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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9770.txt b/9770.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb80aff --- /dev/null +++ b/9770.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1654 @@ +Project Gutenberg EBook, Alice, or The Mysteries, by Lytton, Book VIII +#210 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: Alice, or The Mysteries, Book VIII + +Author: Edward Bulwer Lytton + +Release Date: January 2006 [EBook #9770] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 15, 2003] + + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ALICE, BY LYTTON, BOOK VIII *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny; and by David Widger + + + +Corrected and updated text and HTML PG Editions of the complete +11 volume set may be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9774/9774.txt + +https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9774/9774-h/9774-h.htm + + + + + +BOOK VIII. + + O Fate! O Heaven!--what have ye then decreed? + SOPHOCLES: _OEd. Tyr._ 738. + + "Insolent pride . . . + . . . . . . + The topmost crag of the great precipice + Surmounts--to rush to ruin." + _Ibid._ 874. + + + +CHAPTER I. + + . . . SHE is young, wise, fair, + In these to Nature she's immediate heir. + . . . . . . + . . . Honours best thrive + When rather from our acts we them derive + Than our foregoers!--_All's Well that Ends Well_. + + +LETTER FROM ERNEST MALTRAVERS TO THE HON. FREDERICK CLEVELAND. + + +EVELYN is free; she is in Paris; I have seen her,--I see her daily! + +How true it is that we cannot make a philosophy of indifference! The +affections are stronger than all our reasonings. We must take them into +our alliance, or they will destroy all our theories of self-government. +Such fools of fate are we, passing from system to system, from scheme to +scheme, vainly seeking to shut out passion and sorrow-forgetting that +they are born within us--and return to the soul as the seasons to the +earth! Yet,--years, many years ago, when I first looked gravely into my +own nature and being here, when I first awakened to the dignity and +solemn responsibilities of human life, I had resolved to tame and curb +myself into a thing of rule and measure. Bearing within me the wound +scarred over but never healed, the consciousness of wrong to the heart +that had leaned upon me, haunted by the memory of my lost Alice, I +shuddered at new affections bequeathing new griefs. Wrapped in a haughty +egotism, I wished not to extend my empire over a wider circuit than my +own intellect and passions. I turned from the trader-covetousness of +bliss, that would freight the wealth of life upon barks exposed to every +wind upon the seas of Fate; I was contented with the hope to pass life +alone, honoured, though unloved. Slowly and reluctantly I yielded to the +fascinations of Florence Lascelles. The hour that sealed the compact +between us was one of regret and alarm. In vain I sought to deceive +myself,--I felt that I did not love. And then I imagined that Love was +no longer in my nature,--that I had exhausted its treasures before my +time, and left my heart a bankrupt. Not till the last--not till that +glorious soul broke out in all its brightness the nearer it approached +the source to which it has returned--did I feel of what tenderness she +was worthy and I was capable. She died, and the world was darkened! +Energy, ambition, my former aims and objects, were all sacrificed at her +tomb. But amidst ruins and through the darkness, my soul yet supported +me; I could no longer hope, but I could endure. I was resolved that I +would not be subdued, and that the world should not hear me groan. +Amidst strange and far-distant scenes, amidst hordes to whom my very +language was unknown, in wastes and forests, which the step of civilized +man, with his sorrows and his dreams, had never trodden, I wrestled with +my soul, as the patriarch of old wrestled with the angel,--and the angel +was at last the victor! You do not mistake me: you know that it was not +the death of Florence alone that worked in me that awful revolution; but +with that death the last glory fled from the face of things that had +seemed to me beautiful of old. Hers was a love that accompanied and +dignified the schemes and aspirations of manhood,--a love that was an +incarnation of ambition itself; and all the evils and disappointments +that belong to ambition seemed to crowd around my heart like vultures to +a feast allured and invited by the dead. But this at length was over; +the barbarous state restored me to the civilized. I returned to my +equals, prepared no more to be an actor in the strife, but a calm +spectator of the turbulent arena. I once more laid my head beneath the +roof of my fathers; and if without any clear and definite object, I at +least hoped to find amidst "my old hereditary trees" the charm of +contemplation and repose. And scarce--in the first hours of my +arrival--had I indulged that dream, when a fair face, a sweet voice, that +had once before left deep and unobliterated impressions on my heart, +scattered all my philosophy to the winds. I saw Evelyn! and if ever +there was love at first sight, it was that which I felt for her: I lived +in her presence, and forgot the Future! Or, rather, I was with the +Past,--in the bowers of my springtide of life and hope! It was an +after-birth of youth--my love for that young heart! + +It is, indeed, only in maturity that we know how lovely were our earliest +years! What depth of wisdom in the old Greek myth, that allotted Hebe as +the prize to the god who had been the arch-labourer of life! and whom the +satiety of all that results from experience had made enamoured of all +that belongs to the Hopeful and the New! + +This enchanting child, this delightful Evelyn, this ray of undreamed of +sunshine, smiled away all my palaces of ice. I loved, Cleveland,--I +loved more ardently, more passionately, more wildly than ever I did of +old! But suddenly I learned that she was affianced to another, and felt +that it was not for me to question, to seek the annulment of the bond. I +had been unworthy to love Evelyn if I had not loved honour more! I fled +from her presence, honestly and resolutely; I sought to conquer a +forbidden passion; I believed that I had not won affection in return; I +believed, from certain expressions that I overheard Evelyn utter to +another, that her heart as well as her hand was given to Vargrave. I +came hither; you know how sternly and resolutely I strove to eradicate a +weakness that seemed without even the justification of hope! If I +suffered, I betrayed it not. Suddenly Evelyn appeared again before +me!--and suddenly I learned that she was free! Oh, the rapture of that +moment! Could you have seen her bright face, her enchanting smile, when +we met again! Her ingenuous innocence did not conceal her gladness at +seeing me! What hopes broke upon me! Despite the difference of our +years, I think she loves me! that in that love I am about at last to +learn what blessings there are in life. + +Evelyn has the simplicity, the tenderness, of Alice, with the refinement +and culture of Florence herself; not the genius, not the daring spirit, +not the almost fearful brilliancy of that ill-fated being,--but with a +taste as true to the Beautiful, with a soul as sensitive to the Sublime! +In Evelyn's presence I feel a sense of peace, of security, of home! +Happy! thrice happy! he who will take her to his breast! Of late she has +assumed a new charm in my eyes,--a certain pensiveness and abstraction +have succeeded to her wonted gayety. Ah, Love is pensive,--is it not, +Cleveland? How often I ask myself that question! And yet, amidst all my +hopes, there are hours when I tremble and despond! How can that innocent +and joyous spirit sympathize with all that mine has endured and known? +How, even though her imagination be dazzled by some prestige around my +name, how can I believe that I have awakened her heart to that deep and +real love of which it is capable, and which youth excites in youth? When +we meet at her home, or amidst the quiet yet brilliant society which is +gathered round Madame de Ventadour or the Montaignes, with whom she is an +especial favourite; when we converse; when I sit by her, and her soft +eyes meet mine,--I feel not the disparity of years; my heart speaks to +her, and _that_ is youthful still! But in the more gay and crowded +haunts to which her presence allures me, when I see that fairy form +surrounded by those who have not outlived the pleasures that so naturally +dazzle and captivate her, then, indeed, I feel that my tastes, my habits, +my pursuits, belong to another season of life, and ask myself anxiously +if my nature and my years are those that can make _her_ happy? Then, +indeed, I recognize the wide interval that time and trial place between +one whom the world has wearied, and one for whom the world is new. If +she should discover hereafter that youth should love only youth, my +bitterest anguish would be that of remorse! I know how deeply I love by +knowing how immeasurably