Joseph Balsamo (65 page)
” Sir !
” Lorenza Feliciani ! ” cried the count, overpowering all opposition, even that of the princess, ” leave that cabinet and come hither come ! “
But the door remained closed.
** Come forth I It is my will 1” repeated the count.
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Then the key was heard turning in the lock, and the princess, with inexpressible alarm, saw the young girl enter, her eyes fixed on the count without any expression either of anger or hatred.
” What are you doing, my child ?” cried the princess. ” Why do you return to the man from whom you fled ? You were in safety here I told you so.”
” She is also in safety in my house, madame,” answered the count. “Are you not, Lorenza? Are you not safe with me?”
” Yes,” replied the young girl.
The princess, overcome with astonishment, clasped her hands and sunk back in her chair.
” And now, Lorenza,” added the count, quietly, but yet with a tone of command, ” I am accused of having made you act contrary to your wishes. Say, have I ever done so ? “
” Never,” answered the young girl, clearly and distinctly, yet -without accompanying the denial by any movement.
” In that case,” cried the princess, “what do yon mean by all that tale of your having been carried off ? “
Lorenza remained silent, and looked at the count as if life and speech hung on his lips.
” Her highness wishes doubtless to know how you left the convent, Lorenza. Eelate to her all that happened, from the moment of your fainting until you awoke in the post-chaise.”
Lorenza was still silent.
” Eelate all that occurred from first to last do not omit anything,” continued the count ; ” it is my will that you should do so.”
” I do not remember,” she replied.
” Search your memory, and you will recollect all.”
” Ah, yes, yes ! ” said Lorenza, in the same monotonous tone, ” now I remember.”
” Speak, then.”
” When I fainted, at the very moment that the scissors touched my hair, I was carried back to my cell and laid on my bed. My mother remained with me until night,
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when, seeing that I continued in the same state of insensibility, they sent for the village surgeon. He felt my pulse, passed a looking-glass before my lips, and, discovering no sign of life in me, pronounced me dead.”
” But how do you know all that?” asked the princess.
” Her highness wishes to know how you know that,” repeated the count.
” Strange!” replied Lorenza, “I was able to see and hear ; but I could not open my eyes, nor speak, nor move. I was in a sort of lethargy.”
” In fact,” said the princess, “Tronchiu has sometimes spoken to me of persons who had fallen into a lethargy, and ho, being to all appearance dead, were interred alive.”
” Proceed, Lorenza.”
” My mother was in despair, and would not believe that I was dead : she said that she would pass that night and the following day by my side. She did so ; but the thirty-six hours during which she watched over me passed away without my making the slightest movement, or without a sigh having escaped my lips. Thrice a priest came to visit my mother ; and each time he told her that it was rebelling against the will of God to thus persist in keeping my body on earth when He possessed my soul ; for, as I had died at the moment when I was pronouncing my vows, he did not doubt, he said, but that my soul had winged its flight to heaven. My mother, by her entreaties, prevailed on him to allow her to watch by me another night that of Monday. On Tuesday morning they found me still insensible.
” My mother withdrew, vanquished, leaving me to the nuns, who by this time were loud in their exclamations against her impiety. The tapers were lighted in the chapel, in which, according to the custom, I was to be laid out during one day and night. As I had not pronounced my vows, the sisters dressed me in a white robe, put a crown of white roses on my head, crossed my arms on my bosom and placed my coffin on a bier.
” During this last operation, a thrill of horror ran
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through my veins ; for I repeat, although my eyelids were closed, I saw everything as if they had been wide open.
” The bier was carried into the church, and there my face still uncovered, as is the custom in Italy I was placed in the middle aisle, with lighted tapers around me, and a vase of holy water at my feet. During the day the peasants of Subiaco entered the church, prayed for me, and sprinkled my body with the holy water. Night came on, and, as the visitors had ceased, the doors of the church were closed except a little side door, and the nun who took care of the sick remained alone beside me.
