The Midnight Bell/Volume III/Chapter XX

CHAPTER XX.

On the preceding night, the faces of such of the banditti as had been out prowling, had been disguised with some colouring, which was always their custom when going on any expedition; and being now cleared from it, Jacques recognised, in the person of Kroonzer, the man with whom his brother had left France, of which occurrence this was the brief account: Kroonzer was the son of a German man and French woman; his residence had been chiefly in France, and his trade, from his infancy, none of the most creditable; his parents having been people, who, by assuming various disguises and characters in various places, had made these their means of imposing on the credulous, and defrauding the ignorant; thus gaining a fortuitous subsistence, whilst they cautiously kept within the pale of the law, and yet were in reality little better than common thieves.

"This mode of life had initiated Kroonzer into all the intrigues of Paris; and from his first herding with the banditti, to whose knowledge he had been led by accident, he had become extremely useful to them, by going annually into France, and finding means of disposing to advantage of such rings, watches, and other trinkets of value, as had fallen into their hands, and, before their knowledge of Kroonzer, had proved of little worth to them, as no one amongst them had ventured to hazard the experiment of changing them into money.

"It was in one of these expeditions that Kroonzer became acquainted with Jacques's brother; and having found him to be a man whom he believed would be a valuable acquisition to their society, he had enticed him into Germany under false promises, nor made the real truth known to him till he introduced him to his comrades; a measure which he had however been strictly forbidden by the captain ever again to repeat. Guillaume Perlet was, as it fortunately happened for the security of the banditti, an acceptable subject; for, preferring any kind of idleness to work, his new mode of life was pleasing to him the first moment of his being made acquainted with it.

"The captain treated me with great kindness and attention, and indeed my health required it, for the sudden change from eleven years of inactivity, to the great fatigue I had the last twenty days been undergoing, had reduced me to a state of excessive weakness.

"For the first year, I was not required to do any thing more in the various business of our household, of which every one in his turn took a part, than what I chose for my own amusement; nor during the whole of the time I lived amongst the banditti, in all nearly eight years, was any thing more asked of me than to take my turn in the evening and nightly watches.

"The evening watch was to answer the tucket sounded by the banditti, on their return from an excursion, that, in case of the officers of justice having entered their haunt during their absence, they might thus be apprised of it, ere they entered the castle, and, by flying, prevent their being taken with their spoils upon them, which would prove sure evidences of their guilt.

"Of the night watch this was the import; that those who did not go out in the quest of plunder watched for two hours alternately in the hall of the castle, that the fraternity might not be surprised in their sleep.

"During the first six years of my residence amongst the banditti, no circumstance worth relating occurred; and as I was not constrained to act the part of a plunderer, considering myself comparatively free from guilt, I felt myself tolerably happy: at the expiration of that period the captain died.

"A ballot immediately took place for appointing him a successor, and the majority of suffrages fell upon Kroonzer.

"About three months after his becoming leader of the fraternity, was the time at which he had always been accustomed to visit France; and as no one was deemed so fit for the business of that expedition as himself; he again undertook to perform it, notwithstanding his rise to his present situation; and accordingly, having appointed a deputy to guide the helm until his return, he departed as usual.

"The time of his absence was marked with an event of some moment: this was the death of Guillaume Perlet; and for some weeks it required all my most eloquent persuasions and remonstrances to keep Jacques from exceeding the bounds of reasonable sorrow on the loss of his brother; and he declared, that the thought of leaving me alone in my present situation, was his only inducement to struggle against death.

"At the stated time Kroonzer returned, and with him came the chevalier D'Aignon.

"Kroonzer had one fault,—it was that inordinate thirst of money which often leads its possessor to gratify in a heedless moment his ruling passion, and to repent at leisure that he did not subdue it. Conscious that he had acted wrongly, and yet too honourable to attempt a deceit which might endanger the security of those to whom the strongest ties of fellowship connected him,—when Theodore had retired for the night (for no one has a right to question the captain, and thus we knew not yet on what motive Theodore was brought amongst us), he candidly confessed the inconsiderate measure of which he had been guilty, and asked our advice how to act.

