The Complete Northanger Horrid Novel Collection (9 Books of Gothic Romance and Horror)

by Eliza Parsons

  "A few hours afterwards I set out from the Venetian dominions, and in little more than a week I arrived in Paris, the place where I had determined to seek shelter from the laws of Venice, as I little doubted, from the number of spies I well knew to be employed by that state, I should soon be discovered to be the perpetrator of the deed on which I shuddered to reflect.

  "On the day after my arrival, I wrote to count Arieno to inform him of the place of my retreat; I thought it unnecessary to add that an immediate remittance would be welcome to me, as he well knew that I had taken with me only what cash I happened to have in my possession at the time of my departure, and a few trinkets of small value.

  "In about three weeks I received from him a letter, the purport of which, to my great consternation, and, I blush to add, astonishment, knowing what I already did of his infamous character, was nearly in the following words:—That the state had gained information of my being the assassin of the senator's son, and had accordingly confiscated such of my property as was publicly known to be mine; that he lamented this discovery having so early taken place, as it would inevitably prevent his being to me the friend he had pledged himself to be; for that, as a Venetian senator, he should incur the fear of death, by being known to assist any man now lying under the penalty of its laws; and could accordingly only send me his thanks for having, by the deed that had passed between us on the evening of my leaving Venice, given him the power of profiting by a sum of money which could never again on any terms be mine, and which would otherwise have fallen to the use of the state.

  "'Upright senator!' I exclaimed, on perusing this infernal epistle; 'cautious in observing the outward forms of that state that he hesitates not privately to plunder!'—Oh! my child, how many villains wear the mask of worth like him, and, with the garb of office, cover a heart which knows no interest but its own; and contemplates no crime, of which an accumulation of its private wealth and pride will not seem to authorise the performance!"

  The count paused a moment, then continued—"The keen sense of my own feelings, on a revisal of the villainy that had been practised against me, may perhaps have tempted me to draw too harsh a stricture on mankind in general: but surely I cannot be wrong in asserting, that he who will act villainously in the transactions of private life, cannot lay aside his nature when he acts for the public.

  "To what a situation was I now reduced! my whole property consisting of only fifteen zechins, and two rings of small value, without the possible means of recovering what had so basely been wrested from me, or of seeking redress from him who had so deeply injured me, without exposing myself to the greatest of dangers;—in a city where I was an entire stranger; without a friend to whom I could apply for assistance; without an acquaintance to whose conversation I could fly for a transitory relief of my painful feelings, and without a cheerful thought that would afford me a momentary consolation within my own breast!

  "My first step, however, was to avoid detection; as I knew not what power the state of Venice might have of demanding my person, should my retreat be discovered; and sometimes feared that Arieno, to insure to himself the possession of my property, might give information to the state whither I was fled, and have me apprehended, that, by my death, all doubts of my ever regaining what was lawfully mine, might be done away; but then again I considered, that he would be well aware, that, in case of such an accusation from him, revenge would prompt me to declare the state, rather than him, the possessor of that property I was myself doomed to forego; and this quieted my fears of any farther molestation from him: but, at all events, judging it to my advantage to obscure myself as much as possible, I changed my habit to that of the country I was now in, and called myself Montville, resolving still to remain in Paris, as the place where I was most likely to escape observation, well knowing that I should be most free from observation in the midst of a crowd.

  "I had taken a lodging in an obscure part of the city; and my only amusement was the frequenting of a tavern in the neighbourhood, much resorted to by young men, who, though perhaps not in the most exalted stations of life, were however men of fashion and fortune.