dearer her happiness is than my own! I will +wait, then, yet a while, I will examine, I will watch well that I do not +deceive myself. As yet I think that I have no rivals whom I need fear: +surrounded as she is by the youngest and the gayest, she still turns with +evident pleasure to me, whom she calls her friend. She will forego the +amusements she most loves for society in which we can converse more at +ease. You remember, for instance, young Legard? He is here; and, before +I met Evelyn, was much at Lady Doltimore's house. I cannot be blind to +his superior advantages of youth and person; and there is something +striking and prepossessing in the gentle yet manly frankness of his +manner,--and yet no fear of his rivalship ever haunts me. True, that of +late he has been little in Evelyn's society; nor do I think, in the +frivolity of his pursuits, he can have educated his mind to appreciate +Evelyn, or be possessed of those qualities which would render him worthy +of her. But there is something good in the young man, despite his +foibles,--something that wins upon me; and you will smile to learn, that +he has even surprised from _me_--usually so reserved on such matters--the +confession of my attachment and hopes! Evelyn often talks to me of her +mother, and describes her in colours so glowing that I feel the greatest +interest in one who has helped to form so beautiful and pure a mind. Can +you learn who Lady Vargrave was? There is evidently some mystery thrown +over her birth and connections; and, from what I can hear, this arises +from their lowliness. You know that, though I have been accused of +family pride, it is a pride of a peculiar sort. I am proud, not of the +length of a mouldering pedigree, but of some historical quarterings in my +escutcheon,--of some blood of scholars and of heroes that rolls in my +veins; it is the same kind of pride that an Englishman may feel in +belonging to a country that has produced Shakspeare and Bacon. I have +never, I hope, felt the vulgar pride that disdains want of birth in +others; and I care not three straws whether my friend or my wife be +descended from a king or a peasant. It is myself, and not my +connections, who alone can disgrace my lineage; therefore, however humble +Lady Vargrave's parentage, do not scruple to inform me, should you learn +any intelligence that bears upon it. + +I had a conversation last night with Evelyn that delighted me. By some +accident we spoke of Lord Vargrave; and she told me, with an enchanting +candour, of the position in which she stood with him, and the +conscientious and noble scruples she felt as to the enjoyment of a +fortune, which her benefactor and stepfather had evidently intended to be +shared with his nearest relative. In these scruples I cordially +concurred; and if I marry Evelyn, my first care will be to carry them +into effect,--by securing to Vargrave, as far as the law may permit, the +larger part of the income; I should like to say all,--at least till +Evelyn's children would have the right to claim it: a right not to be +enforced during her own, and, therefore, probably not during Vargrave's +life. I own that this would be no sacrifice, for I am proud enough to +recoil from the thought of being indebted for fortune to the woman I +love. It was that kind of pride which gave coldness and constraint to my +regard for Florence; and for the rest, my own property (much increased by +the simplicity of my habits of life for the last few years) will suffice +for all Evelyn or myself could require. Ah, madman that I am! I +calculate already on marriage, even while I have so much cause for +anxiety as to love. But my heart beats,--my heart has grown a dial that +keeps the account of time; by its movements I calculate the moments--in +an hour I shall see her! + +Oh, never, never, in my wildest and earliest visions, could I have +fancied that I should love as I love now! Adieu, my oldest and kindest +friend! If I am happy at last, it will be something to feel that at last +I shall have satisfied your expectations of my youth. + + Affectionately yours, + + E. MALTRAVERS. + + RUE DE -----, PARIS, + January --, 18--. + + + +CHAPTER II. + + IN her youth + There is a prone and speechless dialect-- + Such as moves men.--_Measure for Measure_. + + _Abbess_. Haply in private-- + _Adriana_. And in assemblies too.--_Comedy of Errors_. + +IT was true, as Maltravers had stated, that Legard had of late been +little at Lady Doltimore's, or in the same society as Evelyn. With the +vehemence of an ardent and passionate nature, he yielded to the jealous +rage and grief that devoured him. He saw too clearly, and from the +first, that Maltravers adored Evelyn; and in her familiar kindness of +manner towards him, in the unlimited veneration in which she appeared to +hold his gifts and qualities, he thought that that love might become +reciprocal. He became gloomy and almost morose; he shunned Evelyn, he +forbore to enter into the lists against his rival. Perhaps the +intellectual superiority of Maltravers, the extraordinary conversational +brilliancy that he could display when he pleased, the commanding dignity +of his manners, even the matured authority of his reputation and years, +might have served to awe the hopes, as well as to wound the vanity, of a +man accustomed himself to be the oracle of a circle. These might have +strongly influenced Legard in withdrawing himself from Evelyn's society; +but there was one circumstance, connected with motives much more +generous, that mainly determined his conduct. It happened that +Maltravers, shortly after his first interview with Evelyn, was riding +alone one day in the more sequestered part of the Bois de Boulogne, when +he encountered Legard, also alone, and on horseback. The latter, on +succeeding to his uncle's fortune, had taken care to repay his debt to +Maltravers; he had done so in a short but feeling and grateful letter, +which had been forwarded to Maltravers at Paris, and which pleased and +touched him. Since that time he had taken a liking to the young man, and +now, meeting him at Paris, he sought, to a certain extent, Legard's more +intimate acquaintance. Maltravers was in that happy mood when we are +inclined to be friends with all men. It is true, however, that, though +unknown to himself, that pride of bearing, which often gave to the very +virtues of Maltravers an unamiable aspect, occasionally irritated one who +felt he had incurred to him an obligation of honour and of life never to +be effaced; it made the sense of this obligation more intolerable to +Legard; it made him more desirous to acquit himself of the charge. But +on this day there was so much cordiality in the greeting of Maltravers, +and he pressed Legard in so friendly a manner to join him in his ride, +that the young man's heart was softened, and they rode together, +conversing familiarly on such topics as were in common between them. At +last the conversation fell on Lord and Lady Doltimore; and thence +Maltravers, whose soul was full of one thought, turned it indirectly +towards Evelyn. + +"Did you ever see Lady Vargrave?" + +"Never," replied Legard, looking another way; "but Lady Doltimore says +she is as beautiful as Evelyn herself, if that be possible; and still so +young in form and countenance, that she looks rather like her sister than +her mother!" + +"How I should like to know her!" said Maltravers, with a sudden energy. + +Legard changed the subject. He spoke of the Carnival, of balls, of +masquerades, of operas, of reigning beauties! + +"Ah," said Maltravers, with a half sigh, "yours is the age for those +dazzling pleasures; to me they are 'the twice-told tale.'" + +Maltravers meant it not, but this remark chafed Legard. He thought it +conveyed a sarcasm on the childishness of his own mind or the levity of +his pursuits; his colour mounted, as he replied,-- + +"It is not, I fear, the slight difference of years between us,--it is the +difference of intellect you would insinuate; but you should remember all +men have not your resources; all men cannot pretend to genius!" + +"My dear Legard," said Maltravers, kindly, "do not fancy that I could +have designed any insinuation half so presumptuous and impertinent. +Believe me, I envy you, sincerely and sadly, all those faculties of +enjoyment which I have worn away. Oh, how I envy you! for, were they +still mine, then--then, indeed, I might hope to mould myself into greater +congeniality with the beautiful and the young!" + +Maltravers paused a moment, and resumed, with a grave smile: "I trust, +Legard, that you will be wiser than I have been; that you will gather +your roses while it is yet May: and that you will not live to thirty-six, +pining for happiness and home, a disappointed and desolate man; till, +when your ideal is at last found, you shrink back appalled, to discover +that you have lost none of the tendencies to love, but many of the graces +by which love is to be allured!" + +There was so much serious and earnest feeling in these words that they +went home at once to Legard's sympathies. He felt irresistibly impelled +to learn the