"He informed us, that during his visits to Paris, he had been much in the habit of frequenting gaming-tables, at many of which he had for the last three years frequently seen the chevalier, and had at times, he said, won of him sums of money to no small amount.—'He always paid his money without concern, and was so eager to enter into any measure for squandering it,' continued Kroonzer, 'that I soon found him to be a fit subject to exercise my talents upon. No very favourable opportunity offered to forward my plans on him, till a few days ago, happening to meet him at a tavern where he was engaged at dice with a young nobleman, and a dispute arising between them, and swords being called in to adjust their quarrel, the young man fell by the hand of the chevalier: his rage was now lost in fear for his own safety, and he exclaimed madly, that he was lost, ruined, and a dead man. I was the only one in the room with them; and approaching him, I told him if he would sign a draft for five hundred louis-d'ors, which I drew from my pocket, I would insure his safety: he immediately acquiesced, and I gloried in my success, till the reflection of a few moments told me how wrongly I had been acting, since I had no other means of securing him but by bringing him hither; and I could not steel my heart into being the villain to desert him, now he had paid me so liberally for his protection; I accordingly effected his escape, and I have secured my reward: but how shall we secure our own safety?'

"At length it was agreed that Theodore should take an oath, by which he imprecated vengeance on himself if ever he betrayed us, or our haunt; and that we each separately, in his presence, should bind ourselves by a solemn vow, to seek his life, if ever he was known, by the slightest insinuation, to disregard the oath by which he was restricted.

"He willingly agreed to this proposal, probably foreseeing that a refusal would have caused him to have been retained a prisoner amongst us for life; a plan which was first suggested by one of the banditti; but which Kroonzer feared to adopt, knowing that if by any means the haunt should be detected by the officers of justice, the finding a man of rank imprisoned in it, would be an unsurmountable evidence against them on their trial.

"A short time after, on the promise of three hundred louis-d'ors from the chevalier, in addition to the sum Kroonzer had already received, he again set out for Paris, in order to gain intelligence of Theodore's antagonist; and on his return, brought information that the wound had not proved mortal, and that the young nobleman was in a fair way of recovery.

"Theodore immediately left us, and we heard no more of him till three days before your being brought to the decayed castle. It was one night about this time, that the man who held the night watch gave the alarm, having seen, as he said, a man on horseback riding amongst the ruins: the banditti, to whom every unknown person wore the dread appearance of a spy, or officer of justice, immediately prepared themselves for defence; but a few minutes eased their doubts, by their hearing the voice of the chevalier in the hall of the castle.

"Kroonzer then first lamented that he had not interdicted to him their haunt; but still a prey to interest, he again consented to serve him, and Theodore departed before day-break.

"On his departure, Kroonzer informed us that Theodore had bought him, by one thousand louis-d'ors, to secrete in the castle his sister, who, he said, had formed an engagement with a man much her inferior in life, and which he meant to prevent from taking place, by immuring her in a convent, when he had found one suited to his wishes; but should in the mean time leave her with us, judging it expedient immediately to carry her away from her paramour.

"Kroonzer had promised to fetch this supposed sister, whom he had been told to treat with the greatest kindness, and requested me to be his companion in the expedition.

"The story told by Theodore had appeared to me plausible, and his conduct by no means improper: I accordingly consented, and another of the banditti was chosen to attend us; and at the appointed time, having disguised ourselves, we set out on our journey in an old carriage which had been left in the castle before any of the banditti had known it, and in which we carried provision to supply us on our journey.

"We stopped only twice for a short space of time; the first inn Kroonzer did not like, being in too public a situation: accordingly we proceeded to the cottage where you remained an entire day, and bargained with its owner for our admittance on our return, for he had already been cautioned by Theodore against travelling in the day:—as to the second inn, as he proposed staying at it only a short time on his return, and that in the dead of the night, he paid little attention to its situation.

"We proceeded to the spot where Kroonzer had agreed to meet the chevalier; a tap at the window was the signal to the little girl who attended you to give the alarm of fire, and then open the door to the chevalier under the pretence of running out to call for assistance; we entered, and when you fainted in our arms, we immediately carried you to the vehicle by which our companion was waiting for us at a short distance from your cottage; he entered it with you, and Kroonzer and myself mounted the horses and drove on. Your dress, and the cottage in which we found you, so ill suited to the character of the chevalier's sister, first raised suspicions in us of the truth of what Theodore had told us; but he laughed at our scruples, and explained them away, though I must confess not very satisfactorily either to Kroonzer or myself.

"At the little inn where we first stopped, a plausible story, told by Kroonzer, lulled the curiosity awakened in the host and his guests by our appearance; and at the retired cottage of old Bartha we did not think it necessary to render any account of our actions."

