Montalbert/Chapter 24

THE next letter from Rosalie to Montalbert thus described her subsequent situation......

"My jailers were, however, less severe than I expected. With a feeble step, and a heart overwhelmed with anguish, I was exploring, as well as I could, the room I was in, to see if it afforded me such security for the night as depended on bolts or locks: I opened a door on the farther side of it, which led into long and high passages, and from whence the wind rushed with a violence which obliged me to shut it hastily. I was endeavouring to fasten it withinside, by pushing the bolt that was too rusty for my strength to move, when I heard heavy steps as of several persons approaching through the great rooms adjoining. Alarmed, I returned nearer to the light; and, breathless and trembling, I waited for the entrance of these people. My fears, however, somewhat subsided, when I saw a man, who appeared to be a peasant, approach with wood, and another with the boxes that contained mine and my child's clothes, while the woman, whom I had seen before, stood at the door; one of the men made a fire, the other went away, and in a few moments returned with some provisions and wine. Every thing passed in profound silence, except when it was broken by my attempting to express to the woman, in whom all authority seemed to be vested, my gratitude for these indulgencies, and entreated her to allow that the door, to which I pointed across the room, might be fastened withinside. She ordered one of the men to do it, and having placed the supper before me, and left a small bundle of wood to feed the fire, they all departed, and I prepared to recruit my strength and refresh my poor baby by changing his clothes. He was soon in a sweet sleep, and now, for the first time for many hours, this melioration of my condition afforded me the relief of shedding tears. My destiny still appeared dreadful, but as there seemed to be no design to destroy my life, I trusted that whoever had taken so much trouble to remove me would at length relent, and that I should be one day restored to you, Montalbert.

"Determining then to arm myself with patience, and to resign myself wholly to that Providence which had hitherto protected me, I laid down on my little bed, after securing as well as I could the other door of the chamber; but, still prepossessed with an idea of its dampness, I dared not undress myself; fatigue, however, overcame all apprehensions, and I slept several hours, till the calls of my nursling awakened me to a sense of his sorrows and my own.

"I recollected instantly all that had happened to me, and turned my eyes toward the immense windows of my room, between the thick wooden shutters of which day appeared. I arose, and with some difficulty opened one of them, and beheld from it a diversified landscape of great extent, terminated on one side by the sea at the distance of hardly a mile; a river, which ran from the country on the left of the castle, fell into the ocean just beneath, where a few mean houses, intermingled with some ruined buildings, gave me the idea of an ancient port; between the place where I was and the sea the ground was marshy and cheerless, but on each side the land formed a mountainous curve, covered with woods, of which another window gave me a more distinct view. I opened the casement by the utmost exertion of my strength; and refreshed by the morning air and the cheering light of the sun, I took courage to examine the place where it seemed but too probable I was destined long to remain.

"I found that I was in an immense fortress, or castle, situated on an eminence, and covering for a considerable space its unequal summit. Great square towers, more ancient than the rest, projected over the declivity; but the spaces between these had more the appearance of old Italian houses, such as I had been used to see. On the side next the sea there was a deep fossé, beyond which the hill fell perpendicularly into a sort of marsh; but on the other side, on which the window I had opened looked, it appeared as if that part of it, immediately near the house, had once been cultivated as a garden or plantation, for amidst inequalitites, which seemed to have been made by human art for the purposes of defence, were a few groups of very old cypresses, and square enclosures bordered with evergreens, now wild and run into disorder. Among them I observed two or three colossal statues and pillars of marble, all of which seemed to have suffered from violence, for I could perceive that they were broken and mutilated: beyond this ground, which I ought, perhaps, to call a garden, the country rose into very high mountains on each side of the river, leaving on its banks a valley of about half a mile in extent, were a few straggling cottages surrounded with olive grounds such as I remember in Sicily, and there were some plantations of oranges about the houses, with vinyards on the hills where the wood was cleared away. Higher mountains closed the land prospect, and the course of the river was lost among them.

"Such appeared, on my first survey of it, the place where I was, perhaps, to pass my life; but, I saw the bright sun above me, I beheld variety of objects illuminated by his beams, I felt the balmy breath of Heaven on my face, which seemed to restore the enfeebled powers of life. My boy smiled on me, and appeared uninjured in his health by the faitgues he had gone through, and hope and peace in some measure returned.