worst. + +"Maltravers," said he, in a hurried tone, "it would be an idle compliment +to say that you are not likely to love in vain; perhaps it is indelicate +in me to apply a general remark; and yet--yet I cannot but fancy that I +have discovered your secret, and that you are not insensible to the +charms of Miss Cameron!" + +"Legard!" said Maltravers,--and so strong was his fervent attachment to +Evelyn, that it swept away all his natural coldness and reserve,--"I tell +you plainly and frankly that in my love for Evelyn Cameron lie the last +hopes I have in life. I have no thought, no ambition, no sentiment that +is not vowed to her. If my love should be unreturned, I may strive to +endure the blow, I may mix with the world, I may seem to occupy myself in +the aims of others; but my heart will be broken! Let us talk of this no +more; you have surprised my secret, though it must have betrayed itself. +Learn from me how preternaturally strong, how generally fatal is love +deferred to that day when--in the stern growth of all the feelings--love +writes itself on granite!" + +Maltravers, as if impatient of his own weakness, put spurs to his horse, +and they rode on rapidly for some time without speaking. + +That silence was employed by Legard in meditating over all he had heard +and witnessed, in recalling all that he owed to Maltravers; and before +that silence was broken the young man nobly resolved not even to attempt, +not even to hope, a rivalry with Maltravers; to forego all the +expectations he had so fondly nursed, to absent himself from the company +of Evelyn, to requite faithfully and firmly that act of generosity to +which he owed the preservation of his life,--the redemption of his +honour. + +Agreeably to this determination, he abstained from visiting those haunts +in which Evelyn shone; and if accident brought them together, his manner +was embarrassed and abrupt. She wondered,--at last, perhaps she +resented,--it may be that she grieved; for certain it is that Maltravers +was right in thinking that her manner had lost the gayety that +distinguished it at Merton Rectory. But still it may be doubted whether +Evelyn had seen enough of Legard, and whether her fancy and romance were +still sufficiently free from the magical influences of the genius that +called them forth in the eloquent homage of Maltravers, to trace, +herself, to any causes connected with her younger lover the listless +melancholy that crept over her. In very young women--new alike to the +world and the knowledge of themselves--many vague and undefined feelings +herald the dawn of Love; shade after shade and light upon light succeeds +before the sun breaks forth, and the earth awakens to his presence. + +It was one evening that Legard had suffered himself to be led into a +party at the ----- ambassador's; and there, as he stood by the door, he +saw at a little distance Maltravers conversing with Evelyn. Again he +writhed beneath the tortures of his jealous anguish; and there, as he +gazed and suffered, he resolved (as Maltravers had done before him) to +fly from the place that had a little while ago seemed to him Elysium! He +would quit Paris, he would travel, he would not see Evelyn again till the +irrevocable barrier was passed, and she was the wife of Maltravers! In +the first heat of this determination, he turned towards some young men +standing near him, one of whom was about to visit Vienna. He gayly +proposed to join him,--a proposal readily accepted, and began conversing +on the journey, the city, its splendid and proud society, with all that +cruel exhilaration which the forced spirits of a stricken heart can alone +display, when Evelyn (whose conference with Maltravers was ended) passed +close by him. She was leaning on Lady Doltimore's arm, and the admiring +murmur of his companions caused Legard to turn suddenly round. + +"You are not dancing to-night, Colonel Legard," said Caroline, glancing +towards Evelyn. "The more the season for balls advances, the more +indolent you become." + +Legard muttered a confused reply, one half of which seemed petulant, +while the other half was inaudible. + +"Not so indolent as you suppose," said his friend. "Legard meditates an +excursion sufficient, I hope, to redeem his character in your eyes. It +is a long journey, and, what is worse, a very cold journey, to Vienna." + +"Vienna! do you think of going to Vienna?" cried Caroline. + +"Yes," said Legard. "I hate Paris; any place better than this odious +city!" and he moved away. + +Evelyn's eyes followed him sadly and gravely. She remained by Lady +Doltimore's side, abstracted and silent for several minutes. + +Meanwhile Caroline, turning to Lord Devonport (the friend who had +proposed the Viennese excursion), said, "It is cruel in you to go to +Vienna,--it is doubly cruel to rob Lord Doltimore of his best friend and +Paris of its best waltzer." + +"Oh, it is a voluntary offer of Legard's, Lady Doltimore,--believe me, I +have used no persuasive arts. But the fact is, that we have been talking +of a fair widow, the beauty of Austria, and as proud and as unassailable +as Ehrenbreitstein itself. Legard's vanity is piqued; and so--as a +professed lady-killer--he intends to see what can be effected by the +handsomest Englishman of his time." + +Caroline laughed, and new claimants on her notice succeeded to Lord +Devonport. It was not till the ladies were waiting their carriage in the +shawl-room that Lady Doltimore noticed the paleness and thoughtful brow +of Evelyn. + +"Are you fatigued or unwell, dear?" she said. + +"No," answered Evelyn, forcing a smile; and at that moment they were +joined by Maltravers, with the intelligence that it would be some minutes +before the carriage could draw up. Caroline amused herself in the +interval by shrewd criticisms on the dresses and characters of her +various friends. Caroline had grown an amazing prude in her judgment of +others! + +"What a turban!--prudent for Mrs. A----- to wear,--bright red; it puts +out her face, as the sun puts out the fire. Mr. Maltravers, do observe +Lady B----- with that _very_ young gentleman. After all her experience +in angling, it is odd that she should still only throw in for small fish. +Pray, why is the marriage between Lady C----- D----- and Mr. F----- +broken off? Is it true that he is so much in debt, and is so very--very +profligate? They say she is heartbroken." + +"Really, Lady Doltimore," said Maltravers, smiling, "I am but a bad +scandal-monger. But poor F----- is not, I believe, much worse than +others. How do we know whose fault it is when a marriage is broken off? +Lady C----- D----- heartbroken! what an idea! Nowadays there is never +any affection in compacts of that sort; and the chain that binds the +frivolous nature is but a gossamer thread! Fine gentlemen and fine +ladies, their loves and their marriages-- + + "'May flourish and may fade; + A breath can make them, as a breath has made.' + +"Never believe that a heart long accustomed to beat only in good society +can be broken,--it is rarely ever touched!" + +Evelyn listened attentively, and seemed struck. She sighed, and said in +a very low voice, as to herself, "It is true--how could I think +otherwise?" + +For the next few days Evelyn was unwell, and did not quit her room. +Maltravers was in despair. The flowers, the books, the music he sent; +his anxious inquiries, his earnest and respectful notes, touched with +that ineffable charm which Heart and Intellect breathe into the most +trifling coinage from their mint,--all affected Evelyn sensibly. Perhaps +she contrasted them with Legard's indifference and apparent caprice; +perhaps in that contrast Maltravers gained more than by all his brilliant +qualities. Meanwhile, without visit, without message, without +farewell,--unconscious, it is true, of Evelyn's illness,--Legard departed +for Vienna. + + + +CHAPTER III. + + A PLEASING land . . . + Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye, + And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, + Forever flashing round a summer sky.