Joseph Balsamo (63 page)
” My friend was religious, and seeing in a corner of
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the parlor a Madonna who had the reputation of possessing miraculous powers, she would not depart without offering up a prayer before her. While she was engaged in her devotions, the man entered the room, approached close to me, uncovered his face, and fixed his glowing eyes on mine. I waited for him to speak my bosom heaved as if in expectation of his words, but he contented himself with patting his arms through the bars which separated us, and extended them above my head. Immediately an inexpressible feeling of delight seized on my whole frame. He smiled ; I returned his smile, closing my eyes, which seemed weighed down by an overpowering languor as I did so. Then, as if he had merely wished to assure himself of his power over me, he immediately retired. As he disappeared 1 recovered by degrees the use of my senses ; but 1 was still under the dominion of this strange hallucination when my friend, having finished her prayer, rose, and, embracing me, took her leave. When I was undressing at night I found in my bosom a note containing these words : ‘ In Rome, the man who loves a nun is punished by death. Will you kill him to whom you owe your life ?’ From that moment the demon possessed me entirely, for I lied before Heaven, madame, in not confessing that I thought of this man much more than of my salvation.”
Lorenza, terrified at what she had disclosed, paused to discover what impression it had produced on the mild and intelligent countenance of the princess.
” Still,” replied the princess, firmly, ” all this is not possession by the evil one ; it is merely the result of an unhappy passion ; and I must again repeat that such thoughts cannot be spoken of here,- except to express regret for them.”
” Regret, madame ? ” cried Lorenza. ” What ! you behold me in tears at your feet, beseeching you to rescue me from the power of this fearful man, and yet you doubt my regret ? Oh, I feel more than regret I feel remorse ! “
” And yet,” said
Mme.
Louise, ” up to this point “
” Ah,jnadame, you have not yet heard all. Wait till I have finished, and then, I beseech you, judge me mercifully.
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Three days in the week we attended divine service in the chapel. The unknown was always present. I wished to resist him I pretended that I was ill I resolved not to go down. Alas, for human weakness ! When the hour arrived, I descended with the nuns, as it were, in despite of my own will. If he were not in the church when I entered, I had some moments of calm ; but as he drew near, I felt him coming. I could have said, ‘ Now he is a hundred paces off ; now he is at the door ; now he is in the church,’ and that without even looking in the direction by which he came. Then, when he had reached his accustomed place, although my eyes had been fastened on my prayer-book, while I murmured the words before me, they turned involuntarily and rested on him. I could neither read nor pray ; my whole looks my whole thoughts my whole being were engrossed by this man. At first I could not look at him without fear ; then I longed to see him ; then my thoughts seemed to meet his ; and often I saw him as in a dream in the night, and felt him pass beneath my window.
” The state of my mind did not escape the notice of my companions. The abbess was informed of it, and she in turn informed my parents. Three days before I was to pronounce my vows my father,my mother, and my brother the only relations I had in the world entered my cell. They came ostensibly to bid me farewell, but I saw plainly that they had some other motive, and when my mother was left alone with me she questioned me closely. And here the power of the Evil One may clearly be seen ; for instead of telling all as I ought to have done, I denied everything obstinately.
” On the day when I was to take the veil, a strange struggle took place within me. I both dreaded and wished for the moment which was to give me up entirely to the service of God ; and I felt that if the demon meditated a last effort to subdue me to his will, it would be at this solemn moment that he would attempt its execution.”
” And had that strange man never written to you since
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the first letter which yon found in your bosom ? ” asked the priucess.
” Never, madame.”
” And at that time you had never spoken to him ? “
” Never, except in thought.”
” Nor written to him ?”
“Oh, never!”
” Proceed ; you were at the day when you are to take the veil.”