Lauretta could not here forbear interrupting her father to inquire, why Kroonzer, since he had no design upon her life, had drawn his sword, on her supplicating the pity of him who had been her companion in the carriage?

Count Byroff informed her, that it had been drawn by him as a tacit threat to his companion, to prevent his informing her of her destination, which had been particularly forbidden by the chevalier, and which he had not yet had an opportunity of imparting to his comrade.

"After we left this inn," continued the count, "we became your companions; and our comrade, the driver, having fastened our third horse to the back of the vehicle, and being arrived at Bartha's cottage, we sent our companion forward upon it to the castle to prepare for your reception, which had been forgotten by Kroonzer in the hurry of his setting out.

"The vehicle so long disused had been so shattered by the journey, the greatest part of which lay, as you must have remarked, over uneven ground, that we thought it unsafe to proceed farther in it; and accordingly, whilst you were in the cottage, we carried it into the middle of a neighbouring wood, where we left it, and returned with the horses to the cottage:—our journey from thence to the castle I need not repeat."

"It was doubtless, then," said Lauretta, "one of the banditti whom I saw enter a door in the hall of the castle, and whose appearance so much alarmed me, from my conjecturing him to have been Theodore?"

"It was," replied the count; "he knew not that we were returned, and having unguardedly entered the hall, made a precipitate retreat on seeing us; for we had determined, if possible, not to let you suppose the castle inhabited, that in case of your escaping from us, or hereafter, by any means, mixing again with the world, you might have no clue for suspecting those on whom your anger would have fallen to be concealed in a nest of deserted ruins."

"Who were those persons that approached my prison door on the second night of my confinement?" asked Lauretta.

"Some of the banditti," answered count Byroff, "who having been out for nearly three days on an expedition of plunder, knew not where you were lodged, and were proceeding to hide what they had acquired in a secret closet in the apartment where you were confined, but were immediately recalled by Kroonzer."

Thus was the perplexing mystery of Theodore's villainy, and Lauretta's fears, explained away. Lauretta heard it all with wonder and secret satisfaction at the evils she had escaped. Count Byroff paused in silence, while his daughter offered up a short but heart-dictated thanksgiving to the power who had given her fortitude to bear up under her sufferings, and rewarded her confidence in him by his benign interposition: he then proceeded to inform her, how he had discovered her to be his child.

"You must recollect, that on your recovering from the swoon into which you fell in the hall of the castle, and finding yourself on the bed in the prison, you supplicated my protection: it was at that moment that your voice and features struck me, as bearing a strong resemblance to those of your deceased mother, when, on the last night I ever beheld her, she upbraided me with being the supposed murderer of count Frederic Cohenburg; but not knowing that she had ever borne a child, I could only wonder at so strong a resemblance between two persons whom I could not for an instant suppose to be connected by the most distant ties of blood, and I endeavoured to forget it.

"Kroonzer took upon himself the office of attending you; I wished it had been assigned to me; but as I could give no reason that would have appeared satisfactory to the banditti for asking to share it with him, I forebore to express my thoughts.

"On the morning of your escape from the castle, through the chasm in the wall of your prison made by the lightning, I was the first who discovered that you were gone."

Lauretta here interrupted her father, to remark to Alphonsus her providential escape with life in falling from so great a height; but count Byroff, smiling at the miraculous deliverance which she imagined she had experienced, explained to her, "that at that end of the castle which was inhabited by the banditti, stood seven towers, which rose gradually above each other, and that she had been confined in the lowest of these, the floor of which was not above three feet raised from the ground.

"None of the banditti in the retired parts of the building heard the falling of the wall: the one who had the watch in the hall of the castle heard the rumbling of falling stones, but it was so customary a sound amongst those decayed walls, which continually were crumbling on every slight shock of the weather, that he did not attend to it.

"Morning was far advanced, when passing by the turret in a short ramble I was taking for the benefit of the air, I perceived what had occurred; and entering to look whether you were still there, though I was well convinced I could not expect to find you, the cross which is now on your neck, and which from the figures carved upon it, I instantly recollected to be that I had given your mother, caught my eye, and so forcibly did this circumstance strengthen my belief, that I had not been deceived in imagining that I had discovered in you a likeness to my lost Lauretta, that I no longer hesitated to pronounce you her daughter, and count Frederic Cohenburg your father.