--THOMSON. + +DAILY, hourly, increased the influence of Evelyn over Maltravers. Oh, +what a dupe is a man's pride! what a fool his wisdom! That a girl, a +mere child, one who scarce knew her own heart, beautiful as it +was,--whose deeper feelings still lay coiled up in their sweet +buds,--that she should thus master this proud, wise man! But as +thou--our universal teacher--as thou, O Shakspeare! haply speaking from +the hints of thine own experience, hast declared-- + + "None are so truly caught, when they are catched, + As wit turned fool; folly in wisdom hatched, + Hath wisdom's warrant." + +Still, methinks that, in that surpassing and dangerously indulged +affection which levelled thee, Maltravers, with the weakest, which +overturned all thy fine philosophy of Stoicism, and made thee the veriest +slave of the "Rose Garden,"--still, Maltravers, thou mightest at least +have seen that thou hast lost forever all right to pride, all privilege +to disdain the herd! But thou wert proud of thine own infirmity! And +far sharper must be that lesson which can teach thee that Pride--thine +angel--is ever pre-doomed to fall. + +What a mistake to suppose that the passions are strongest in youth! The +passions are not stronger, but the control over them is weaker. They are +more easily excited, they are more violent and more apparent; but they +have less energy, less durability, less intense and concentrated power, +than in maturer life. In youth, passion succeeds to passion, and one +breaks upon the other, as waves upon a rock, till the heart frets itself +to repose. In manhood, the great deep flows on, more calm, but more +profound; its serenity is the proof of the might and terror of its +course, were the wind to blow and the storm to rise. + +A young man's ambition is but vanity,--it has no definite aim, it plays +with a thousand toys. As with one passion, so with the rest. In youth, +Love is ever on the wing, but, like the birds in April, it hath not yet +built its nest. With so long a career of summer and hope before it, the +disappointment of to-day is succeeded by the novelty of to-morrow, and +the sun that advances to the noon but dries up its fervent tears. But +when we have arrived at that epoch of life,--when, if the light fail us, +if the last rose wither, we feel that the loss cannot be retrieved, and +that the frost and the darkness are at hand, Love becomes to us a +treasure that we watch over and hoard with a miser's care. Our +youngest-born affection is our darling and our idol, the fondest pledge +of the Past, the most cherished of our hopes for the Future. A certain +melancholy that mingles with our joy at the possession only enhances its +charm. We feel ourselves so dependent on it for all that is yet to come. +Our other barks--our gay galleys of pleasure, our stately argosies of +pride--have been swallowed up by the remorseless wave. On this last +vessel we freight our all, to its frail tenement we commit ourselves. +The star that guides it is our guide, and in the tempest that menaces we +behold our own doom! + +Still Maltravers shrank from the confession that trembled on his lips; +still he adhered to the course he had prescribed to himself. If ever (as +he had implied in his letter to Cleveland)--if ever Evelyn should +discover they were not suited to each other! The possibility of such an +affliction impressed his judgment, the dread of it chilled his heart. +With all his pride, there was a certain humility in Maltravers that was +perhaps one cause of his reserve. He knew what a beautiful possession is +youth,--its sanguine hopes, its elastic spirit, its inexhaustible +resources! What to the eyes of woman were the acquisitions which manhood +had brought him,--the vast but the sad experience, the arid wisdom, the +philosophy based on disappointment? He might be loved but for the vain +glitter of name and reputation,--and love might vanish as custom dimmed +the illusion. Men of strong affections are jealous of their own genius. +They know how separate a thing from the household character genius often +is,--they fear lest they should be loved for a quality, not for +themselves. + +Thus communed he with himself; thus, as the path had become clear to his +hopes, did new fears arise; and thus did love bring, as it ever does, in +its burning wake,-- + + "The pang, the agony, the doubt!" + +Maltravers then confirmed himself in the resolution he had formed: he +would cautiously examine Evelyn and himself; he would weigh in the +balance every straw that the wind should turn up; he would not aspire to +the treasure, unless he could feel secure that the coffer could preserve +the gem. This was not only a prudent, it was a just and a generous +determination. It was one which we all ought to form if the fervour of +our passions will permit us. We have no right to sacrifice years to +moments, and to melt the pearl that has no price in a single draught! +But can Maltravers adhere to his wise precautions? The truth must be +spoken,--it was, perhaps, the first time in his life that Maltravers had +been really in love. As the reader will remember, he had not been in +love with the haughty Florence; admiration, gratitude,--the affection of +the head, not that of the feelings,--had been the links that bound him to +the enthusiastic correspondent revealed in the gifted beauty; and the +gloomy circumstances connected with her early fate had left deep furrows +in his memory. Time and vicissitude had effaced the wounds, and the +Light of the Beautiful dawned once more in the face of Evelyn. Valerie +de Ventadour had been but the fancy of a roving breast. Alice, the sweet +Alice!--her, indeed, in the first flower of youth, he had loved with a +boy's romance. He had loved her deeply, fondly,--but perhaps he had +never been in love with her; he had mourned her loss for +years,--insensibly to himself her loss had altered his character and cast +a melancholy gloom over all the colours of his life. But she whose range +of ideas was so confined, she who had but broke into knowledge, as the +chrysalis into the butterfly--how much in that prodigal and gifted +nature, bounding onwards into the broad plains of life, must the peasant +girl have failed to fill! They had had nothing in common but their youth +and their love. It was a dream that had hovered over the poet-boy in the +morning twilight,--a dream he had often wished to recall, a dream that +had haunted him in the noon-day,--but had, as all boyish visions ever +have done, left the heart unexhausted, and the passions unconsumed! +Years, long years, since then had rolled away, and yet, perhaps, one +unconscious attraction that drew Maltravers so suddenly towards Evelyn +was a something indistinct and undefinable that reminded him of Alice. +There was no similarity in their features; but at times a tone in +Evelyn's voice, a "trick of the manner," an air, a gesture, recalled him, +over the gulfs of Time, to Poetry, and Hope, and Alice. + +In the youth of each--the absent and the present one--there was +resemblance,--resemblance in their simplicity, their grace. Perhaps +Alice, of the two, had in her nature more real depth, more ardour of +feeling, more sublimity of sentiment, than Evelyn. But in her primitive +ignorance half her noblest qualities were embedded and unknown. And +Evelyn--his equal in rank; Evelyn, well cultivated; Evelyn, so long +courted, so deeply studied--had such advantages over the poor peasant +girl! Still the poor peasant girl often seemed to smile on him from that +fair face; and in Evelyn he half loved Alice again! + +So these two persons now met daily; their intercourse was even more +familiar than before, their several minds grew hourly more developed and +transparent to each other. But of love Maltravers still forbore to +speak; they were friends,--no more; such friends as the disparity of +their years and their experience might warrant them to be. And in that +young and innocent nature--with its rectitude, its enthusiasm, and its +pious and cheerful tendencies--Maltravers found freshness in the desert, +as the camel-driver lingering at the well. Insensibly his heart warmed +again to his kind; and as the harp of David to the ear of Saul, was the +soft voice that lulled remembrance and awakened hope in the lonely man. + +Meanwhile, what was the effect that the presence, the attentions, of +Maltravers produced on Evelyn? Perhaps it was of that kind which most +flatters us and most deceives. She never dreamed of comparing him with +others. To her thoughts he stood aloof and alone from all his kind. It +may seem a paradox, but it might be that she admired and venerated him +almost too much for love. Still her pleasure in his society was so +evident and unequivocal, her deference to his opinion so marked, she +sympathized in so many of his objects, she had so much blindness or +forbearance for his faults (and he never sought to mask them), that the +most diffident of men might have drawn from so many symptoms hopes the +most auspicious. Since the departure of Legard, the gayeties of Paris +lost their charm for Evelyn, and more than ever she could appreciate the +society of her friend. He thus gradually lost his earlier fears of her +forming too keen an attachment to the great world; and as nothing could +be more apparent than Evelyn's indifference to the crowd of flatterers +and suitors that hovered round her, Maltravers no longer dreaded a rival. +He began to feel assured that they had both gone through the ordeal; and +that he might ask for love without a doubt of its immutability and faith. +At this period they were both invited, with the Doltimores, to spend a +few days at the villa of De Montaigne, near St. Cloud. And there it was +that Maltravers determined to know his fate! + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + CHAOS of Thought and Passion all confused.