” One terrible thought never left me during my trance, and now it became more dreadful ; on the morrow I was to be buried buried alive, if some unknown power did not come to my aid ! I heard the hours strike one after another ; first nine, then ten, then eleven. Each stroke found an echo in my trembling heart ; for, oh, horror ! I listened to my own death-knell !
” What efforts did I not make to break my icy sleep to burst the iron bonds which held me down in my coffin ! But Heaven at last had pity on me. Midnight struck ! At the very first stroke, my frame was shaken by a convulsive shudder, like that which I always experienced when Acharat approached me ; then my heart was stirred, and I beheld him appear at the door of the church.”
” “Were your feelings at that moment those of fear ? ” asked the Count de Fenix.
” No ; they were feelings of happiness, joy, ecstasy ! For I knew that he came to snatch me from the dreadful death which seemed before inevitable. He advanced slowly toward my coffin, looked at me for a moment with a melancholy smile, then he said, ‘ Arise, follow me ! ‘ The bonds which fastened me were broken at that powerful voice ; I rose, and I put one foot out of the coffin.
Are you glad to live ? ‘ he asked.
Oh, yes !’ I replied. ‘ Follow me, then said he.
” The sister who was appointed to watch the dead, had fulfilled this duty toward so many of the nuns that she had become careless and indifferent, and slept soundly in her
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cbiiir. I passed close by her without awaking her, as I followed him, who, for the second time, had saved me from death. We reached the outer court, and once more saw the cloudless firmament, studded with stars, and felt the cool night-breeze, which the dead feel not, but which is so grateful to the living.
” ‘ And now,’ said he, ‘ before leaving the convent, choose for yourself. Do you wish to be a nun or to follow me ?’ ‘I will follow you,’ I replied. We reached the entrance gate ; it was locked. ‘ Where are the keys ? ‘ he asked. ‘ In the pocket of the portress, on a chair near her bed,’ I replied. ‘ Enter the lodge said he, ‘ and bring them without making any noise to awake her.’ I obeyed, entered the lodge, found the key, and brought it to him.
” Five minutes afterward the gate was opened, and we were in the street. I took his arm, and we hurried toward the outskirts of the village of Subiaco. About a hundred paces from its last house a post-chaise was in waiting ; we entered it, and drove off at a rapid pace.”
” And no force was used no threat was uttered you followed him voluntarily ? “
Lorenza remained mute.
” Her royal highness asks you, Lorenza, if by any threat, any violence, you were forced to accompany me.”
“No.”
” And why did you do so ? Say, why did you accompany me?”
” Because I loved you,” said Lorenza.
The Count de Fenix turned toward the princess with a triumphant smile.
CHAPTEE LII.
THE CARDINAL DE ROHAN.
STRONG as was the mind of the Princess Louise, all that she had just heard seemed so extraordinary to her, that she could not help asking herself whether the man who stood before her were not a real magician, disposing of hearts and understandings at his will.
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But the Count de Fenix was not yet satisfied.
” That is not all, madame ‘ said he ; ” and your royal highness has only heard a part of our history. Some doubts might remain on your mind did you not hear the rest from her own lips ‘
Then turning toward the young woman :
” Do you remember, dear Loreuza,” said he, “the rest of our journey ? and how we visited Milan, the Lake Mag-gioro, the Oberland, the Eighi, and the magnificent Rhine the Tiber of the North ? “
” Yes,” answered she, still in the same monotonous voice ” yes ; Lorenza saw all that.”
“Dragged onward by that man, was it not, my child ? yielding to an irresistible power which you did not yourself comprehend ? ” asked the princess.
” Why should you think so, madame, after what your highness has heard ? But if you wish for yet more palpable and material proofs, here is a letter written by Lorenza to me. I was obliged to leave her alone for a short time at Mayence. Well, she regretted me and longed for my return ; for in my absence she wrote me these lines, which your highness may read.”
The count took out of his pocket-book a note, which he handed to the princess. She read as follows :
” Eeturn, Acharat ! When you leave me, all hope and joy depart. Ah, when shall I be yours through all eternity ?