“That day, as I have told your highness, I hoped was to end my tortures, and I was impatient for the ceremony. ‘ AVhen I belong to God entirely I thought, * He will de-fend me against the demon who now wrestles with me for the possession of my soul In the meantime the hour arrived. I descended to the church, pale, restless, but yet less agitated than usual. My father, my mother, my brother, my friend from the Via Frattina, who had come before to see me, and many other of our friends, were there. The inhabitants of the neighboring villages also thronged the church, for the report had been spread that I was lovely, and a lovely victim, they say, is most acceptable to the Lord.
” The service began. I would have hastened it by my prayers ; for he was not present, and in his absence I felt that I was mistress of myself. Already the priest had raised the crucifix before me, and I was just about to extend my arm toward it, when the trembling which invariably announced the approach of my persecutor seized me. Forced by an irresistible attraction, I turned round and saw him standing near the pulpit, gazing at me more fixedly than he had ever yet done. In vain I endeavored to keep my eyes on the priest service, ceremony, prayers, faded from my sight. I believe I was questioned concerning the rite ; I remember I was pulled by the arm to arouse me but I tottered like some inanimate object trembling on its base. I was shown the scissors, from which a ray of sun-light was reflected back with dazzling brightness, but I did not even wink. Then I felt the cold steel on my neck, and heard its sharp point in my hair.
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“From that moment it seemed to me as if all strength 1 left me ; my soul rushed from my body to meet his, and I fell motionless on the pavement ; yet, strange to say, not like one who had fainted, but like one overcome by sleep, I heard a loud murmur, and almost immediately after became insensible. The ceremony was interrupted with a frightful tumult.”
The princess clasped her hands with a gesture of compassion.
“Ah, madame, was not that terrible ?” said Lorenza ; ” and is it not easy to see in such an event the interven-tion of the enemy of man ? “
” Take care, my poor girl,” said the princess, in a tone of tenderness and pity ; ” I think you are too much disposed to attribute to miraculous power that which is simply the result of human weakness. On seeing that man you fainted, that is all. Proceed.”
” Oh, madame, do not say so, or, at least, wait till you have heard all before you judge. Had 1 fainted, should I not have come to myself in ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or an hour at most ? Should I not have been surrounded by my sister nuns, and have resumed courage and faith on seeing them ? “
“Doubtless,” said
Mme.
Louise. “Well, was it not so?”
“Madame,” said Lorenza, in a low, hurried whisper, ” when I was restored to consciousness it was night. I felt a rapid, jolting motion, which fatigued me, and I raised my head, thinking that I was under the vaulU-d roof of the chapel, or within the curtains of my cell. I saw rocks, trees, clouds ; then I felt a warm breath fan-ning my cheeks. I thought that it was the sick-nurse who was endeavoring to restore me, and I made an effort to thank her. Madame, my head was resting on the bosom of a man that man my persecutor. I felt myself ‘to ascertain whether I was really alive, or if I was awake. I could not restrain a cry of terror. I was dressed in white, and wore on my head a crown of white roses like a bride, or like a maiden dressed for the tomb.”
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The princess uttered an exclamation of astonishment. Lorenza hid her face in her hands.
” The next day,” continued Lorenza, sobbing, ” I made inquiries, and ascertained that it was Wednesday. For three days, therefore, I had remained insensible. I am ignorant of all that happened during that time.”
CHAPTER LI.
THE COUNT DE FENIX.
A LONG and painful silence succeeded to this narrative, during which each of the two ladies seemed absorbed in her reflections. The princess was the first to break it.
” And you lent no assistance to this man to carry you off ? ” said she. “None, madarne.”
” You are ignorant how you left the convent ? ” “I am quite-ignorant.”
” Yet a convent is kept carefully guarded ; there are bars to the windows ; the walls are very high ; there is a portress who keeps the keys of the gates always at her side. That is especially the case in Italy, where the rules are even more severe than in France.”
” Madame, I can only reply, that from the moment of my awaking from my trance until now, I have searched my memory to discover any trace of what must have occurred ; but in vain.”
‘ But did you not reproach him for what he had done ? “
‘ Oh, yes, maclame ! “
‘ What was his excuse ? “
‘That beloved me.”