--POPE. + +IT is to the contemplation of a very different scene that the course of +our story now conducts us. + +Between St. Cloud and Versailles there was at that time--perhaps there +still is--a lone and melancholy house, appropriated to the +insane,--melancholy, not from its site, but the purpose to which it is +devoted. Placed on an eminence, the windows of the mansion +command--beyond the gloomy walls that gird the garden ground--one of +those enchanting prospects which win for France her title to _La Belle_. +There the glorious Seine is seen in the distance, broad and winding +through the varied plains, and beside the gleaming villages and villas. +There, too, beneath the clear blue sky of France, the forest-lands of +Versailles and St. Germains stretch in dark luxuriance around and afar. +There you may see sleeping on the verge of the landscape the mighty +city,--crowned with the thousand spires from which, proud above the rest, +rises the eyry of Napoleon's eagle, the pinnacle of Notre Dame. + +Remote, sequestered, the place still commands the survey of the turbulent +world below; and Madness gazes upon prospects that might well charm the +thoughtful eyes of Imagination or of Wisdom! In one of the rooms of this +house sat Castruccio Cesarini. The apartment was furnished even with +elegance; a variety of books strewed the table; nothing for comfort or +for solace that the care and providence of affection could dictate was +omitted. Cesarini was alone: leaning his cheek upon his hand, he gazed +on the beautiful and tranquil view we have described. "And am I never to +set a free foot on that soil again?" he muttered indignantly, as he broke +from his revery. + +The door opened, and the keeper of the sad abode (a surgeon of humanity +and eminence) entered, followed by De Montaigne. Cesarini turned round +and scowled upon the latter; the surgeon, after a few words of +salutation, withdrew to a corner of the room, and appeared absorbed in a +book. De Montaigne approached his brother-in-law,--"I have brought you +some poems just published at Milan, my dear Castruccio,--they will please +you." + +"Give me my liberty!" cried Cesarini, clenching his hands. "Why am I to +be detained here? Why are my nights to be broken by the groans of +maniacs, and my days devoured in a solitude that loathes the aspect of +things around me? Am I mad? You know I am not! It is an old trick to +say that poets are mad,--you mistake our agonies for insanity. See, I am +calm; I can reason: give me any test of sound mind--no matter how +rigid--I will pass it; I am not mad,--I swear I am not!" + +"No, my dear Castruccio," said De Montaigne, soothingly; "but you are +still unwell,--you still have fever; when next I see you perhaps you may +be recovered sufficiently to dismiss the doctor and change the air. +Meanwhile is there anything you would have added or altered?" + +Cesarini had listened to this speech with a mocking sarcasm on his lip, +but an expression of such hopeless wretchedness in his eyes, as they +alone can comprehend who have witnessed madness in its lucid intervals. +He sank down, and his head drooped gloomily on his breast. "No," said +he; "I want nothing but free air or death,--no matter which." + +De Montaigne stayed some time with the unhappy man, and sought to soothe +him; but it was in vain. Yet when he rose to depart, Cesarini started +up, and fixing on him his large wistful eyes, exclaimed, "Ah! do not +leave me yet. It is so dreadful to be alone with the dead and the worse +than dead!" + +The Frenchman turned aside to wipe his eyes, and stifle the rising at his +heart; and again he sat, and again he sought to soothe. At length +Cesarini, seemingly more calm, gave him leave to depart. "Go," said he, +"go; tell Teresa I am better, that I love her tenderly, that I shall live +to tell her children not to be poets. Stay, you asked if there was aught +I wished changed: yes, this room; it is too still: I hear my own pulse +beat so loudly in the silence, it is horrible! There is a room below, by +the window of which there is a tree, and the winds rock its boughs to and +fro, and it sighs and groans like a living thing; it will be pleasant to +look at that tree, and see the birds come home to it,--yet that tree is +wintry and blasted too! It will be pleasant to hear it fret and chafe in +the stormy nights; it will be a friend to me, that old tree! let me have +that room. Nay, look not at each other,--it is not so high as this; but +the window is barred,--I cannot escape!" And Cesarini smiled. + +"Certainly," said the surgeon, "if you prefer that room; but it has not +so fine a view." + +"I hate the view of the world that has cast me off. When may I change?" + +"This very evening." + +"Thank you; it will be a great revolution in my life." + +And Cesarini's eyes brightened, and he looked happy. De Montaigne, +thoroughly unmanned, tore himself away. + +The promise was kept, and Cesarini was transferred that night to the +chamber he had selected. + +As soon as it was deep night, the last visit of the keeper paid, and, +save now and then, by some sharp cry in the more distant quarter of the +house, all was still, Cesarini rose from his bed; a partial light came +from the stars that streamed through the frosty and keen air, and cast a +sickly gleam through the heavy bars of the casement. It was then that +Cesarini drew from under his pillow a long-cherished and +carefully-concealed treasure. Oh, with what rapture had he first +possessed himself of it! with what anxiety had it been watched and +guarded! how many cunning stratagems and profound inventions had gone +towards the baffling, the jealous search of the keeper and his myrmidons! +The abandoned and wandering mother never clasped her child more fondly to +her bosom, nor gazed upon his features with more passionate visions for +the future. And what had so enchanted the poor prisoner, so deluded the +poor maniac? A large nail! He had found it accidentally in the garden; +he had hoarded it for weeks,--it had inspired him with the hope of +liberty. Often, in the days far gone, he had read of the wonders that +had been effected, of the stones removed, and the bars filed, by the +self-same kind of implement. He remembered that the most celebrated of +those bold unfortunates who live a life against the law, had said, +"Choose my prison, and give me but a rusty nail, and I laugh at your +jailers and your walls!" He crept to the window; he examined his relic +by the dim starlight; he kissed it passionately, and the tears stood in +his eyes. + +Ah, who shall determine the worth of things? No king that night so +prized his crown as the madman prized that rusty inch of wire,--the +proper prey of the rubbish-cart and dunghill. Little didst thou think, +old blacksmith, when thou drewest the dull metal from the fire, of what +precious price it was to become! + +Cesarini, with the astuteness of his malady, had long marked out this +chamber for the scene of his operations; he had observed that the +framework in which the bars were set seemed old and worm-eaten; that the +window was but a few feet from the ground; that the noise made in the +winter nights by the sighing branches of the old tree without would +deaden the sound of the lone workman. Now, then, his hopes were to be +crowned. Poor fool! and even _thou_ hast hope still! All that night he +toiled and toiled, and sought to work his iron into a file; now he tried +the bars, and now the framework. Alas! he had not learned the skill in +such tools, possessed by his renowned model and inspirer; the flesh was +worn from his fingers, the cold drops stood on his brow; and morning +surprised him, advanced not a hair-breadth in his labour. + +He crept back to bed, and again hid the useless implement, and at last he +slept. + +And, night after night, the same task, the same results! But at length, +one day, when Cesarini returned from his moody walk in the gardens +(_pleasure_-grounds they were called by the owner), he found better +workmen than he at the window; they were repairing the framework, they +were strengthening the bars,--all hope was now gone! The unfortunate +said nothing; too cunning to show his despair he eyed them silently, and +cursed them; but the old tree was left still, and that was +something,--company and music. + +A day or two after this barbarous counterplot, Cesarini was walking in +the gardens towards the latter part of the afternoon (just when in the +short days the darkness begins to steal apace over the chill and western +sun), when he was accosted by a fellow-captive, who had often before +sought his acquaintance; for they try to have friends,--those poor +people! Even _we_ do the same; though _we_ say we are _not_ mad! This +man had been a warrior, had served with Napoleon, had received honours +and ribbons,--might, for aught we know, have dreamed of being a marshal! +But the demon smote him in the hour of his pride. It was his disease to +fancy himself a monarch. He believed, for he forgot chronology, that he +was at once the Iron Mask, and the true sovereign of France and Navarre, +confined in state by the usurpers of his crown. On other points he was +generally sane; a tall, strong man, with fierce features, and stern +lines, wherein could be read many a bloody tale of violence and wrong, of +lawless passions, of terrible excesses, to which madness might be at once +the consummation and the curse. This man had taken a fancy to Cesarini; +and, in some hours