"He asked my confession. A seclusion of nearly eleven years from the world could have added no sin of magnitude to my account of former misdeeds, and of them I had made a confession on the very morning on which I had first been brought to the Bastile; thus this task was quickly ended. He then again ordered me to kneel, and having prayed by me full two hours, he gave me his blessing, and departed.
"In a few minutes the governor, attended by two guards, and the young man in whom my last and only hope rested, entered.
"Obeying the governor's orders, the young man poured from a phial which he had brought in his hand, a thick black liquor into a small basin, which the governor then took, and holding it out to me, commanded me to drink it, the two guards meanwhile levelling their bayonets at my breast, as a tacit threat in case of my refusing the draught.
"I crossed myself, and drank; the basin fell from my hand, and I raised my eyes in search of my friend: he had left the prison; the governor made a signal to the guards; they went out; he followed them; and I heard him turn the lock upon me.
"What a moment of horror was this! Uncertain whether or not I had swallowed the draught of death: if I had, how near the brink of eternity was I now standing!—if I had not, how dreadful a fate might await both me and the young man, should his stratagem fail!
"Within the course of an hour a faint sickness seized me. I lay down upon my mattress, and pulled the blanket over me; an icy coldness ran through my veins, and big drops of perspiration started on my forehead: in a short time a heaviness, which I could not struggle against, weighed down my eye-lids, and in less than two hours after my swallowing the draught, I sunk into what I then thought the sleep of death!"
Thus far had count Byroff proceeded in his narrative when the shepherd entering the room, informed him, that two men, who had seen his horse in the stable, had declared they knew it, and insisted on coming into the cottage in search of him, and that his son was then endeavouring to prevent their entrance.
The count raised his eyes in silence to Lauretta; they betrayed the wildest agitation and fear; Lauretta rose from her seat, and threw herself upon her father's neck, and at the same instant the voices of Theodore and Kroonzer were heard by them in the adjoining apartment.
Count Byroff started up, and snatching his dagger from his side, prepared himself to meet their entrance into the chamber.
The chevalier was the first that appeared; the count made a dart at him, which he resisting, threw the count upon the floor, and treading on him with his left foot, drew his sword, while he muttered curses on him for a villain and a traitor.
Lauretta, instigated by the scene before her, caught his arm, and falling on her knees by the side of her father's body, she exclaimed, "Here, in this bosom sheath thy sword; but spare, oh spare my father!"
Count Byroff's prayers and struggles confirmed Theodore that Lauretta had truly named him her parent; and a momentary surprise suspended his power of action. This count Byroff perceived, and availing himself of the astonishment of his antagonist, by an instantaneous effort raised himself again on his feet, and dropping his dagger, made himself master of the sword Theodore had just drawn. Kroonzer immediately drew his weapon, and springing forward, presented himself to oppose the count in defence of the chevalier, whilst Lauretta, regardless of herself, her thoughts centred only in her father's safety, and almost made frantic by the danger in which she now beheld him, ran without the cottage, piercing the air with her cries and calls for assistance.
Theodore was in an instant at her heels; and then first recollecting her own danger, on beholding herself so closely pursued by him she most dreaded, she flew to the young cottager who was standing without the cottage door, and clasping his hand, she cried out, "Oh! save me from him, I conjure you!"
The lad, who was still standing with the oaken staff in his hand, with which he had endeavoured to repulse the entrance of the chevalier and his accomplice, and still panting from the unequal combat he had sustained, moved either by the impulse of humanity, or fired by the beauty of his interesting suppliant, flew upon Theodore with the desperation a wolf flies to the combat when attacked by a lion, and conscious that he must either conquer or die.
For some moments the struggle was maintained with equal valour and dexterity; but at length the superior strength of the chevalier prevailing over that of his antagonist, Lauretta beheld her champion levelled with the ground; again she shrieked, and again she attempted to fly, but her trembling limbs could no longer support her, and she sunk on the earth in a swoon.