"Convinced as I now was that you was the offspring of my lost wife, and conscious that she could not have been a sufficient time from me to have borne a son of Theodore's age, even if his name, and Kroonzer's knowledge of his family, had not baffled the supposition, I immediately again began to doubt the veracity of the tale Theodore had related concerning you, but resolved to conceal my thoughts till Theodore's future conduct should elucidate the truth of this mystery; I accordingly concealed the cross in my bosom, and proceeded to inform Kroonzer of your escape.

"Kroonzer heard my intelligence with sorrow, and alarm for the community, upon whom his temerity in introducing Theodore to a knowledge of their haunt, might bring the worst of consequences, provided you were not regained, and Theodore took measures of vengeance against Kroonzer for his negligence, as he might deem it, in suffering you to escape.

"Horsemen were immediately sent out in pursuit of you, but no success attended their endeavours: the following evening Theodore arrived; disappointment rendered him almost frantic, and he himself went in search of you, still solemnly vowing you were his sister.

"Thus passed on several days, the banditti continually going out by turns in pursuit of you, and again returning unsuccessful to receive fresh orders from Kroonzer or Theodore, one of whom remained constantly at the castle.

"At length one of the banditti, who had been out disguised, brought intelligence, that a peasant whom he had questioned, had told him, that on the very day you had escaped from the castle he had seen the old hermit, who lived on the skirts of the forest, leading a female to his cell.

"Theodore had before this commanded the most secure place about the castle to be prepared for your reception, in case you should be retaken by him; and Kroonzer had prepared what was by the banditti called the cavern, and to which there was a communication from an apartment in the castle; accordingly having learned that it was in readiness to receive you, he took one of the banditti, and as all the horses were out with others of the fraternity on an expedition of plunder, set out on foot towards the hermitage.

"I resolved at once, if practicable, to ease my doubts, by informing myself whether you had any knowledge of my deceased wife; I accordingly followed them, and having stationed myself amidst some trees, close by which I knew they must pass in their return to the castle, provided they found you in the hermitage, I resolved at all risques to pronounce the name of my wife, supposing that if you had any knowledge of her, you must of course be acquainted with her name, and would on thus unexpectedly hearing it, utter some exclamation, from which I might gather what I so earnestly wished to learn; determining, if you were the child of my Lauretta, to befriend you for the sake of the love I had once borne her.

"Your answer thrilled my heart; it recalled to me more forcibly than before the recollection of her I had lost. Whilst Theodore was questioning you, I gained a stand opposite to the spot whence I had spoken to you, and when he rushed to the place from which the sound of my voice had proceeded, I rescued you from his accomplice, and then conducted you to the cavern, which, as having been the place mentioned by Theodore himself, I thought least likely for him to suppose to be your present place of concealment, as he would imagine you taken from him almost by supernatural means.

"Without any suspicion of my having been absent, I arrived at the castle some time before Theodore, who had been delayed by the assistance he had been obliged to give to his companion before he could restore him to his senses: I grieved that I had so hardly used one who had never injured, or even offended me; but it was my only method of rescuing you, undiscovered; and the anxiety of the moment would, I fear, had necessity required it, have tempted me to have done more; I thank heaven that it did not.

"The dagger which you doubtless beheld on the table, I left you as a safeguard against the violence of Theodore, should he by any means have discovered your retreat, and have assailed your person.

"I had the watch that night; trembling I flew to you, and I returned hardly able to contain my joy, that I had preserved, unhoped for, unexpected, my own daughter!

"Again Theodore and the banditti scoured the country in search of you, and horrid was the vengeance Theodore denounced against your protectors.

"I ventured no more to visit you till I again held the watch, against which night I had prepared for our escape, which the eye of providence, regardful of suffering innocence, prospered with its blessing.

"I durst not impart to the banditti the discovery I had made, lest they should refuse their consent to my leaving them; and the alarm I yesterday testified during our day's journey, proceeded from my fear of their overtaking me, and separating me for ever from you; as Kroonzer yesterday morning, when he departed after the death of Theodore, refusing to hear me, bade me beware the vengeance due to a traitor. But," continued the count, "we will seek some retired spot where the secrecy to which my own safety at present enjoins me, will, I trust, be my safeguard against the threatened danger."

Here ended the eventful history of count Byroff, who, with the tear of parental affection starting in his eye, declared his sufferings overpaid by their having led him at last to find an angel he knew not to have been created; to whom he was bound by the most tender ties of nature, and in whose smiles and endearments he might forget to reflect on past calamities.