Cesarini had shunned him less than others,--for they +could alike rail against all living things. The lunatic approached +Cesarini with an air of dignity and condescension. + +"It is a cold night, sir,--and there will be no moon. Has it never +occurred to you that the winter is the season for escape?" + +Cesarini started; the ex-officer continued,-- + +"Ay, I see by your manner that you, too, chafe at our ignominious +confinement. I think that together we might brave the worst. You +probably are confined on some state offence. I give you full pardon, if +you assist me. For myself I have but to appear in my capital; old Louis +le Grand must be near his last hour." + +"This madman my best companion!" thought Cesarini, revolting at his own +infirmity, as Gulliver started from the Yahoo. "No matter, he talks of +escape. + +"And how think you," said the Italian, aloud,--"how think you, that we +have any chance of deliverance?" + +"Hush, speak lower," said the soldier. "In the inner garden, I have +observed for the last two days that a gardener is employed in nailing +some fig-trees and vines to the wall. Between that garden and these +grounds there is but a paling, which we can easily scale. He works till +dusk; at the latest hour we can, let us climb noiselessly over the +paling, and creep along the vegetable beds till we reach the man. He +uses a ladder for his purpose; the rest is clear,--we must fell and gag +him,--twist his neck if necessary,--I have twisted a neck before," quoth +the maniac, with a horrid smile. "The ladder will help us over the wall, +and the night soon grows dark at this season." + +Cesarini listened, and his heart beat quick. "Will it be too late to try +to-night?" said he in a whisper. + +"Perhaps not," said the soldier, who retained all his military acuteness. +"But are you prepared,--don't you require time to man yourself?" + +"No--no,--I have had time enough!--I am ready." + +"Well, then,--hist!---we are watched--one of the jailers! Talk easily, +smile, laugh. This way." + +They passed by one of the watch of the place, and just as they were in +his hearing, the soldier turned to Cesarini, "Sir, will you favour me +with your snuff-box?" + +"I have none." + +"None? what a pity! My good friend," and he turned to the scout, "may I +request you to look in my room for my snuff-box? It is on the +chimney-piece,--it will not take you a minute." + +The soldier was one of those whose insanity was deemed most harmless, and +his relations, who were rich and wellborn, had requested every indulgence +to be shown to him. The watch suspected nothing, and repaired to the +house. As soon as the trees hid him,--"Now," said the soldier, "stoop +almost on all fours, and run quick." + +So saying the maniac crouched low, and glided along with a rapidity which +did not distance Cesarini. They reached the paling that separated the +vegetable garden from the pleasure-ground; the soldier vaulted over it +with ease, Cesarini with more difficulty followed. They crept along; the +herbs and vegetable beds, with their long bare stalks, concealed their +movements; the man was still on the ladder. "_La bonne Esperance_" said +the soldier through his ground teeth, muttering some old watchword of the +wars, and (while Cesarini, below, held the ladder steadfast) he rushed up +the steps, and with a sudden effort of his muscular arm, hurled the +gardener to the ground. The man, surprised, half stunned, and wholly +terrified, did not attempt to wrestle with the two madmen, he uttered +loud cries for help! But help came too late; these strange and fearful +comrades had already scaled the wall, had dropped on the other side, and +were fast making across the dusky fields to the neighbouring forest. + + + +CHAPTER V. + + HOPES and Fears + Start up alarmed, and o'er life's narrow verge + Look down: on what?--a fathomless abyss!--YOUNG. + +MIDNIGHT--and intense frost! There they were--houseless and +breadless--the two fugitives, in the heart of that beautiful forest which +has rung to the horns of many a royal chase. The soldier, whose youth +had been inured to hardships, and to the conquests which our mother-wit +wrings from the stepdame Nature, had made a fire by the friction of two +pieces of dry wood; such wood was hard to be found, for the snow whitened +the level ground, and lay deep in the hollows; and when it was +discovered, the fuel was slow to burn; however, the fire blazed red at +last. On a little mound, shaded by a semicircle of huge trees, sat the +Outlaws of Human Reason. They cowered over the blaze opposite to each +other, and the glare crimsoned their features. And each in his heart +longed to rid himself of his mad neighbour; and each felt the awe of +solitude,--the dread of sleep beside a comrade whose soul had lost God's +light! + +"Ho!" said the warrior, breaking a silence that had been long kept, "this +is cold work at the best, and hunger pinches me; I almost regret the +prison." + +"I do not feel the cold," said Cesarini, "and I do not care for hunger: I +am revelling only in the sense of liberty!" + +"Try and sleep," quoth the soldier, with a coaxing and, sinister softness +of voice; "we will take it by turns to watch." + +"I cannot sleep,--take you the first turn." + +"Hark ye, sir!" said the soldier sullenly; "I must not have my commands +disputed; now we are free, we are no longer equal: I am heir to the +crowns of France and Navarre. Sleep, I say!" + +"And what Prince or Potentate, King or Kaiser," cried Cesarini, catching +the quick contagion of the fit that had seized his comrade, "can dictate +to the monarch of Earth and Air, the Elements and the music-breathing +Stars? I am Cesarini the Bard! and the huntsman Orion halts in his chase +above to listen to my lyre! Be stilled, rude man!--thou scarest away the +angels, whose breath even now was rushing through my hair!" + +"It is too horrible!" cried the grim man of blood, shivering; "my enemies +are relentless, and give me a madman for a jailer!" + +"Ha! a madman!" exclaimed Cesarini, springing to his feet, and glaring at +the soldier with eyes that caught and rivalled the blaze of the fire. +"And who are you?--what devil from the deep hell, that art leagued with +my persecutors against me?" + +With the instinct of his old calling and valour, the soldier also rose +when he saw the movement of his companion; and his fierce features worked +with rage and fear. + +"Avaunt!" said he, waving his arm; "we banish thee from our presence! +This is our palace!--and our guards are at hand!" pointing to the still +and skeleton trees that grouped round in ghastly bareness. "Begone!" + +At that moment they heard at a distance the deep barking of a dog, and +each cried simultaneously, "They are after me!--betrayed!" The soldier +sprang at the throat of Cesarini; but the Italian, at the same instant, +caught a half-burned brand from the fire, and dashed the blazing end in +the face of his assailant. The soldier uttered a cry of pain, and +recoiled back, blinded and dismayed. Cesarini, whose madness, when +fairly roused, was of the most deadly nature, again raised his weapon, +and probably nothing but death could have separated the foes; but again +the bay of the dog was heard, and Cesarini, answering the sound by a wild +yell, threw down the brand, and fled away through the forest with +inconceivable swiftness. He hurried on through bush and dell,--and the +boughs tore his garments and mangled his flesh,--but stopped not his +progress till he fell at last on the ground, breathless and exhausted, +and heard from some far-off clock the second hour of morning. He had +left the forest; a farmhouse stood before him, and the whitened roofs of +scattered cottages sloped to the tranquil sky. The witness of man--the +social tranquil sky and the reasoning man--operated like a charm upon the +senses which recent excitement had more than usually disturbed. The +unhappy wretch gazed at the peaceful abodes, and sighed heavily; then, +rising from the earth, he crept into one of the sheds that adjoined the +farmhouse, and throwing himself on some straw, slept sound and quietly +till daylight, and the voices of peasants in the shed awakened him. + +He rose refreshed, calm, and, for ordinary purposes, sufficiently sane to +prevent suspicion of his disease. He approached the startled peasants, +and representing himself as a traveller who had lost his way in the night +and amidst the forest, begged for food and water. Though his garments +were torn, they were new and of good fashion; his voice was mild; his +whole appearance and address those of one of some station--and the French +peasant is a hospitable fellow. Cesarini refreshed and rested himself an +hour or two at the farm, and then resumed his wanderings; he offered no +money, for the rules of the asylum forbade money to its inmates,--he had +none with him; but none was expected from him, and they bade him farewell +as kindly as if he had bought their blessings. He then began to consider +where he was to take refuge, and how provide for himself; the feeling of +liberty braced, and for a time restored, his intellect. + +Fortunately, he had on his person, besides some rings of trifling cost, a +watch of no inconsiderable value, the sale of which might support him, in +such obscure and humble quarter as he could alone venture to inhabit, for +several weeks, perhaps months. This thought made him cheerful and +elated; he walked lustily on, shunning the high road. The day was clear, +the sun bright, the air full of racy health. Oh, what soft raptures +swelled the heart of the wanderer, as he gazed around him! The Poet and +the Freeman alike stirred within his shattered heart! He paused to +contemplate the berries of the icy trees, to listen to the sharp glee of +the blackbird; and once--when he found beneath a hedge a cold, scentless +group of hardy violets--he laughed aloud in his joy. In that laughter +there was no madness, no danger; but when as he journeyed on, he passed +through a little hamlet, and saw the children at play upon the ground, +and heard from the open door of a cabin the sound of rustic music, then +indeed he paused abruptly; the past gathered over him: _he knew that +which he had been, that which he was now_!