END OF VOLUME TWO
VOLUME III
CHAPTER XVIII
My soul's delight, my utmost joy, my husband!
I feel once more his panting bosom beat;
Once more I hold him in my eager arms,
Behold his face, and lose my soul in rapture.
Essex. Transporting bliss! my richest, dearest treasure!
My mourning turtle, my long absent peace,
Oh come yet nearer, nearer to my heart!
My raptured soul springs forward to receive thee;
Thou heav'n on earth, thou balm of all my woe.
-THE EARL OF ESSEX
A fervent kiss, imprinted on her cold lips, recalled Lauretta into existence, and she opened her eyes in the wildest apprehension: but oh! what a glow of mingled ecstasy and delight warmed her frozen blood, when she perceived that it was Alphonsus, her beloved Alphonsus, who had bestowed the kiss that had awakened her from her trance.
In an unbounded transport of joy she embraced him as he stood by her side; then springing from the bed on which she had been laid, she flew to meet the embrace of her father, and then again sunk on the neck of her Alphonsus.
When their mutual effusions of joy gave room for an explanation on the part of count Byroff, Lauretta learnt from the lips of her father, whom it had been her first care to teach Alphonsus to know as such, that she was still in the shepherd's cottage, that Kroonzer had been put to flight by the united efforts of her father and the peasant, and that the chevalier had been killed by a blow from the hand of her husband, with the oaken staff which he had first obtained from the young peasant when he overcame him, and which Alphonsus had wrested from him.
Alphonsus then briefly informed Lauretta of the manner in which he had early that morning left Smaldart castle, and by the most fortunate chance had arrived to her rescue at the moment she was on the point of falling a prey to the villainy of Theodore.
Lauretta shuddered at the idea of the danger she had so unexpectedly escaped, and again clasped to her breast the author of her preservation: he returned her embrace with all the fervor of that warm affection he bore her, and then turning to count Byroff, he said, "Advise me, I beseech you, what course to follow, whither to bend my steps."
"What opposes your now returning to your humble dwelling immediately?" asked the count.
"To meet the baron Smaldart?" rejoined Alphonsus.
"The law is on your side:" resumed count Byroff.
"I should feel less reluctance to behold him if it were against me;" replied Alphonsus. "I cannot bear to meet the man I have so deeply wounded, when I know him void of the means of redress.—He has ever considered Theodore with the partiality of a father, and consequently must have viewed the enormity of his crimes with a softening eye; can he then do otherwise than detest the man who has deprived him of the darling of his heart?—I am convinced I have not acted wrongly: thus I cannot submit to sue for his forgiveness; and the compassion I feel for the grief I shall have excited in the breast of one who has behaved towards me with the kindness I have experienced from the baron Smaldart, commands me not to return to a spot where my presence might seem a triumph over the sorrow I had occasioned: no! I will seek some distant asylum, where, living forgotten, I shall not renew his misery."
"From a selfish motive," said count Byroff, "I warmly subscribe to your idea of leaving this part of the empire; for, having been seen by Kroonzer, it is absolutely necessary for the preserv
ation of my life, that I should fly immediately from hence; thus, should you resolve to return to your late dwelling, I must forego the society of my child: should you remove to some distant spot, I may still be your companion."
The happiness of his Lauretta was at all times the first consideration of Alphonsus; and as he now read speakingly in her blue eyes, her dislike to her separation from her father, he instantly declared that he was resolved on not returning to the vicinity of Smaldart castle, and prepared to travel in any direction the count should dictate as most likely to ensure his safety.
Mutual satisfaction beamed in the eyes of the count and Lauretta, at this declaration of Alphonsus; and the count pressed that they might set out immediately.
In a few minutes the horses were prepared by the peasant, whom count Byroff having liberally rewarded for his exertions, and, at the instigation of Alphonsus, commanded him to send a messenger to Smaldart castle, with a full and exact account of the transactions of the morning, they departed, bending their course, in compliance with the directions of the count, towards the north.
