The Midnight Bell/Volume III/Chapter XVIII

CHAPTER XVIII.

A fervent kiss, imprinted on her cold lips, recalled Lauretta into existence, and she opened her eyes in the wildest apprehension: but oh! what a glow of mingled ecstasy and delight warmed her frozen blood, when she perceived that it was Alphonsus, her beloved Alphonsus, who had bestowed the kiss that had awakened her from her trance.

In an unbounded transport of joy she embraced him as he stood by her side; then springing from the bed on which she had been laid, she flew to meet the embrace of her father, and then again sunk on the neck of her Alphonsus.

When their mutual effusions of joy gave room for an explanation on the part of count Byroff, Lauretta learnt from the lips of her father, whom it had been her first care to teach Alphonsus to know as such, that she was still in the shepherd's cottage, that Kroonzer had been put to flight by the united efforts of her father and the peasant, and that the chevalier had been killed by a blow from the hand of her husband, with the oaken staff which he had first obtained from the young peasant when he overcame him, and which Alphonsus had wrested from him.

Alphonsus then briefly informed Lauretta of the manner in which he had early that morning left Smaldart castle, and by the most fortunate chance had arrived to her rescue at the moment she was on the point of falling a prey to the villainy of Theodore.

Lauretta shuddered at the idea of the danger she had so unexpectedly escaped, and again clasped to her breast the author of her preservation: he returned her embrace with all the fervor of that warm affection he bore her, and then turning to count Byroff, he said, "Advise me, I beseech you, what course to follow, whither to bend my steps."

"What opposes your now returning to your humble dwelling immediately?" asked the count.

"To meet the baron Smaldart?" rejoined Alphonsus.

"The law is on your side:" resumed count Byroff.

"I should feel less reluctance to behold him if it were against me;" replied Alphonsus. "I cannot bear to meet the man I have so deeply wounded, when I know him void of the means of redress.—He has ever considered Theodore with the partiality of a father, and consequently must have viewed the enormity of his crimes with a softening eye; can he then do otherwise than detest the man who has deprived him of the darling of his heart?—I am convinced I have not acted wrongly: thus I cannot submit to sue for his forgiveness; and the compassion I feel for the grief I shall have excited in the breast of one who has behaved towards me with the kindness I have experienced from the baron Smaldart, commands me not to return to a spot where my presence might seem a triumph over the sorrow I had occasioned: no! I will seek some distant asylum, where, living forgotten, I shall not renew his misery."

"From a selfish motive," said count Byroff, "I warmly subscribe to your idea of leaving this part of the empire; for, having been seen by Kroonzer, it is absolutely necessary for the preservation of my life, that I should fly immediately from hence; thus, should you resolve to return to your late dwelling, I must forego the society of my child: should you remove to some distant spot, I may still be your companion."

The happiness of his Lauretta was at all times the first consideration of Alphonsus; and as he now read speakingly in her blue eyes, her dislike to her separation from her father, he instantly declared that he was resolved on not returning to the vicinity of Smaldart castle, and prepared to travel in any direction the count should dictate as most likely to ensure his safety.

Mutual satisfaction beamed in the eyes of the count and Lauretta, at this declaration of Alphonsus; and the count pressed that they might set out immediately.

In a few minutes the horses were prepared by the peasant, whom count Byroff having liberally rewarded for his exertions, and, at the instigation of Alphonsus, commanded him to send a messenger to Smaldart castle, with a full and exact account of the transactions of the morning, they departed, bending their course, in compliance with the directions of the count, towards the north.

Having stopped during the day no longer than was absolutely necessary for the refreshment of themselves and their horses, they arrived towards night at a little inn, where count Byroff said he trusted himself to be in safety.

Immediately on their being left alone in an apartment of the inn, Lauretta asked of her father the conclusion of his history; eager to learn the mystery of the situation in which she had at first seen him, and the cause of the danger he had so strongly expressed of being overtaken during the course of their day's journey.

"My child," answered count Byroff, "I confess that your curiosity has been strongly excited, but weightier considerations must supersede its gratification; we must look forward to the necessities of the future, ere we allow ourselves leisure to indulge in the remembrance of the past." Then addressing himself to Alphonsus, "Have you formed any plan of future life?" he asked.

Alphonsus answered, not.

After a pause, count Byroff continued, "You have appeared thoughtful during our journey: I conjectured you might have been deliberating on some measures which you were undecided whether or not to adopt."

