The Midnight Bell/Volume II/Chapter XV

CHAPTER XV.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"'I do.'

"'Is it your real name?'

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

"'It is not.'

"'What is your real name?'

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

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

"'No.'

"'You are an Italian?'

"'No.'

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

"'I am not.'

"'But you came from Italy to Paris?'

"'I did.'

"'How long have you been in France?'

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

"'What brought you to Paris?'

"'My motive I must decline revealing.'

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

"'Why should you draw that inference?'

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

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

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

"'I brought money with me from Italy.'

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

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

"'I did not.'

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

"'I did not.'

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

"'I did.'

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

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

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

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

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

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

"'Name it.'

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

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

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

"'Where are your proofs?'

"'You shall have them.'

"The lieutenant smiled contemptuously.

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

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

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

"Eight months elapsed in an alternate succession of fear and expectation, before I was again summoned to appear in the hall; and the result of what then passed was, that no satisfactory corroborations of the story I had related having been procured by those employed for that purpose by the lieutenant, the tale I had told was deemed either to have been framed by myself for my own preservation, or an invention delivered to me by the state of Venice when commissioned by it into France, and which I had been commanded to recount in case of my being apprehended, as an excuse for my ambiguous conduct; and that the space of two days only would be allowed me to consider whether I preferred, by confessing my real character, to throw myself on the mercy of my judges, or, by persisting in my deceit, to provoke them to draw from me the truth by torture.

"In answer to this decree, I could only repeat, in the most solemn terms, my innocence of the fact of which they accused me.

"They undoubtedly heard my declarations without interruption, but I could clearly perceive that their opinions were decided, and that either they were not, or would not be, moved by my vows and asseverations.

"On entering my prison I threw myself on my mattress, and amidst the sorrows that seemed to await me, the only idea which induced me to look forward with a degree of calmness and resignation to the fate with which I was threatened, was, that the unjust punishment I was about to suffer, might be accepted by him who alone could read my heart, in expiation of the innocent blood I had shed.

"At length, the day big to me with terror and agony arrived; at an early hour I was once more led into the hall, and the lieutenant again inquired, 'Whether my stubbornness had relaxed, and I was willing to confess my crime?'

"I reiterated my vows and asseverations of innocence; but they and my prayers for mercy were heard with equal indifference, and I was dragged into that earthly hell, where demons, in the shape of men, riot in acts of wanton cruelty.

"Innumerable instruments of torture, of which I knew not the use, but feared too soon to learn it of each I beheld, were suspended against the walls, and scattered on the floor. At one end was an immense fire, which, notwithstanding its size, two men, whose savage countenances were by no means the least terrific features of this soul-harrowing scene, were feeding with every provocative of fierceness.

"Again it was recommended to me to confess ere it was too late, and again I could only repeat, however incredulous were my hearers, that I had nothing to confess.

"I was then placed in a chair, and a circle of about three inches in diameter on the top of my head shaved bare of its hair.

"The soles of my feet and my breast were afterwards bared, and being fastened in the chair, it was drawn near to the fire, to the fierceness of which the naked parts of my body were exposed, whilst large drops of the coldest water were made to fall singly on the crown of my head.

"In a few minutes the pangs produced by the contrast of feelings I was undergoing, became so intense that I shrieked violently. The lieutenant approached me, and asked, 'if I was willing to end my punishment by confession?'

"Had I at the moment been able to have conceived any other means of freeing myself from the sufferings I was enduring, I should without hesitation have adopted it; but I was well aware, that if, to liberate myself at the present moment, I uttered a false confession, I could not afterwards retract it, and that I should in the end probably only suffer the more severely for having allowed their false accusation to be a just one; I therefore only continued to declare my innocence, and in the most moving terms to supplicate for mercy.

"In a quarter of an hour's time the torture inflicted on me became agonising, past all endurance, and I besought my tormentors to give me death: my hands and feet were bound; I had bit my tongue, till the blood streamed from my mouth upon my breast; and my eyes, which the pain I was undergoing had widely extended, from being exposed to the fierceness of the fire, were far from forming the least part of my sufferings.

"Every moment was now so forcibly diminishing the powers of nature, that the physician, who had been brought to announce to my tormentors when I had undergone what my frame could endure, commanded me to be gradually removed from the fire, and the water to cease dropping. I had been drawn back only a few feet, when, exhausted by the agony I had endured, the little strength I had remaining fled from me, and I fainted whilst yet bound in the chair of torture."