Having stopped during the day no longer than was absolutely necessary for the refreshment of themselves and their horses, they arrived towards night at a little inn, where count Byroff said he trusted himself to be in safety.
Immediately on their being left alone in an apartment of the inn, Lauretta asked of her father the conclusion of his history; eager to learn the mystery of the situation in which she had at first seen him, and the cause of the danger he had so strongly expressed of being overtaken during the course of their day's journey.
"My child," answered count Byroff, "I confess that your curiosity has been strongly excited, but weightier considerations must supersede its gratification; we must look forward to the necessities of the future, ere we allow ourselves leisure to indulge in the remembrance of the past." Then addressing himself to Alphonsus, "Have you formed any plan of future life?" he asked.
Alphonsus answered, not.
After a pause, count Byroff continued, "You have appeared thoughtful during our journey: I conjectured you might have been deliberating on some measures which you were undecided whether or not to adopt."
"You conjectured rightly," replied Alphonsus, "in thinking my mind thus employed."
"What were your thoughts?"
"I fear you will not approve them; however, be assured I will do nothing without the concurrence of yourself and my Lauretta."
Count Byroff besought him to proceed.
"My Lauretta," he continued, "has doubtless related to you the ambiguous and sorrowful event which marks my early life?"
"She has."
"I cannot die happy, unless I solve the mystery by which I am driven a wanderer upon the world; its recollection clouds every moment of my existence, and renders me, in the summer of life, a gloomy and thoughtful companion to her, who, knowing the cause of my melancholy, bears, with an angel-like patience, the sour effects it will at times, in spite of my endeavours to coerce them, produce in me. Were it not better at once to end these agonising doubts, to visit the neighbourhood of Cohenburg castle, and, by discovering if possible the truth, learn at once my future doom?"
"It is a point," returned count Byroff, "whereon I cannot pretend to advise you; your sole guide must be the impulse of your own heart."
"But," said Lauretta, "whence is the intelligence you wish to procure to be gained?—The country round Cohenburg is doubtless unacquainted with the truth, or the young miner, the son of one of your father's vassals, must have known it:—your uncle, he informed you, was gone, no one knew whither, and your mother dead!"
"He said the same of me," returned Alphonsus; "thus his information in this point sways me not.—But he pronounced the castle to be deserted; this was a matter in which he could not be deceived; thus if I visit it secretly, I can offend no one by so doing; and I will guard against wounding my conscience by the relation of any discovery I may there make, should its secrecy seem to be required of me by the injunctions laid on me by my mother: and Oh! I have for some time laboured with an indescribable prepossession that I shall gain knowledge of moment, if I do visit it."
"You are then resolved?" said count Byroff.
"I have nothing wanting to complete my resolution, since you and my Lauretta do not seem to oppose it, but the means of accomplishing my journey."
"I have that in my possession," replied the count, "which, with frugality, will yet support us many weeks."
"Then to-morrow, with the dawn, I will once more turn my steps towards my native soil," said Alphonsus.
The remainder of the evening was spent by them in concerting the route they should travel; and having planned it to their mutual satisfaction, they at an early hour retired to rest.
Reflection on what might be the event of a long-wished, and at length projected, undertaking, suffered Alphonsus to sleep but little, and he rose with the dawn to awake his fellow-traveller: the count instantly obeyed his summons, and at sunrise they set forward on their journey.
As they proceeded, count Byroff lightened the way by again commencing the narrative of his life, in complaisance to the curiosity of Alphonsus; and being arrived at the period to which he had deduced his story, when in the shepherd's cottage he had related it to Lauretta, he thus went on.
"When I had recovered from the influence of the draught I had taken, which had been only a sleeping potion of a very strong nature, the first object on which I opened my eyes, was a black man sitting by my side, in a dry ditch, under the shade of a hedge; the time was twilight in the evening, and being too dusk for me accurately to discern his features, I perceived not, until he spoke, that my companion was the young jailer, with a new countenance: and when I did know him, I was some moments at a loss whether to express my astonishment first, at his change of colour, or my own extraordinary appearance, for I found myself habited in the garments of a French woman of mean rank.