"You conjectured rightly," replied Alphonsus, "in thinking my mind thus employed."

"What were your thoughts?"

"I fear you will not approve them; however, be assured I will do nothing without the concurrence of yourself and my Lauretta."

Count Byroff besought him to proceed.

"My Lauretta," he continued, "has doubtless related to you the ambiguous and sorrowful event which marks my early life?"

"She has."

"I cannot die happy, unless I solve the mystery by which I am driven a wanderer upon the world; its recollection clouds every moment of my existence, and renders me, in the summer of life, a gloomy and thoughtful companion to her, who, knowing the cause of my melancholy, bears, with an angel-like patience, the sour effects it will at times, in spite of my endeavours to coerce them, produce in me. Were it not better at once to end these agonising doubts, to visit the neighbourhood of Cohenburg castle, and, by discovering if possible the truth, learn at once my future doom?"

"It is a point," returned count Byroff, "whereon I cannot pretend to advise you; your sole guide must be the impulse of your own heart."

"But," said Lauretta, "whence is the intelligence you wish to procure to be gained?—The country round Cohenburg is doubtless unacquainted with the truth, or the young miner, the son of one of your father's vassals, must have known it:—your uncle, he informed you, was gone, no one knew whither, and your mother dead!"

"He said the same of me," returned Alphonsus; "thus his information in this point sways me not.—But he pronounced the castle to be deserted; this was a matter in which he could not be deceived; thus if I visit it secretly, I can offend no one by so doing; and I will guard against wounding my conscience by the relation of any discovery I may there make, should its secrecy seem to be required of me by the injunctions laid on me by my mother: and Oh! I have for some time laboured with an indescribable prepossession that I shall gain knowledge of moment, if I do visit it."

"You are then resolved?" said count Byroff.

"I have nothing wanting to complete my resolution, since you and my Lauretta do not seem to oppose it, but the means of accomplishing my journey."

"I have that in my possession," replied the count, "which, with frugality, will yet support us many weeks."

"Then to-morrow, with the dawn, I will once more turn my steps towards my native soil," said Alphonsus.

The remainder of the evening was spent by them in concerting the route they should travel; and having planned it to their mutual satisfaction, they at an early hour retired to rest.

Reflection on what might be the event of a long-wished, and at length projected, undertaking, suffered Alphonsus to sleep but little, and he rose with the dawn to awake his fellow-traveller: the count instantly obeyed his summons, and at sunrise they set forward on their journey.

As they proceeded, count Byroff lightened the way by again commencing the narrative of his life, in complaisance to the curiosity of Alphonsus; and being arrived at the period to which he had deduced his story, when in the shepherd's cottage he had related it to Lauretta, he thus went on.

"When I had recovered from the influence of the draught I had taken, which had been only a sleeping potion of a very strong nature, the first object on which I opened my eyes, was a black man sitting by my side, in a dry ditch, under the shade of a hedge; the time was twilight in the evening, and being too dusk for me accurately to discern his features, I perceived not, until he spoke, that my companion was the young jailer, with a new countenance: and when I did know him, I was some moments at a loss whether to express my astonishment first, at his change of colour, or my own extraordinary appearance, for I found myself habited in the garments of a French woman of mean rank.

"'Ah, monsieur!' cried he immediately on beholding me open my eyes, 'how glad am I to see you awake again, and out of that vile prison!—Don't you know me, monsieur?' continued he, observing that my eyes were fixed on him in doubt.

"'I think I do now,' I returned, after having been convinced by his voice who he was: 'but I hardly know myself.'

"'I thought how it would be when you awoke,' replied he; 'I contrived these disguises that we might pass unnoticed as beggars;—but here, Monsieur, take a sup of wine, and eat a bit of bread,' said he, pulling a flask and a crust from his pocket, 'and refresh yourself; for you must be faint with so long fasting.'

"I readily accepted his offer; and while the flask was at my mouth, he exclaimed, 'Dieu merci, that we are out of that horrid place!'

"'Why, you were not a prisoner?' I said.

"'Oh no, monsieur; but I felt so much for the poor creatures that were, that I could not bear to see them suffer any longer.—But, however, we are out now, and I hope for ever:—woe be to us if we get in again!'

"'But how did we get out, my good fellow?—How did you contrive our escape?' I asked.

