The Midnight Bell/Volume III/Chapter XXIII

CHAPTER XXIII.

Count Byroff and Lauretta, eager to learn the result of Alphonsus's watching, had determined not to retire to rest till his return, which they imagined could not be later than an hour after midnight: however, he arrived not with the expected hour, and to add to their consternation, two o'clock brought back Jacques alone, with a countenance distorted by fear and anxiety.

Running up to count Byroff, he exclaimed, "Oh, monsieur, monsieur! the devils have got him; they have shut him up in that cursed old castle; I'd wager my life he never gets out again: pour l'amour de Dieu, let us raise the village here hard by, and pull down the walls."

Count Byroff could not be a moment at a loss to understand to whom he referred; but Lauretta, who had fainted, demanded his care prior to his asking an explanation of Jacques's words.

The landlord brought a glass of water to Lauretta.—"I told the young gentleman how it would be," he said, "if he would but have taken an old man's advice, and not have gone, he had been safe; I said there was no good in the spirits ringing that bell."

"I have seen three of them," returned Jacques, "as tall again as you or me, and all over as black as a crow, face, hands, and all."

"The virgin bless us all!" said the landlord, crossing himself, and raising his eyes to heaven.

In a few minutes Lauretta revived,—she flew to Jacques,—"Where is my Alphonsus?—is he in the castle?—answer me."

"Yes, locked in," replied Jacques; "but don't be afraid, madame: I dare say the ghosts don't mean to hurt him, for they are all gone away, and left him."

"Explain your words: what do you mean to convey by this inconsistent jargon?—Speak plainly, tell us every thing as it happened," said count Byroff.

"Why, monsieur, when the bell tolled—"

"Oh, then you have heard it;—aye, I knew I was right," interrupted the landlord.

"Oh yes, heard it, mon Dieu, I shall never forget it. When the bell tolled, monsieur Alphonsus said, he was sure then there must be somebody within the castle; and so he ran away to watch whether he could see a light in any part of the other side of the castle, and ordered me to keep my eye fixed on that opposite to which I was sitting. I sat still more than half an hour, and he did not come back: sometimes I ventured to look, and sometimes I did not: at last I saw him coming towards me; pleased enough was I, and I ran to meet him; he had seen nothing, no more had I. He said it was very odd, and he would only just try whether the gates were locked yet or not, and come back alone in the morning; and I told him I thought it would be much the best way. The great gate was locked: but when we came to a little gate at one end of the castle, it was partly open. He seemed very much surprised; and without saying any thing more to me, than bidding me wait for him where I was, and on no account to follow him, he ran in."

"In the dark?" said Lauretta.

"Yes, madame."

"He cannot be in any danger on that account," said count Byroff: "he doubtless knows every footstep about the castle."

"Angels guard him!" exclaimed Lauretta; the tears rolled swiftly down her cheeks.

"Go on," said the count to Jacques.

"Well, monsieur, I waited and waited, and he did not come back: I was frightened to stay very near the castle, so I went and sat myself down at a little distance opposite to the little gate, when presently out came the three black things I told you of, and——"

"What things?" eagerly asked Lauretta, who had not heard Jacques mention them before.

"Why, madame, ghosts I am sure they were, for they stalked past where I was sitting, without speaking, and I could not hear them set a foot; and the last of them locked the gate as he came out, for I heard the key turn in the lock."

"Did you try whether it was locked?" asked the count.

"No, monsieur, I durst not go near it, for fear they should appear again, and take me to task for meddling; so when I had waited a good while longer, and monsieur Alphonsus did not come, I ran home to tell you what had happened; and a fine solitary walk I have had of it, monsieur; graces à Dieu, that I got here at all;—only feel how warm I am with running," continued he, turning to the host.

Count Byroff and Lauretta fixed their eyes on each other in silence, but both their countenances expressively asked the important question of what steps could be taken for the best.

They could ask no foreign assistance without betraying the secret which Alphonsus so strongly wished to remain unknown, and the mystery attendant on which he might at the very moment be solving.

The determination of one moment, the reflection of the next rejected. Lauretta was suffering on the rack of apprehension, and count Byroff was tortured by the agony he perceived his child enduring.

In little more than an hour, a loud knock at the door called out the landlord; Alphonsus rushed in, and threw himself upon a seat, regardless of surrounding objects.

Neither the congratulations of Jacques on his safe return, nor the caresses of his Lauretta, could for some moments obtain even a look in return: a frantic wildness was depicted on his countenance, and his stretched eyes were fixed on vacancy.

Count Byroff requested the landlord and Jacques to retire, they reluctantly complied with his petition.

"Oh, Alphonsus!" said Lauretta, throwing herself on his neck, "what new affliction has happened to you?—what aggravated sorrow is it, that deprives you of the power of teaching me to sympathise in your grief?—Tell me, I beseech you! 'twere mitigation of the agony I now experience, to share with you the most complicated misery."

Alphonsus answered her not.

Sinking on her knees, she clasped his;—"Speak, I conjure you, if you love me: ease these cruel fears: what can I do to serve you?—Name what you wish, and you shall find me ready to obey you."

Springing from her side, "Hate me," he exclaimed with increasing wildness, "hate me! I know you will,—you must hate me."

"Never! witness heaven!—can you suppose so meanly of me, that accumulated misfortune shall win from me the regard of him I once have loved? The hard dealing of the world towards you, shall only strengthen my love for you; and if you still account it as worthy your possession as you once did, your loss shall be your gain."