"'Ah, monsieur!' cried he immediately on beholding me open my eyes, 'how glad am I to see you awake again, and out of that vile prison!—Don't you know me, monsieur?' continued he, observing that my eyes were fixed on him in doubt.
"'I think I do now,' I returned, after having been convinced by his voice who he was: 'but I hardly know myself.'
"'I thought how it would be when you awoke,' replied he; 'I contrived these disguises that we might pass unnoticed as beggars;—but here, Monsieur, take a sup of wine, and eat a bit of bread,' said he, pulling a flask and a crust from his pocket, 'and refresh yourself; for you must be faint with so long fasting.'
"I readily accepted his offer; and while the flask was at my mouth, he exclaimed, 'Dieu merci, that we are out of that horrid place!'
"'Why, you were not a prisoner?' I said.
"'Oh no, monsieur; but I felt so much for the poor creatures that were, that I could not bear to see them suffer any longer.—But, however, we are out now, and I hope for ever:—woe be to us if we get in again!'
"'But how did we get out, my good fellow?—How did you contrive our escape?' I asked.
"'I'll tell you another time, monsieur: we must not talk about it any more now, for fear we should be overheard:—Jacques Perlet will tell you all about it another time.—Oh, but, monsieur, you must not call me Jacques now, but some other name, such as blacks go by:—what shall it be, monsieur?'
"'Shall it be Caesar?' I replied.
"'Aye, monsieur,' said he, 'as well as any.—Now, monsieur, please to remember that, for carrying on my plan, you must, if you please, pretend to be my wife; your features are very delicate, and you may easily pass for a woman; and leave the rest to Jac—Caesar I mean, monsieur."
"I readily agreed to any plan of security in my present situation; and Jacques then told me we must now walk forwards to a small auberge, which he said he knew stood rather sequestered from the road, and where we were to pass the night.
"In our way, I asked him how far we were from Paris.
"'Oh, nine or ten lieues, monsieur, ' answe
red he.
"'By what means did we perform the journey?'
"'It is so dark, monsieur,' said he, 'that I can't see whether any body is near us or not;—I durst not tell you any thing till by and by.'
"I checked my curiosity, conscious how judiciously my guide was acting; and we arrived within sight of the little inn in silence.
"According to the directions of Jacques, I asked in French for a mean supper and bed, while my companion only occasionally spoke in the vitiated manner in which negroes usually pronounce a language which they have no opportunity of learning but by the ear.
"I was rejoiced to perceive that our stratagem passed unsuspected; and when we retired to bed, which we did in the characters of husband and wife, the better to conceal our real ones, Jacques desired me to sit down, saying he must have a little chat with me before we went to bed, for his tongue was burning to tell me how nicely he had managed our escape.
"I was, as you may suppose, anxious to learn how my salvation from death had been effected during the time of my insensibility; and placing myself on the foot of the bed, I desired him to begin; he seated himself on the ground by my side, and leaning his arm upon the bed, spoke thus:
"'In the first place, monsieur, I must tell you a little about who I am, that you may the better understand my reasons for what I have done.—My father, monsieur, was a very honest savetier in the fauxbourg St. Antoine, and at one time earned a very comfortable living; but misfortunes will happen to the best of people, and one mishap or another had obliged him to borrow small sums of money from several of his neighbours, chiefly to defray the expenses of my mother's illness and funeral, all which he would honestly have repaid, I am sure, if he had lived; but he died, poor man, soon after, and left me without a friend in the world, except my uncle Perlet, the old jailer at the Bastile, and a brother we had none of us heard of for many years.
The Complete Northanger Horrid Novel Collection (9 Books of Gothic Romance and Horror) Page 270