  "Every evening they met, in a greater or smaller number, at this house, and draughts were their entertainment: as a stranger, I had been generally noticed by them, and solicited to play; I knew myself to be an adept in the game, and thus readily accepted their invitation. The sums they staked were not large, or I could not have hazarded an engagement. I found some my equals in play; and when I engaged with these, good and bad fortune were alternately mine; but as my play was far superior to the generality of those who engaged with me, and as my circumstances, as I was sometimes tempted to think, induced me to place more attention on my game than my adversary usually gave to his, I was commonly, at the hour of retiring, the winner of a trifling sum; a circumstance which in my situation I considered of the most consolatory and promising nature: my precarious situation had taught me, hard as the reverse was, to be an economist; and in the course of six months I had collected nearly fifty louis-d'ors, and I now began to turn my thoughts to a subject to which they had before been directed; namely, whether I should pursue any means of discovering the retreat of your mother, and of revenging myself on the destroyer of my peace.

  "After many debates with my own heart, I drew this conclusion:—'Will the death of count Cohenburg restore my peace?—No!—Will it not add guilt to hands already too deeply imbrued in blood?—It will!—Can I hope that my wife will be to me what she ought to be?—No!—Why then seek after her who shuns me, and add another sting to an already wounded conscience, by the murder of one whose death cannot restore my lost tranquillity?'

  "Having resolved that it behoved me to forget an object lately so dear to me, my mind became more calm; for, when an opinion is once firmly adopted, every subsequent thought seems to strengthen the justness of that opinion.

  "When my thoughts at times did turn back to your mother, amidst the censures my injuries raised against her in my heart, I still felt a portion of pity for one who had been driven to despair by the cruelty of an unfeeling parent.—For that parent, when my mind reverted to him, and too often, alas! it did, I felt the abhorrence I should have done against a demon.—'Is it possible,' I would cry, 'the earth can contain a monster capable of his accumulated crimes?—the sacrificer of an only child to his avarice!—the lurer of a youth into a marriage into which he had deceived his senses!—the instigator of that youth, when become his daughter's husband, to murder him who ought to have possessed her hand!—the ravisher of that youth's property, by the abuse of that faith which can alone bind man to man; and by the same act, the plunderer of that state, whose rights he had pledged his most solemn vow and life to defend!'"

  CHAPTER XV

  What equal torment to the griefe of minde,

  And pyning anguish hid in gentle heart,

  That inly feeds itself with thoughts unkinde,

  And nourisheth her own consuming smart?

  -SPENCER

  Count Byroff was now interrupted by the entrance of the old shepherd, whose son having just returned from milking, the good man had brought the travellers a bowl of warm milk. The count commended his attention, and Lauretta drying those tears which had been drawn into her eyes by her sympathy in the misfortunes of him who had given her being, drank of the milk, and found herself much refreshed by it; the count did the same; and the peasant retiring well pleased at the satisfaction expressed by his guests in their acknowledgments of his kindness, count Byroff thus went on.

  "I had resided nearly two years in Paris, when, returning one day from walking in the suburbs of the city, two men, whom I had for some time perceived to be observing me, followed me into the house where I lodged, and introduced themselves into my apartment. On their entrance I raised a look at them which as plainly inquired their business with me, as if I had demanded it in open words. 'You must go with us, Monsieur, if you please:' said one of them.—'Whither?' I instantly asked.—The man who had before spoken repli
ed to my question, by drawing from his pocket a paper sealed at one corner, which he held out to my view with one hand, whilst he pointed to it with the other. On seeing the paper, it immediately flashed upon my mind that these men were emissaries sent in pursuit of me from the state of Venice; but guess my astonishment when I learnt that the fatal paper was a lettre de cachet to convey me to the Bastile.

  "The two men hurried me into a carriage, the blinds of which were drawn up: we rolled rapidly through the streets, and in a short time I felt myself passing over the draw-bridge which leads to the mansion of wanton tyranny and despair.

  "When the carriage stopped, I was taken from it by two men whose countenances I had not before beheld, and conducted through a paved court bounded by a lofty wall, into the first hall of that building, the bare glimpse of whose stubborn walls had so lately frozen my blood. Alas! how far was I then from conjecturing I was myself about to pine in solitude within them.