‘ And what did you reply to that ? “
* That I had a horror of him.”
* Then you did not love him ? ” < Oh, no, no ! “
‘ Are you quite certain ? “
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” Alas, madame, what I felt for that mail was singular indeed ! When he was present I was no longer myself ; what he willed, I willed ; what he commanded, I did ; my soul had no power, my mind no will ; a look from him subdued and fascinated me. Sometimes he seemed to inspire me with thoughts which were not mine ; sometimes he seemed to draw from me ideas so deeply hidden that I had never even guessed that I possessed them. Oh! do you not see, madaine, that there was a magic in all this?”
” It is certainly strange, if not supernatural,” said the princess. ” But after you had been carried off, how did “you live with that man ?”
” He displayed the warmest affection for me, the sin-cerest attachment.”
“He was a vicious man, no doubt ?”
” I do not think he was, madam e ; there was, on the contrary, something lofty and inspired in his manner of speaking.”
” Come, come ! you loved him ; confess it !”
” No, no, madame,” said the young woman, with mournful bitterness ; ” no, I did not love him.”
” Then you ought to have left him you ought to have appealed to the public authorities, and demanded to be restored to your parents.”
” Madame, he watched me so closely that I could not fly.”
” But why not write, then ? “
“Wherever we stopped on the road the house seemed to belong to him alone, and every one obe} r ed him. Several times I asked for pen, ink, and pa’per, but those to whom I applied were doubtless desired by him not to obey me ; for they never even answered me.”
“And how did you travel ?”
” At first in a post-chaise ; but at Milan, instead of a carriage, we entered a kind of moving house, in which we continued our journey.”
” But he must have sometimes left you alone ?”
” Yes ; but at these times, before leaving me, he
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approached me and said, ‘ Sleep ! ‘ I slept and did not awake until his return.”
The princess shook her head incredulously.
” You would have been able to escape,” said she, “had you endeavored to do so with energy.”
” Alas ! madame, and yet it seemed to me as if I did ; but perhaps I was fascinated.”
” Yes, fascinated by words of love, and by his caresses.”
” He seldom spoke of love, madame, and except a kiss imprinted on my forehead in the morning and one in the evening, he bestowed no caresses on me.”
” Strange, strange, indeed ! ” murmured the princess ; then, as if some suspicion had crossed her mind, she said aloud : ” And you are ready to assert again that you do not love him ? “
” I do assert it again, madame.”
” And no earthly bond unites you to him ? “
” None, madame.”
” Then should he claim you he would have no right over you ? “
” None, madame, none.”
” But,” added the princess, after a moment’s reflection, ” how did you escape at last ? I do not understand that.”
” Madame, I took advantage of a violent storm which occurred while we were near a town called Nancy, I think. He left the part of the carriage in which I was, to go into another compartment of it, to talk to an old man who was with us. Then I leaped 011 his horse and fled.”
” And why did yon prefer remaining in France to returning to Italy ? “
” I reflected that I could not return to Eome, since my parents and friends there would certainly imagine I had been the accomplice of that man, and perhaps refuse to receive me. I resolved, therefore, to come to Paris, and to endeavor to remain concealed ; or to try and reach some great city, where no eye and, above all, his could discover me. When I reached Paris, madame, every one was speaking of your retirement into the convent of the Car-JOSEPH BALSAMO. 481
melites. They lauded your piety, your charity, toward the wretched, your pity for the afflicted. A ray of hope darted through my soul, and I was struck with the conviction that you would be generous enough to receive me, and powerful enough to protect me.”
“.You appeal always to my power, my poor child. Is he, then, so powerful ? “
” Oh, yes, madame.”
” But who is he, then ? Through delicacy I have until now refrained from asking his name ; but if I am to defend you, I must know against whom.”
” Oh, madame, even on that point I cannot enlighten you. I know neither who he is nor what he is. All that I know is, that a king could not inspire more respect, a deity could not receive greater adoration than he, from those to whom he deigns to reveal himself.”
” But how do they address him ? “What is his name ?”