"In examining, however, and reflecting on my situation, I began to be convinced, that what the man, who conducted me, had told me was true; that I was placed where there was no possible means of escape&mdash;I knew not in what part of Italy I was; the people I had seen, spoke, I thought, a language unlike the Italian I had learned, and I guessed from the manner of the woman, when I addressed myself to her, that she understood me with difficulty. I was entirely in the power of the person, whoever it was, to whom this castle or feudal residence belonged, and probably the whole country round was inhabitied by vassals and dependents who dared not assist me, even if I had possessed the means of speaking to or bribing them.

"It was impossible to assign any other cause for what had happened to me, than the rage and indignation of Signora Belcastro; and I now endeavoured to recollect, what I had heard you, my Montalbert, relate of your mother's property and power in a part of Italy at a considerable distance from Naples, and of a suit at law she had gained against your elder brother, which had confirmed her in the considerable estates he had disputed with her.&mdash;Careless as to what related to property which I considered only as a barrier to our happiness, I had given less attention to this detail than to almost any thing else, relative to your mother, on which we had ever conversed; but now endeavouring to recall that conversation to my mind, I thought it certain that I was her prisoner in one of those baronial houses that belonged to her; and as she might have condemned me, defenseless as I was, to a convent, or even to a dungeon, I felt somethig like gratitude towards her, for not having treated me so cruelly as she might have done.

"The very circumstances of her confining me at all counteracted part of the uneasiness it inflicted; for I refelcted, that had not my Montalbert lived, and still remained attached to his Rosalie, it could never have been an object to his mother to banish me thus from evey place where he was likely to inquire for me. It would have been easier for her, and more inimical to the pretensions which offended her to have sent me and my son to England, where, in the obscurity of poverty, perhaps of disgrace, (for you will observe that in my letter I have related the manner of our marriage), I should have been too much depressed ever to have troubled her more either with my child's claims or my own. But in England Montalbert might have sought me, and I was persuaded that it was her fear of that, which had shut me up in a fortress on a distant part of the Italian shore.

"There was, however, something soothing to my imagination in the sight of the sea, the only medium by which I could reach my native land, for thither my wishes were directed; thither I believed Montalbert was gone in search of his Rosalie; and there, in my present disposition to sanguine hope, I flattered myself with believing we should meet again.

"The woman I had seen the evening before came into my room, and brought me dried fruit and biscuts for my breakfast; but she seemed to keep her resolution of being inexorably silent, and when I asked her to inform me what liberty would be granted me, she answered drily, that I might walk about the house. I then ventured to inquire where I was?&mdash;in what part of the country?

"The woman, fixing on me a look where pity seemed stifled by contempt and prejudice, answered, that I was in Calabria, and that, if my confinement had the happy effect of leading me from the heretical and bad opinions I had been brought up in, I ought to thank the blessed Saints who had permitted my escape from perdition. I cannot do justice to the strength of her language, for it was a dialect quite unlike common Italian; but the countenance and manner of the woman it would be still more difficult to paint. I received her admonition with an appearence of submission, and asked her if she belonged to a religious society?&mdash;She replied, that she was not a nun. This gave me no satisfaction; I wished to ask, to whom she belonged, if she was a domestic of the house?&mdash;and this question I endeavoured to make in the way least likely to alarm her integrity; but my art was all thrown away; neither then nor at any other time could I prevail on her to tell me whom she served, or by what prospect of advantage she was engaged to live a life more solitary than that of a convent. She was, in appearance and manners, a little, and but a little, superior to the peasantry of the domain whom I have since had occasion to see.

"I now took my little Harry in my arms, and began to survey my great and melancholy dwelling. I wandered from room to room&mdash;they appeared less gloomy, yet larger, than when I had seen them before; that next to mine seemed to have been used as an oratory, but, except a marble table, serving for an altar, and several seats covered with flowered velvet, of great antiquity, it was as destitute of furniture as the rest. Some, indeed, were quite empty, and others even without windows, in place of which pieces of board were nailed up, which rendered the apartments entirely dark. There seemed no end of these great gloomy rooms; the survey of them was little calculated to encourage that cheerful train of thought which I had indulged in the morning. As I looked over the bulastrades into the great hall, or cast my eyes along the extensive range of rooms and galleries, not even the brilliant light of an Italian sky could drive from my mind the idea of their being visited by nocturnal spectres.

