The Midnight Bell/Volume III/Chapter XXVI

CHAPTER XXVI.

In the course of a few days Alphonsus's health and spirits were sufficiently restored to permit him to visit Cohenburg castle; by the care of father Nicholas, the coffin which contained the remains of the late count had been replaced in the vault; but still it required more fortitude than Alphonsus could at that time command, to enter, unmoved, the chapel, and the chamber in which his mother had so mysteriously addressed him on the morning of her sending him away from the castle.

As the castle had required but little preparation to render it fit for the reception of Alphonsus and his Lauretta, count Byroff and the friar had given the necessary orders to that purpose, which had been performed by the daughter of the landlord, and her husband, who resided in the village.

As for Jacques, from the first moment of his receiving the intelligence of Alphonsus's restoration to his rank and possessions, he could find time for nothing but congratulations alternately bestowed on the count, Alphonsus, and Lauretta; and when they would no longer listen to them, he congratulated himself by singing and dancing, every step he moved.

The landlord, on the first arrival of the travellers at his house, had been an attentive and pleasing host; but no sooner did he learn that the heir of Cohenburg castle was an inmate with him, than his attentions became so over-strained, that they lost the very effect of pleasing, they had so strongly possessed, when nothing more than ordinary was meant to be conveyed by them: he was in a bustle all day long, whether he had employment to occasion his being so or not: and, communicative as he had before naturally been, he now seemed to make it a point of politeness, hardly to answer the questions which were asked of him.

Visiting frequently the neighbouring village in his twofold character of priest and physician, father Nicholas was well acquainted with its inhabitants, and readily engaged in it such servants as were immediately necessary to Alphonsus's new establishment; at the same time using his most sedulous endeavours to allay that surprise which would naturally be excited, on the sudden appearance of the heir of the castle.

On the day after Alphonsus became an inhabitant of the castle, he received the congratulations of the brothers of the Holy Spirit in person; how closely their lips and hearts were in unison, deprived as they now were of the rents they had been so long enjoying, it is not perhaps quite fair too accurately to investigate, considering in how handsome a manner they outwardly comported themselves. Jacques stood laughing unobserved in the hall as they went out. "Ah mes amis, " he cried, "you drank the ghost's health just in time; plait à Dieu, you may never have the opportunity again."

Father Nicholas had immediately written to the bishop, stating the peculiarity of Alphonsus's unfortunate situation with regard to his oath, and entreating for him the utmost indulgence of the church; and absolution was readily obtained for him, on the obligation of his bestowing a sum of money on a convent of poor nuns, and undergoing a slight penance.

Alphonsus had resided nearly three months at Cohenburg castle, and the poignancy of reflection was beginning to be softened by scenes of domestic happiness, when Jacques one day abruptly entering the apartment, panting for breath, and hardly able to articulate, addressing himself to count Byroff, exclaimed, "Huzzah, monsieur! huzzah! graces à Dieu, we have not an enemy in the world now, but my uncle Perlet, and the Bastile."

Count Byroff eagerly inquired what occurrence had called forth such extraordinary signs of joy; but it was some time before Jacques could recover breath sufficient to answer: at length he said, "I'll tell you, monsieur: Kroonzer and all the rest of them are sent to the gallies."

"How have you heard this?" asked count Byroff. "Why, monsieur, I have just been as far as the little inn," (a very constant practice with Jacques, who had been in habits of great intimacy with the landlord since the time of his residing at his house) "and whom should I meet there, monsieur, but a man, a stranger; so the landlord asked him what news; and so he told us, that a gang of robbers had been discovered in an old castle, not a day's journey from Inspruck. You may think I knew pretty well where he meant, monsieur. 'How were they found out?' said I; so he told us, that a gentleman that was travelling that way, had been attacked by them, and that his servants had managed to take one of the banditti prisoner, who had confessed all their tricks, and that the gentleman had had them all taken up, and that they had been condemned by the emperor, to be sold for galley slaves, and sent to the Turks. I wish, de toute ma vie, they had been sent to the Bastile."

Count Byroff immediately took measures for inquiring into the truth of this report; and to the excessive delight of Jacques, who, since his escape from the banditti, had stood in great fear, though he had endeavoured to hide it, of being fetched back by them and punished for his desertion,—and to the no small though suppressed satisfaction of count Byroff, who, from the threatened vengeance of Kroonzer, had thought himself in rather an unpleasant predicament,—the report proved to be a true one.

About this time Alphonsus employed a person recommended to his confidence by father Nicholas, to pass over into Italy, and ascertain whether count Arieno was still in existence; intending, if he was alive, to visit Venice himself, together with his Lauretta, whom he looked upon as entitled to become the heiress of count Arieno's property; and that it became him on this account to make her known to her grandfather; but the messenger returned with information, that count Arieno having been proved to be an accomplice with another senator who had embezzled some part of the public revenue, he had died on the scaffold, and his entire property been confiscated to the state.

Thus the wretch whose life had been a disgrace to humanity, was punished by a death equally shocking to the feelings of civilization.

The countess Anna lived but a few months in the seclusion in which she had chosen to end her days, and little doubtful of her forgiveness in a happier state, for the commission of an involuntary crime, Alphonsus could not lament, that her sorrows on earth were ended.

Some years after this, an accident introduced to each other's sight Alphonsus and the baron Smaldart; time had softened the resentment the baron had, immediately on the death of the chevalier D'Aignon, borne to Alphonsus; and Alphonsus had long wished a reconciliation to take place. Thus, though neither party proposed it, both visibly promoted it; and it was effected to their mutual satisfaction.

Shortly after the baron accepted an invitation given him by Alphonsus to visit Cohenburg castle, and beheld a scene that called forth in him the tenderest feelings; Alphonsus and his Lauretta, living in the splendor of rank, yet deriving their comforts from domestic happiness; count Byroff revered by his son and daughter; beloved and caressed by their offspring; that offspring growing up in the sanctioned felicity of innocence, sweetened by the indulgence of a fond grandfather, the endearments of a doting mother, and the instructions of a father, competent to give them. "Learn, above all, my children," Alphonsus would often repeat to them, "to avoid suspicion; for as it is the source of crimes, it is also the worst of crimes, attaching itself with equal mischief to the guilty and the innocent; it is an endless pang to him who harbours it; for it dies only when he dies, and then too often leaves a curse on those that follow him; it is the influence of evil that breeds suspicion, the noble spirit of charity that subdues it!"