--an awful memory! a dread +revelation! And, covering his face with his hands, he wept aloud. In +those tears were the peril and method of madness. He woke from them to +think of his youth, his hopes, of Florence, of revenge! Lumley Lord +Vargrave! better, from that hour, to encounter the tiger in his lair than +find thyself alone with that miserable man! + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + IT seemed the laurel chaste and stubborn oak, + And all the gentle trees on earth that grew, + It seemed the land, the sea, and heaven above, + All breathed out fancy sweet, and sighed out love. + FAIRFAX'S _Tasso_. + +AT De Montaigne's villa, Evelyn, for the first time, gathered from the +looks, the manners, of Maltravers that she was beloved. It was no longer +possible to mistake the evidences of affection. Formerly, Maltravers had +availed himself of his advantage of years and experience, and would warn, +admonish, dispute, even reprove; formerly, there had been so much of +seeming caprice, of cold distance, of sudden and wayward haughtiness, in +his bearing; but now the whole man was changed,--the Mentor had vanished +in the Lover; he held his being on her breath. Her lightest pleasure +seemed to have grown his law, no coldness ever alternated the deep +devotion of his manner; an anxious, a timid, a watchful softness replaced +all his stately self-possession. Evelyn saw that she was loved; and she +then looked into her own heart. + +I have said before that Evelyn was gentle, even to _yieldingness_; that +her susceptibility made her shrink from the thought of pain to another: +and so thoroughly did she revere Maltravers, so grateful did she feel for +a love that could not but flatter pride, and raise her in her +self-esteem, that she felt it impossible that she could reject his suit. +"Then, do I love him as I dreamed I could love?" she asked herself; and +her heart gave no intelligible reply. "Yes, it must be so; in his +presence I feel a tranquil and eloquent charm; his praise delights me; +his esteem is my most high ambition;--and yet--and yet--" she sighed and +thought of Legard; "but _he_ loved me not!" and she turned restlessly +from that image. "He thinks but of the world, of pleasure; Maltravers is +right,--the spoiled children of society cannot love: why should I think +of him?" + +There were no guests at the villa, except Maltravers, Evelyn, and Lord +and Lady Doltimore. Evelyn was much captivated by the graceful vivacity +of Teresa, though that vivacity was not what it had been before her +brother's affliction; their children, some of whom had grown up, +constituted an amiable and intelligent family; and De Montaigne himself +was agreeable and winning, despite his sober manners and his love of +philosophical dispute. Evelyn often listened thoughtfully to Teresa's +praises of her husband,--to her account of the happiness she had known in +a marriage where there had been so great a disparity of years; Evelyn +began to question the truth of her early visions of romance. + +Caroline saw the unequivocal attachment of Maltravers with the same +indifference with which she had anticipated the suit of Legard. It was +the same to her what hand delivered Evelyn and herself from the designs +of Vargrave; but Vargrave occupied nearly all her thoughts. The +newspapers had reported him as seriously ill,--at one time in great +danger. He was now recovering, but still unable to quit his room. He +had written to her once, lamenting his ill-fortune, trusting soon to be +at Paris; and touching, with evident pleasure, upon Legard's departure +for Vienna, which he had seen in the "Morning Post." But he was +afar--alone, ill, untended; and though Caroline's guilty love had been +much abated by Vargrave's icy selfishness, by absence and remorse, still +she had the heart of a woman,--and Vargrave was the only one that had +ever touched it. She felt for him, and grieved in silence; she did not +dare to utter sympathy aloud, for Doltimore had already given evidence of +a suspicious and jealous temper. + +Evelyn was also deeply affected by the account of her guardian's illness. +As I before said, the moment he ceased to be her lover, her childish +affection for him returned. She even permitted herself to write to him; +and a tone of melancholy depression which artfully pervaded his reply +struck her with something like remorse. He told her in the letter that +he had much to say to her relative to an investment, in conformity with +her stepfather's wishes, and he should hasten to Paris, even before the +doctor would sanction his removal. Vargrave forbore to mention what the +meditated investment was. The last public accounts of the minister had, +however, been so favourable, that his arrival might be almost daily +expected; and both Caroline and Evelyn felt relieved. + +To De Montaigne, Maltravers confided his attachment, and both the +Frenchman and Teresa sanctioned and encouraged it. Evelyn enchanted +them; and they had passed that age when they could have imagined it +possible that the man they had known almost as a boy was separated by +years from the lively feelings and extreme youth of Evelyn. They could +not believe that the sentiments he had inspired were colder than those +that animated himself. + +One day, Maltravers had been absent for some hours on his solitary +rambles, and De Montaigne had not yet returned from Paris, which he +visited almost daily. It was so late in the noon as almost to border on +evening, when Maltravers; on his return, entered the grounds by a gate +that separated them from an extensive wood. He saw Evelyn, Teresa, and +two of her children walking on a terrace immediately before him. He +joined them; and, somehow or other, it soon chanced that Teresa and +himself loitered behind the rest, a little out of hearing. "Ah, Mr. +Maltravers," said the former, "we miss the soft skies of Italy and the +beautiful hues of Como." + +"And, for my part, I miss the youth that gave 'glory to the grass and +splendour to the flower.'" + +"Nay; we are happier now, believe me,--or at least I should be, if--But I +must not think of my poor brother. Ah, if his guilt deprived you of one +who was worthy of you, it would be some comfort to his sister to think at +last that the loss was repaired. And you still have scruples?" + +"Who that loves truly has not? How young, how lovely, how worthy of +lighter hearts and fairer forms than mine! Give me back the years that +have passed since we last met at Como, and I might hope!" + +"And this to me who have enjoyed such happiness with one older, when we +married, by ten years than you are now!" + +"But you, Teresa, were born to see life through the Claude glass." + +"Ah, you provoke me with these refinements; you turn from a happiness you +have but to demand." + +"Do not--do not raise my hopes too high," cried Maltravers, with great +emotion; "I have been schooling myself all day. But if I _am_ deceived!" + +"Trust me, you are not. See, even now she turns round to look for you; +she loves you,--loves you as you deserve. This difference of years that +you so lament does but deepen and elevate her attachment!" + +Teresa turned to Maltravers, surprised at his silence. How joyous sat +his heart upon his looks,--no gloom on his brow, no doubt in his +sparkling eyes! He was mortal, and he yielded to the delight of +believing himself beloved. He pressed Teresa's hand in silence, and, +quitting her abruptly, gained the side of Evelyn. Madame de Montaigne +comprehended all that passed within him; and as she followed, she soon +contrived to detach her children, and returned with them to the house on +a whispered pretence of seeing if their father had yet arrived. Evelyn +and Maltravers continued to walk on,--not aware, at first, that the rest +of the party were not close behind. + +The sun had set; and they were in a part of the grounds which, by way of +contrast to the rest, was laid out in the English fashion; the walk +wound, serpent-like, among a profusion of evergreens irregularly