"The remembrance of what my conductor had told me, that I could never escape, struck cold upon my heart. The lone and isolated situation of this mournful solitude seemed to confirm it but too strongly. I listened at a window to the sounds around the house, by which I thought I could judge whether there were many inhabitants; but I heard only the notes of birds, who were now in the season of song......No human voice was heard&mdash;no noise of mechanics, or labourers, about the offices; and towards evening, as the variety of birds without ceased their chorus, a silence so solemn pervaded the place, that I felt my terror return, as if my child and I were the only living creatures in this vast edifice.

"My silent keeper, however, regularly returned with food; and as I thought, on the second day, that she regarded me with less asperity, I again attempted to enter into conversation with her.

"I began by expressing my concern for the trouble I gave her, and asked, if she alone executed all the business of this large house?&mdash;She replied, that she had help when she wanted it.

'Alas! (then said I), how much happier you are than I am!&mdash;I should be content, methinks, if I had one female companion to speak to....Indeed I should be very much obliged to you, if you would now and then sit with me&mdash;it is extremely dreary never to hear the sound of a human voice.'

'Ahime, Signora! (replied the woman, who was called Cattina)&mdash;Ahime! you complain of want of company already!&mdash;and I, Signora, pray to the blessed Lady that we may not see at the castle any other persons than are here now, at least while I am its inhabitant; but perhaps, Signora, you might not hold in abhorrence such visitors as have been here in former times, and not so long ago, that is, not so very long ago neither.'

"I asked what visitors she could mean in a place like this, which seemed to me to be the very extremity of Europe.

'Yes, (replied she), it is a long long way off, to be sure, from any great town; but the visitors I mean are not Christians, as we are, of this country, but Pagans and Heretics like the wicked English. This castle has been plundered by the Algerines three or four times, and that is the reason that my&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;(she suddenly recollected herself, paused, and then went on)&mdash;that the owners of it never have resided here for I don't know how many years; and nothing is now ever left in the house of any value.'

"My very soul failed within me as I heard this.&mdash;'O merciful Heaven! (exclaimed I), and these Algerines yet come occasionally to this coast!&mdash;and you think it not impossible but that they may return hither?&mdash;&mdash;Tell me, Madam, I entreat you, how long it is since they were here?'

'Three or four years, perhaps, (answered Cattina, resuming her usual cold manner). I don't know, however, exactly as to that; perhaps they may not land on the coast again, not just here, for they know there is nothing of value for them to take: but then, indeed, we have no defense; formerly there was a guard kept at the castle, and those guns that you see there below were kept loaded to drive away the infidels, but all that is laid aside now. For my part I am not much afraid.'

"I now doubted whether Cattina had not told me this, to add to my punishment by all the aggravation of imaginary terrors. I had hardly courage to inquire farther; yet I ventured to make her some farther questions, and she took me to a window on the southern side of the house, where she showed me evident marks of the depredations made by the Barbarians, who had she said, about five and twenty years before landed to the number of fifty, and killed all the men who were then in the house, carrying off the women and children, not only from the castle, but the villages around it.&mdash;'And who (said I), then resided in the castle?&mdash;Were the owners themselves among those who suffered?'

"Cattina looked as if she would say&mdash;'And do you really think yourself cunning enough to engage me, by these questions, to betray my trust?'&mdash;She then, affecting not perfectly to understand my question, for we had already been once or twice puzzled in our dialogue, left me to brood alone over the additional dread she had impressed upon me. I went to the window and looked upon the sea, which I had formerly gazed at with so much pleasure: now, as the last rays of the setting sun illuminated its waves with glowing light, I fancied that they might guide some inhuman pirates towards these lonely and defenceless walls, and that the vengeance of your mother, your cruel mother had looked forward with malignant satisfaction to such a catastrophe, and had devoted me and my child to slavery&mdash;a fate infinitely worse than death.

"O Montalbert! what a night I passed after this discovery!&mdash;I forgot my real terrors only to be assaulted by all that fancy could collect: yet, I heard you, I saw you in my dreams, but it was contending with these lawless plunderers of the sea, for the safety of your wife and your boy......I saw you struggling with numbers; I shrieked, awoke, and listened in breathless terror to hear if this fearful vision was not realised, though you, Montalbert, I knew were not there. All, however, was still around me, and I heard only the soft breathing of my child as he lay sleeping on my arm, while my tears fell on his cheek. Thus passed the first eight and forty hours of my abode here."

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.