"Oh that I were worthy of that treasure!" he cried: "but an angel's love like yours must draw down curses on a wretch, whose disobedience to a mother's last command has called her from the silent grave!—Yes, I have seen her!—seen her honoured shade, come to upbraid me for my want of confidence in her commands; to scorch my eyes, and swell with tides of grief my heart-strings till they crack, and end the torture of this maddened brain!"—Again he sunk into the chair.

Lauretta wept, and count Byroff supported her in his arms.—"Oh, my foreboding heart!" she cried, "this danger I foresaw."

" 'Tis here," cried Alphonsus, again starting up; "here, hot and rankling: a parent's curse for disobedience, shot from the glaring eyes of death!"—He turned to Lauretta: his eye regained its wonted calmness.—"Do not you curse me too: I never disobeyed you; say, you will not."

"Have I not this instant conjured you to listen to my vows of love, of truth, of constancy?"

"But you may turn cruel."—The tears stole down his cheek.—"My mother was once kind, as you are now; and for one, one act of disobedience, though my rent heart could no longer exist in uncertainty, she has—Oh, had you seen her!" a sigh, drawn from the bottom of his heart, followed:—falling on his knees, he clasped Lauretta's hand, and pulled her down by him;—"Pray with me; pray to my mother for her forgiveness."—He clasped his hands, and seemed to pray inwardly some moments, whilst his countenance underwent various changes of frantic sorrow and pain: at length he exclaimed, "Oh! revoke, revoke—" The remainder of the sentence died on his tongue, and he fell to the ground.

Count Byroff immediately called in the assistance of Jacques, and Alphonsus was conveyed between them to a bed; and it was, for nearly an hour, a doubt to the count whether he lived or not: at length, when he again raised his eyelids, his eyes which had before betrayed the wildest frenzy, bespoke the most painful sorrow: he looked anxiously round the apartment, and discovering Lauretta, he beckoned eagerly to her; she flew to his side: he grasped her hand in his,—"Do not leave me! promise you will not leave me."

"Indeed I will not," she answered.

"Why are you not in bed?" he rejoined: "I have had so horrid a dream!—Oh!"

Lauretta turned her face aside to conceal her tears.

Alphonsus looked steadfastly on count Byroff:—"You here, my friend? and you too?" observing Jacques—"Did you hear me call out in my dream?"—He then seemed suddenly to observe that he was not undressed, and lying only on the outside of the bed; he looked round in surprise, and tacit inquiry of the cause: then, seeming to recollect himself, he started, a degree of wildness flashed in his eyes, and he exclaimed, "It was reality; it was no dream; would to God it had been!"

The night passed on mournfully: Alphonsus answered rationally, but in slow and despondent accents, to every question that bordered not upon the subject which tingled on his heart. Once count Byroff ventured to touch upon the tender chord; his words then became incoherent, and his gestures indicated a heated brain.

Lauretta became more affected, and count Byroff more alarmed. Jacques wept, prayed, consoled Lauretta, and advised the count by turns, not forgetting to whisper at intervals to the landlord, "that he was sure the black devils had done all the mischief." The host on his part entreated the count, that a friar might be sent for, to pray by Alphonsus, from the monastery of the Holy Spirit, which he said was not above half a league distant.

Alphonsus continued in the same state; and towards noon Lauretta entreated that the landlord's advice might be put in execution. Count Byroff had not much faith in the effect of prayer on a mind disordered by frenzy, but readily consented to the petition of his daughter; and the landlord offered himself to be their messenger to the monastery: some travellers, however, entering at the very moment the host was about to set out, he was obliged to delay going; but Lauretta's anxiety making every lost moment of consequence to the salvation of her husband, a little boy from the neighbouring village, who happened by chance to be passing by, was prevailed on by the promise of a trifling reward to show Jacques the road to the holy mansion.

In little more than an hour Jacques returned, accompanied by a brother of the monastery, who, in addition to his holy office, was skilled in the art of physic.

Count Byroff met him at the door of Alphonsus's apartment, and leading him to the bed, solely informed him, that the senses of the youth, for whom he requested his assistance, had been deranged by some recent and aggravated calamities, which his state of mind had rendered it impossible for him to explain.

The friar requested him to name what he thought to be the cause of his malady; count Byroff declared himself ignorant of it.

The holy man took Alphonsus's hand in one of his, and placed the fingers of the other on his pulse: Alphonsus raised his eyes, and fixing them steadfastly on the countenance of the friar for some moments, he exclaimed, "Who art thou!—Thy garb bespeaks thee a comforter:—dost thou bring me pardon?—Has she pronounced my forgiveness?"

"Compose thyself, my son: confide in heaven, and hope the best," was the answer.

"Shame, shame!" returned Alphonsus: "thou art a deceiver: thy outward garb speaks hope to wretchedness, and thy false tongue belies his expectations.—Away, away! in pity do not torture me."

Alphonsus placed his hand before his eyes, and sunk on his pillow. The friar turned to count Byroff and Lauretta;—"There is some concealed sense even in this seeming madness," he said; "has he been ever thus before?"

"Never," said Lauretta.

"The cause was sudden then?" said the holy man, addressing Lauretta.

"And unknown to us," she returned.

"I will lull awhile his imagination by a draught of a healing and composing nature, and trust its powers will add much to recall his wandering senses."

He then knelt, and prayed devoutly to the divine power to assist his earnest endeavours for the restitution of mental and bodily health to his patient.—Lauretta joined fervently in the prayer.

The friar then departed, and Jacques accompanied him to the monastery, to bring back the medicine he had recommended for Alphonsus.