  "Through two other halls and many intricate passages, my guards conducted me, till, arrived at an iron door which was nearly at the end of a long gallery terminated by a narrow window, through which the iron bars, fastened across it, suffered but a small portion of light to enter, they stopped; and the door being unlocked by a person who had met us in the second hall, and from thence preceded us, and whom I afterwards found to be the governor, I was commanded to enter, and the door was locked upon me; a small square room presented itself to my sight; a broken table, a stool, a mattress, and a quilt, were its only furniture: the walls, which had been of plaster, were mouldering away in many parts, and in others being covered with a green scurf, confirmed me in the dampness of the place, which the chill that had seized me on entering it, had first caused me to remark.

  "The stillness of the scene now gave me room for reflection on my situation; I could form no conjecture for the cause of my present confinement, except that of the state of Venice having found a power of arresting my person for a crime committed within its dominions, even after I had quitted them; but this supposition appeared so repugnant to the idea that I had always been taught to entertain that the authority of every state was bounded by the limits of its territories, that I could not reconcile it to my mind, though still I could discern not even the shadow of any other cause for my present confinement.

  "I well knew on how slight and even falsely grounded suspicions of acting against the government, many unhappy men had been condemned to waste away a life of solitude and misery within the dreary and unrelenting walls within which I was now a prisoner; but I was so conscious that the little interest I had felt in the public affairs of a kingdom where I was an entire stranger, had led me still less ever to join in a conversation of which they had been the topic, that I felt too secure in my innocence on that point, to give it a second thought connected with my present confinement.

  "For some hours I wandered about my prison in that state of suspense which is perhaps the most acute suffering the mind can undergo; towards evening a small portion of bread and water was brought me by a man who appeared to be an inferior jailer, and who immediately left my apartment on having placed my scanty pittance on the table.

  "As night shut in, the horrors of my situation seemed to accumulate: there was only one window in my prison, and it was strongly grated with iron bars; I placed the stool under it, and having got upon it, I perceived that the window looked into a court, similar to the one through which I had passed when conducting to my prison.

  "Night passed in intervals of sleeping and waking, and morning brought back my jailer with another scanty portion of the same fare that had been brought me by him the preceding evening.

  "Thus passed on three days without any interruption of my sorrows or solitude, save the morning and evening visits of my jailer: for the first two days I had put to him many question relative to my situation; but as his sole answer had been a shake of the head, sometimes accompanied by a sour smile, I desisted from my inquiries.

  "On the fourth morning the governor, accompanied by two guards, entered my prison. 'You must take the air to-day,' he said, 'or your health will be injured by your confinement.' The guards took me between them, and followed him out of the apartment into the gallery; he descended the first flight of steps, crossed a short passage, and then ascending a few stone stairs, at the top of which was an iron door, he opened it, and I was led by my guards upon a platform of about twelve feet square, but so closely surrounded by other parts of the building, that no object except the sky was discernible from it.

  "The guards stationed themselves one on each side of the door; the governor had gained the middle of the platform: I went up to him, and besought him to inform me of the reasons of my confinement; he refused to answer me, and immediately left the platform. The guards were left with me, and I tried to draw them into conversation, but my efforts were ineffectual. In about half an hour the governor again appeared on the platform, and I was immediately re-conducted to my prison in the same manner as I had been led from it.

  "Every fourth day I was led out to take the air and exercise allotted to me; and with this sole interruption of my solitude, crept on seven weary months.

  "One morning about this time my prison-door was opened, and the governor and two of his guards entered, not a little to my surprise, as I had visited the platform the day before; the guards took me between them, and following the governor as on other occasions, conducted me into a large hall, where sat at the upper end of the table a man, who, I was given to understand, was the lieutenant de police, and below him sat two other persons. I was placed at the lower end of the table; an oath that I should deliver only the truth was administered to me by the secretary; and the lieutenant then said to me, 'You call yourself, Montville?'