"'I'll tell you another time, monsieur: we must not talk about it any more now, for fear we should be overheard:—Jacques Perlet will tell you all about it another time.—Oh, but, monsieur, you must not call me Jacques now, but some other name, such as blacks go by:—what shall it be, monsieur?'

"'Shall it be Caesar?' I replied.

"'Aye, monsieur,' said he, 'as well as any.—Now, monsieur, please to remember that, for carrying on my plan, you must, if you please, pretend to be my wife; your features are very delicate, and you may easily pass for a woman; and leave the rest to Jac—Caesar I mean, monsieur."

"I readily agreed to any plan of security in my present situation; and Jacques then told me we must now walk forwards to a small auberge, which he said he knew stood rather sequestered from the road, and where we were to pass the night.

"In our way, I asked him how far we were from Paris.

"'Oh, nine or ten lieues, monsieur, ' answered he.

"'By what means did we perform the journey?'

"'It is so dark, monsieur,' said he, 'that I can't see whether any body is near us or not;—I durst not tell you any thing till by and by.'

"I checked my curiosity, conscious how judiciously my guide was acting; and we arrived within sight of the little inn in silence.

"According to the directions of Jacques, I asked in French for a mean supper and bed, while my companion only occasionally spoke in the vitiated manner in which negroes usually pronounce a language which they have no opportunity of learning but by the ear.

"I was rejoiced to perceive that our stratagem passed unsuspected; and when we retired to bed, which we did in the characters of husband and wife, the better to conceal our real ones, Jacques desired me to sit down, saying he must have a little chat with me before we went to bed, for his tongue was burning to tell me how nicely he had managed our escape.

"I was, as you may suppose, anxious to learn how my salvation from death had been effected during the time of my insensibility; and placing myself on the foot of the bed, I desired him to begin; he seated himself on the ground by my side, and leaning his arm upon the bed, spoke thus:

"'In the first place, monsieur, I must tell you a little about who I am, that you may the better understand my reasons for what I have done.—My father, monsieur, was a very honest savetier in the fauxbourg St. Antoine, and at one time earned a very comfortable living; but misfortunes will happen to the best of people, and one mishap or another had obliged him to borrow small sums of money from several of his neighbours, chiefly to defray the expenses of my mother's illness and funeral, all which he would honestly have repaid, I am sure, if he had lived; but he died, poor man, soon after, and left me without a friend in the world, except my uncle Perlet, the old jailer at the Bastile, and a brother we had none of us heard of for many years.

"'Well, I had been brought up to my father's trade; and if he had not left me heir to his debts as well as to his business, (which God forbid I should blame him for; for how could he have helped it, if even he had known he had been going to die?) I might have gained myself a pretty livelihood: but his creditors threatened to arrest me for the money, and so my uncle Perlet, too avaricious to pay it for me, and too proud to see his nephew confined in a jail, though he lived in a prison himself, took me to serve under him in the Bastile.

"'I did not like going there at all; but what could I do, monsieur? I thought it was better than starving; but by the time I had been there a couple of months, which was about the time I first came to bring you your portion of bread and water, I would almost sooner have died than have staid much longer where I was; for the frightful things I saw, and the groans, and moans, and shrieks I heard in that dismal place, would freeze your blood, and make your hair stand on end, monsieur, if I was to tell you them all.'

"I sighed in the affirmative to Jacques' exclamation; and he continued: 'Ah, monsieur, you have had your share of their devil's works, I dare say?'

"'It is past now, so let us drive away its remembrance,' I replied.

"'I wish I could, monsieur: but I shall dream of it many a night to come, I dare say.—My uncle,' continued he, 'had a room where he and I used to sit by ourselves in an evening: and as my head was continually running upon the poor unhappy wretches I attended in the day-time, I could not forbear questioning him about them; and many a time, when I heard the story of a poor helpless creature condemned to die by the rack, or poison, I could not help thinking of the fate of his persecutors at a future day, that all of us must see.

"'Sometimes I used to remonstrate with my uncle on the cruelty with which he often assisted in using the unhappy prisoners; but his answer always was, 'Jacques, I am a true lover of my king, and I'll never treat those kindly, depend upon it, that it is his pleasure to have otherwise dealt by.'—'But may not obedience,' I would answer, 'be carried so far as to make conscience troublesome?'