planted; +the scene was shut in and bounded, except where at a distance, through an +opening of the trees, you caught the spire of a distant church, over +which glimmered, faint and fair, the smile of the evening star. + +"This reminds me of home," said Evelyn, gently. + +"And hereafter it will remind me of you," said Maltravers, in whispered +accents. He fixed his eyes on her as he spoke. Never had his look been +so true to his heart; never had his voice so undisguisedly expressed the +profound and passionate sentiment which had sprung up within him,--to +constitute, as he then believed, the latest bliss, or the crowning +misery, of his life! At that moment, it was a sort of instinct that told +him they were _alone_; for who has not felt--in those few and memorable +hours of life when love long suppressed overflows the fountain, and seems +to pervade the whole frame and the whole spirit--that there is a magic +around and within us that hath a keener intelligence than intellect +itself? Alone at such an hour with the one we love, the whole world +besides seems to vanish, and our feet to have entered the soil, and our +lips to have caught the air, of Fairyland. + +They were alone. And why did Evelyn tremble? Why did she feel that a +crisis of existence was at hand? + +"Miss Cameron--Evelyn," said Maltravers, after they had walked some +moments in silence, "hear me--and let your reason as well as your heart +reply. From the first moment we met, you became dear to me. Yes, even +when a child, your sweetness and your fortitude foretold so well what you +would be in womanhood; even then you left upon my memory a delightful and +mysterious shadow,--too prophetic of the light that now hallows and wraps +your image! We met again,--and the attraction that had drawn me towards +you years before was suddenly renewed. I love you, Evelyn! I love you +better than all words can tell! Your future fate, your welfare, your +happiness, contain and embody all the hopes left to me in life! But our +years are different, Evelyn; I have known sorrows,--and the +disappointments and the experience that have severed me from the common +world have robbed me of more than time itself hath done. They have +robbed me of that zest for the ordinary pleasures of our race,--which may +it be yours, sweet Evelyn, ever to retain! To me, the time foretold by +the Preacher as the lot of age has already arrived, when the sun and the +moon are darkened, and when, save in you and through you, I have no +pleasure in anything. Judge, if such a being you can love! Judge, if my +very confession does not revolt and chill, if it does not present to you +a gloomy and cheerless future, were it possible that you could unite your +lot to mine! Answer not from friendship or from pity; the love I feel +for you can have a reply from love alone, and from that reasoning which +love, in its enduring power, in its healthful confidence, in its +prophetic foresight, alone supplies! I can resign you without a murmur; +but I could not live with you and even fancy that you had one care I +could not soothe, though you might have happiness I could not share. And +fate does not present to me any vision so dark and terrible--no, not your +loss itself; no, not your indifference; no, not your aversion--as your +discovery, after time should make regret in vain, that you had mistaken +fancy or friendship for affection, a sentiment for love. Evelyn, I have +confided to you all,--all this wild heart, now and evermore your own. My +destiny is with you." + +Evelyn was silent; he took her hand, and her tears fell warm and fast +upon it. Alarmed and anxious, he drew her towards him and gazed upon her +face. + +"You fear to wound me," he said, with pale lips and trembling voice. +"Speak on,--I can bear all." + +"No, no," said Evelyn, falteringly; "I have no fear but not to deserve +you." + +"You love me, then,--you love me!" cried Maltravers wildly, and clasping +her to his heart. + +The moon rose at that instant, and the wintry sward and the dark trees +were bathed in the sudden light. The time--the light--so exquisite to +all, even in loneliness and in sorrow--how divine in such companionship! +in such overflowing and ineffable sense of bliss! There and then for the +first time did Maltravers press upon that modest and blushing cheek the +kiss of Love, of Hope,--the seal of a union he fondly hoped the grave +itself could not dissolve! + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + _Queen_. Whereon do you look? + _Hamlet_. On him, on him,--look you how pale he glares!--_Hamlet_. + +PERHAPS to Maltravers those few minutes which ensued, as they walked +slowly on, compensated for all the troubles and cares of years; for +natures like his feel joy even yet more intensely than sorrow. It might +be that the transport, the delirium of passionate and grateful thoughts +that he poured forth, when at last he could summon words, expressed +feelings the young Evelyn could not comprehend, and which less delighted +than terrified her with the new responsibility she had incurred. But +love so honest, so generous, so intense, dazzled and bewildered and +carried her whole soul away. Certainly at that hour she felt no +regret--no thought but that one in whom she had so long recognized +something nobler than is found in the common world was thus happy and +thus made happy by a word, a look from her! Such a thought is woman's +dearest triumph; and one so thoroughly unselfish, so yielding, and so +soft, could not be insensible to the rapture she had caused. + +"And oh!" said Maltravers, as he clasped again and again the hand that he +believed he had won forever, "now, at length, have I learned how +beautiful is life! For this--for this I have been reserved! Heaven is +merciful to me, and the waking world is brighter than all my dreams!" + +He ceased abruptly. At that instant they were once more on the terrace +where he had first joined Teresa, facing the wood, which was divided by a +slight and low palisade from the spot where they stood. He ceased +abruptly, for his eyes encountered a terrible and ominous apparition,--a +form connected with dreary associations of fate and woe. The figure had +raised itself upon a pile of firewood on the other side of the fence, and +hence it seemed almost gigantic in its stature. It gazed upon the pair +with eyes that burned with a preternatural blaze, and a voice which +Maltravers too well remembered shrieked out "Love! love! What! _thou_ +love again? Where is the Dead! Ha, ha! Where is the Dead?" + +Evelyn, startled by the words, looked up, and clung in speechless terror +to Maltravers. He remained rooted to the spot. + +"Unhappy man," said he, at length, and soothingly, "how came you hither? +Fly not, you are with friends." + +"Friends!" said the maniac, with a scornful laugh. "I know thee, Ernest +Maltravers,--I know thee: but it is not thou who hast locked me up in +darkness and in hell, side by side with the mocking fiend! Friends! ah, +but no Friends shall catch me now! I am free! I am free! Air and wave +are not more free!" And the madman laughed with horrible glee. "She is +fair--fair," he said, abruptly checking himself, and with a changed +voice, "but not so fair as the Dead. Faithless that thou art--and yet +she loved _thee_! Woe to thee! woe! Maltravers, the perfidious! Woe to +thee--and remorse--and shame!" + +"Fear not, Evelyn,--fear not," whispered Maltravers, gently, and placing +her behind him; "support your courage,--nothing shall harm you." + +Evelyn, though very pale, and trembling from head to foot, retained her +senses. Maltravers advanced towards the mad man. But no sooner did the +quick eye of the last perceive the movement, than, with the fear which +belongs to that dread disease,--the fear of losing liberty,--he turned, +and with a loud cry fled into the wood. Maltravers leaped over the +fence, and pursued him some way in vain. The thick copses of the wood +snatched every trace of the fugitive from his eye. + +Breathless and exhausted, Maltravers returned to the spot where he had +left Evelyn. As he reached it, he saw Teresa and her husband approaching +towards him, and Teresa's merry laugh sounded clear and musical in the +racy air. The sound appalled him; he hastened his steps to Evelyn. + +"Say nothing of what we have seen to Madame de Montaigne, I beseech you," +said he; "I will explain why hereafter." + +Evelyn, too overcome to speak, nodded her acquiescence. They joined the +De Montaignes, and Maltravers took the Frenchman aside. + +But before he could address him, De Montaigne said,-- + +"Hush! do not alarm my wife--she knows nothing; but I have just heard at +Paris, that--that he has escaped--you know whom I mean?" + +"I do; he is at hand; send in search of him! I have seen him. Once more +I have seen Castruccio Cesarini!" + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ALICE BY LYTTON, BOOK VIII *** +By Edward Bulwer Lytton + +******** This file should be named 9770.txt or 9770.zip ******** + +Produced by Dagny; and 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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