  "'I do.'

  "'Is it your real name?'

  "I hesitated to answer; and he continued, 'Remember you are on oath. Is it your real name? I ask.'

  "'It is not.'

  "'What is your real name?'

  "'I have particular reasons for wishing to conceal it.'

  "'Note that accurately,' said the lieutenant, addressing himself to the secretary; and then said to me, 'Are you a Frenchman?'

  "'No.'

  "'You are an Italian?'

  "'No.'

  "'Do not attempt to deceive me, or it will be the worse for you. You say you are not an Italian?'

  "'I am not.'

  "'But you came from Italy to Paris?'

  "'I did.'

  "'How long have you been in France?'

  "'Twenty-two months, exclusive of the seven I have passed here.'

  "'What brought you to Paris?'

  "'My motive I must decline revealing.'

  "'You know it then to be a criminal one?'

  "'Why should you draw that inference?'

  "'You are to answer, not to question, young man,' said the lieutenant surlily. He whispered to the man who sat by him: they turned over the leaves of a book which lay before them, pointed to different parts of various pages,—again they whispered, and the lieutenant then asked me, 'By what means I was supported?'

  "'Does any one accuse me of gaining my means unjustly?' I said.

  "'I shall not a third time warn you that you are here to answer, and not to question,' said the lieutenant. 'How are you supported?'

  "'I brought money with me from Italy.'

  "After many other questions of a similar nature, and which in the aggregate seemed to me to amount to little, though on some of them the lieutenant had laid great stress, I was remanded to my prison, equally ignorant of the charge on which I was arraigned as when I first entered it.

  "About two months after I was again summoned to appear in the hall as before; the oath was administered as on the preceding occasion, and the lieutenant began by asking me many questions even more trivial than the former ones had been: at length, starting from the train of questions in which he was advancing, he said, 'On your former examination, you confessed yourself, I think, an Italian.'

  "'I
did not.'

  "'You avowed yourself then to be employed by that state?'

  "'I did not.'

  "'You alleged that you were lately come from Italy.'

  "'I did.'

  "'And that your motive for coming hither was a criminal one.'

  "'You drew that inference, but I did not subscribe to it.'

  "'Why did you not confute it by a declaration of the truth?'

  "'May I, before I answer this demand, make one myself?'

  "'You cannot oblige us to answer it, though we can force you to reply to ours.'

  "'Admirable administration of justice!' hung on my tongue: but I stifled my emotion, and said, 'Am I permitted to ask one question?'

  "'Name it.'

  "'On what charge am I here a prisoner?'

  "The lieutenant de police, and the man on his right hand, whispered together some minutes, and the lieutenant then said, 'You stand here arraigned of being employed by a foreign power as a spy upon this government.'

  "'By all my hopes of heaven the accusation is falsely founded,' I cried.

  "'Where are your proofs?'

  "'You shall have them.'

  "The lieutenant smiled contemptuously.

  "The innocence of my heart, however, in regard to the accusation now supporting against me, made me view his supercilious countenance with indifference; and knowing myself now not to be retained at the instigation of the state of Venice, I comparatively felt no fear in confessing a crime committed against it, when I hoped by so doing to free myself from my present alarming situation; and I immediately related such parts of my story as tended to show my motive for having taken up my abode in Paris.

  "When I had concluded my story—'We will inquire into the truth of this,' said the lieutenant; and, making a signal to the guards, I was taken back to my prison.

  "For some time I felt myself comparatively happy, as I did not doubt that enlargement must be the result of the promised inquiry; but as the mind, in reflecting on any agitated subject, leans alternately to the side of hope and fear, I began to apprehend, that the state of Venice, should it, by means of the lieutenant's inquiries concerning me, learn my present situation, might find means, as I was in prison, of having me retained there for the crime I had really committed, though I might be absolved of that under which I was now lying falsely accused.