"'Impossible, child,' he once answered me, when I had thus spoken to him; 'the king is the representative of God on earth, chosen by himself; thus we can never be doing wrong, while we implicitly obey his commands.'—'Then,' returned I, 'how careful ought the king to be, for his own sake, that his conduct is kind, merciful, and forgiving, since, as you say, the consciences of all his subjects, if they have done amiss in compliance with his commands, are cleared from guilt; of course the weight of all their bad actions must lie upon his conscience instead of theirs, and he be punished accordingly hereafter.'

"'You are a foolish boy,' cried he, 'and don't understand these matters.'

"'I made him no answer; for truly, monsieur, I did not wish to know more than I already did of a conduct that seemed to me void of reason and humanity; I had only a mind to ask him whether he prayed to the king instead of le bon Dieu; but I durst not, for fear he should think I was laughing at him, and use me as hardly as he had done others for less offences.'

"I could not help smiling at Jacques's philosophy; he laughed too, and thus went on—

"'Well, monsieur, every day I began to long more and more to quit my situation: but it was a thing I almost despaired to be able to do; for I was well aware that my uncle would never give his consent to my leaving the Bastile for any other employment, for fear I should tell tales out of prison; so I knew the only method must be to run away to a distance from Paris; but then I had not much money, and I did not much like to make such an attempt without a companion.

"'Some how, monsieur, I had taken a liking to you above any of the prisoners I attended; and all I kept wishing for, was some means of setting you at liberty, that we might run away together; I knew, if I could contrive it, you could not dislike it, and there was something in your countenance that told me you would be kind to me afterwards.

"'Oh, monsieur! how often have I wished to sit and talk half an hour or an hour with you, and tell you how much I pitied you, and how I wished to serve you; but I durst not, for all the walls in that Bastile have eyes and ears, I believe; for nothing can be said or done but what is known by my uncle and the governor.—I often inquired of my uncle something about you, and I learnt, a little at a time, that you were, as most of the other prisoners are, a gentleman; and that you were only retained in prison because they were afraid to let you out, for fear you should expose the secrets of their tyranny.

"'And is it owing to the king that the poor gentleman suffers all this for nothing?' said I.

"'Partly,' my uncle answered, 'and partly to those who first represented him to sa majesté, as obnoxious to the state.'

"'Then the king has some good friends, who lighten the burden of his conscience by taking a little of it upon their own,' said I.

"'My uncle answered me with a look which determined me never to hazard a joke again, on what he deemed so sacred a subject.

"'About five weeks ago, my uncle told me, as he had given up the care of half his prisoners to me, I must fill every part of the office myself, and accordingly on the next morning must carry a dose of poison into the apartment of a marquis, who was condemned to die: I was afraid of disobeying my uncle; and I knew besides that if I did not do it, somebody else would, so that my refusal would be of no service to the poor wretch; and thus, at the time appointed, I attended the governor to the cell, just as I came with him into yours, monsieur, on the morning when he thought he was giving you your last dose: but I was too sly for him,—eh, monsieur?

"'When the poor gentleman had swallowed the draught, and the governor had left the apartment, my uncle locked the door upon the dying man, saying, 'nobody must go in any more till he was dead.'

"'What! must we leave him all alone at this terrible moment?' asked I.

"'Why, does he want any body to help him to die?'" returned my uncle.

"'Ah, pauvre diable! I wish it was over with him,' said I.

"'It won't be long, I'll answer for it,' he replied, and then commanded me to leave the door by which I was standing, and could not help trying to listen what was passing within.

"'In the evening, when all the prison doors were double locked for the night, he called me to follow him up stairs, and we went together into the poor marquis's apartment. Oh dear, monsieur, I shall never forget it. There lay the poor gentleman dead and cold, and all his features so dreadfully distorted, and his eyes and mouth wide open, that I should have run out of the room with fright if my uncle had not held me by the collar.

"'Now,' said my uncle, 'we must carry the corpse into the cimetière, and bury it.'

"'I was forced to obey, and we carried down the body to the spot he had named, where stood a coffin ready to receive it.

"'I suppose you think,' said he, 'I am going to bury this man? No! no! I know a better trick than that; I'll never bury a corpse whilst I can get well paid for letting it remain above ground.' He then told me, that a surgeon in La rue de Saint Etienne le grand always bought the bodies of him to dissect; and that as he had the privilege of passing the draw-bridge when he pleased, he had always carried them to him by night; 'but,' said he, 'I'll contrive for you to carry this one, and I'll bury the coffin in the mean time.'

