bo therefore wary, as thou art wily; for, believe me, if thouscoffest or utterest reproach against my holy religion, what I amunable to answer in language, I will reply to, without hesitation, withthe point of my dagger."
"To that argument" said Agelastes, drawing back from the neighbourhoodof Brenhilda, "believe me, fair lady, I am very willing to urge yourgentleness. But although I shall not venture to say any thing of thosesuperior and benevolent powers to whom you ascribe the management ofthe world, you will surely not take offence at my noticing those basesuperstitions which have been adopted in explanation of what is calledby the Magi, the Evil Principle. Was there ever received into a humancreed, a being so mean--almost so ridiculous--as the Christian Satan? Agoatish figure and limbs, with grotesque features, formed to expressthe most execrable passions; a degree of power scarce inferior to thatof the Deity; and a talent at the same time scarce equal to that of thestupidest of the lowest order! What is he, this being, who is at leastthe second arbiter of the human race, save an immortal spirit, with thepetty spleen and spite of a vindictive old man or old woman?"
Agelastes made a singular pause in this part of his discourse. A mirrorof considerable size hung in the apartment, so that the philosophercould see in its reflection the figure of Brenhilda, and remark thechange of her countenance, though she had averted her face from him inhatred of the doctrines which he promulgated. On this glass thephilosopher had his eyes naturally fixed, and he was confounded atperceiving a figure glide from behind the shadow of a curtain, andglare at him with the supposed mien and expression of the Satan ofmonkish mythology, or a satyr of the heathen age.
"Man!" said Brenhilda, whose attention was attracted by thisextraordinary apparition, as it seemed, of the fiend, "have thy wickedwords, and still more wicked thoughts, brought the devil amongst us? Ifso, dismiss him instantly, else, by Our Lady of the Broken Lances! thoushalt know better than at present, what is the temper of a Frankishmaiden, when in presence of the fiend himself, and those who pretendskill to raise him! I wish not to enter into a contest unlesscompelled; but if I am obliged to join battle with an enemy soho
rrible, believe me, no one shall say that Brenildha feared him."
Agelastes, after looking with surprise and horror at the figure asreflected in the glass, turned back his head to examine the substance,of which the reflection was so strange. The object, however, haddisappeared behind the curtain, under which it probably lay hid, and itwas after a minute or two that the half-gibing, half-scowlingcountenance showed itself again in the same position in the mirror.
"By the gods!" said Agelastes--
"In whom but now," said the Countess, "you professed unbelief."
"By the gods!" repeated Agelastes, in part recovering himself, "it isSylvan! that singular mockery of humanity, who was said to have beenbrought from Taprobana. I warrant he also believes in his jolly godPan, or the veteran Sylvanus. He is to the uninitiated a creature whoseappearance is full of terrors, but he shrinks before the philosopherlike ignorance before knowledge." So saying, he with one hand pulleddown the curtain, under which the animal had nestled itself when itentered from the garden-window of the pavilion, and with the other, inwhich he had a staff uplifted, threatened to chastise the creature,with the words,--"How now, Sylvanus! what insolence is this?--To yourplace!"
As, in uttering these words, he struck the animal, the blow unluckilylighted upon his wounded hand, and recalled its bitter smart. The wildtemper of the creature returned, unsubdued for the moment by any awe ofman; uttering a fierce, and, at the same time, stifled cry, it flew onthe philosopher, and clasped its strong and sinewy arms about histhroat with the utmost fury. The old man twisted and struggled todeliver himself from the creature's grasp, but in vain. Sylvan kepthold of his prize, compressed his sinewy arms, and abode by his purposeof not quitting his hold of the philosopher's throat till he hadbreathed his last. Two more bitter yells, accompanied each with adesperate contortion of the countenance, and squeeze of the hands,concluded, in less than five minutes, the dreadful strife. Agelasteslay dead upon the ground, and his assassin Sylvan, springing from thebody as if terrified and alarmed at what he had done, made his escapeby the window. The Countess stood in astonishment, not knowing exactlywhether she had witnessed a supernatural display of the judgment ofHeaven, or an instance of its vengeance by mere mortal means. Her newattendant Vexhelia was no less astonished, though her acquaintance withthe animal was considerably more intimate.
"Lady," she said, "that gigantic creature is an animal of greatstrength, resembling mankind in form, but huge in its size, and,encouraged by its immense power, sometimes malevolent in itsintercourse with mortals. I have heard the Varangians often talk of itas belonging to the Imperial museum. It is fitting we remove the bodyof this unhappy man, and hide it in a plot of shrubbery in the garden.It is not likely that he will be missed to-night, and to-morrow therewill be other matter astir, which will probably prevent much enquiryabout him." The Countess Brenhilda assented, for she was not one ofthose timorous females to whom the countenances of the dead are objectsof terror.
Trusting to the parole which she had given, Agelastes had permitted theCountess and her attendant the freedom of his gardens, of that part atleast adjacent to the pavilion. They therefore were in little risk ofinterruption as they bore forth the dead body between them, and withoutmuch trouble disposed of it in the thickest part of one of the bosquetswith which the garden was studded.
As they returned to their place of abode or confinement, the Countess,half speaking to herself, half addressing Vexhelia, said, "I am sorryfor this; not that the infamous wretch did not deserve the fullpunishment of Heaven coming upon him in the very moment of blasphemyand infidelity, but because the courage and truth of the unfortunateBrenhilda may be brought into suspicion, as his slaughter took placewhen he was alone with her and her attendant, and as no one was witnessof the singular manner in which the old blasphemer met his end.--Thouknowest," she added, addressing herself to Heaven--"thou! blessed Ladyof the Broken Lances, the protectress both of Brenhilda and herhusband, well knowest, that whatever faults may be mine, I am free fromthe slightest suspicion of treachery; and into thy hands I put mycause, with a perfect reliance upon thy wisdom and bounty to bearevidence in my favour." So saying, they returned to the lodge unseen,and with pious and submissive prayers, the Countess closed thateventful evening.