"'Well, monsieur, the body was put into a sack; I pretended it was so heavy I could not carry it; my uncle knew better, and I was forced to set off according to his directions: he went with me to the draw-bridge, and having whispered the guards, they let me pass.

"'Do you know, monsieur, I'd wager my life, the governor and he went shares in selling the dead men; for nobody, I had often heard my uncle say, could go over the draw-bridge without the governor's knowing it, and giving leave.

"'Notwithstanding the weight of my burden, I ran all the way; for not being accustomed to be so near dead people, I thought every moment I could feel him stirring and groaning.

"'When I had got quit of my load, I began to consider whether I should go back or not; I felt in my pocket to see how much money I was worth in case I took the chance of running away, when, pardi, monsieur! if I had not left my purse at home. I did not know what to do now; for having nothing to support myself with, I thought I could not go far without money, so might be heard of by my uncle, taken back to the Bastile, and perhaps roasted alive for what I had done, by the great fire in that room where all the irons are hanging about: I trembled at the very thought of it, and so ran back as fast as my legs could carry me.

"'When I returned back to my uncle, he gave me an écu de six francs out of his profits, as a reward for what I had done, saying, he would double it the next job, for he was determined I should not want for encouragement, and I should soon have another, for monsieur Montville had not much longer to live.

"'I was not a little surprised and disturbed at hearing this, monsieur, as you may suppose; and I was sure that if any thing could be done, it must be done directly. Well, I kept thinking, and thinking, and no way could I contrive to get you out; at last a plan came into my head, and I resolved I would try it whether it succeeded or not. I complained to my uncle that I had got a very bad tooth-ache, and told him that I had frequently been subject to it, and that my father had been used to give me some laudanum to cure it, and begged that he would too.

"'He gave me a small phial about half full, warning me to be very careful how I used it; I immediately ran with it to my own chamber, and having poured it into the phial that had held the poison given to the poor dead marquis, and which I had washed out for that purpose, I let fall the empty phial: it broke with the fall, just as I wished; I ran down to my uncle with the broken pieces in my hand, and telling him my misfortune, begged him to give me some more.

"'The old fox was taken in for once, monsieur, and he brought me about as much as before.

"'I suppose,' said I, as I took it from him, 'if I was to drink all this stuff, it would kill me?'

"'Twice as much would,' he replied: 'that would make you sleep for about two days.'

"'I found by this that my first quantity would have been enough for what I wanted with it, but however I thought it was no bad thing to have two doses by me, in case any accident happened to one of them; and so I put them both carefully by, and by the next night my tooth-ache was gone.

"'Well, monsieur, at last the day was fixed for you to die upon: I found means of coming to your window, as you must recollect, the night before; and when I told you not to refuse to drink any thing that was offered you, I said it because I was afraid you might by some means spill the potion that would be given to you, thinking it to be poison, as you could not know I had contrived to give you laudanum in its stead, and then might be obliged to take the poison indeed, as a second dose would have been brought you, that I should have had no opportunity of changing.

"'When I left the outside of your prison window, I went and got one of my phials half full of laudanum. Now the poison phials are always full; so I knew my false one must be so too, or it would discover the trick. I durst not put in any more laudanum for fear I should kill you, and if I filled it up with water, it would look so much paler than the poison; so at last, what do you think I did, monsieur?—why, I filled it up with treacle and water, and it looked quite black, just like what it should have been.

"'When morning came, I was called to attend the governor: my uncle gave me the phial of poison; and I, to deceive him, said in a low voice, 'to-night I shall earn deux écus.' He nodded significantly, and I followed the governor and his guards. At the turn from the last flight of stairs into the gallery, I stopped an instant, and snatching my phial from my bosom, and slipping the other into its place, I made a noise with my feet as if saving myself from falling; and then running a step or two after the governor, and rubbing my knee as if I had bruised it, 'better so than a broken leg,' I cried: the governor turned round and looked at me; still rubbing my knee, I drew up a face which made him smile at my supposed accident, and he walked on without suspicion.'"

The travellers at this moment arrived within sight of a small house, and Alphonsus interrupted the count's narrative, by proposing, that, if it proved a house of public accommodation, they should make it their abode for the night, as the twilight was already beginning to fall. To this proposal count Byroff agreed; and the habitation proving to be such as they wished it, they here put an end to their day's journey.