” LORENZA.”
The princess rose, anger flashing in her eyes, and approached Loreuza with the note in her hand. The young woman appeared neither to see nor hear her. Her whole soul seemed to hang on the count’s lips.
“I understand,” said the count, quickly, before the princess could utter a word; “your highness doubts whether this note be really written by her or not. That point can easily be settled. Lorenza, speak. Who wrote this note ? “
He took the note, placed it in her hand, and she immediately pressed it to her heart.
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“Lorenza wrote it,” said she.
” Does Lorenza know what it contains ? “
“Yes.”
” Then tell the princess what is in the letter, that she may believe me when I say you love me. Tell her it is my will.”
Lorenza appeared to make an effort ; then, without opening the note, or turning her eyes on it, she read its contents.
” This is incredible,” said the princess ; ” I cannot trust the evidence of my own senses ; there is something inexplicable and supernatural in all this.”
” It was this letter,” continued the Count de Fenix, as if he had not heard what the princess said, ” which determined me to hasten our marriage. I loved Lorenza as much as she loved me. We were in a position which might have given rise to unfounded suspicions. Besides, in the adventurous life which I lead, some accident might, happen to me I might be killed I might die, and I wished in case of such an event that all my fortune should belong to Lorenza. On arriving at Strasbourg, therefore, we were married.”
” You were married ? “
“Yes, madame.”
” It is impossible ! “
” Why so, madame ? ” said the count, smiling. ” What is there impossible in the fact that the Count de Feuix should marry Lorenza Feliciani ? “
” But she told me that she is not your wife ? “
The count, without replying, turned to Lorenza : ” Do you remember on what day we were married ? ” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied ; ” it was the third of May.”
” Where ? “
” At Strasbourg.”
” In what church ? “
” In the cathedral ; in the Chapel of St. John.”
” Did you offer any opposition to our union ? “
” No ; I was only too happy.”
” Because, Lorenza,” continued the count, ” the prin-
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cess thinks that the marriage was forced on yon that you hate me.”
As he said these words he took Lorenza’s hand ; a thrill of rapture seemed to run through her whole frame.
“I hate you ! ” she exclaimed ; ” oh, no ! I love you ; you are good, you are generous, you are powerful ! “
The count turned toward the princess, as if he had said, ” You hear.”
Seized with a kind of horror, the princess had recoiled from the pair before her, and sunk at the foot of an ivory crucifix which was fastened against the black velvet hang~ ings of the room.
” Does your royal highness wish for any further information ? ” asked the count, as he released Lorenza’s hand.
” Sir,” cried the princess, ” do not approach me ! nor she either ! “
At this moment the noise of wheels was heard in the courtyard, and a carriage stopped at the entrance door.
” Ah ! ” exclaimed the princess, ” here comes the cardinal, and we shall now know the truth.”
The Count de Fenix bowed, said a few words to Lorenza in a low voice, and waited with the patience of a man perfectly secure of his position. A moment afterward the door opened, and His Eminence the Cardinal de Eohan was announced.
The princess, reassured by the presence of a third per-son, resumed her seat, and desired him to be admitted. The cardinal entered ; but scarcely had he made his salutation to the princess, when, perceiving the count, he exclaimed, with surprise, ” You here, sir ! “
” Do you know this person ? ” asked the princess, more and more astonished.
‘ ‘ Yes, madame,” said the cardinal.
“Then,” cried she, “you will tell me what he is.”
” Nothing is more easy,” replied the cardinal ; ” the gentleman is a sorcerer.”
” A sorcerer ?” murmured the princess.
” Pardon me, madame,” said the count ; ; ‘ but I trust
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that his highness will explain his words to your satisfaction.”
” Has the gentleman been making any predictions to yonr royal highness, that I see you with a countenance of so much alarm ? ” asked M. de Rohan.
” The register of the marriage ! The register, immediately ! ” exclaimed the princess.
The cardinal stared with the utmost surprise, not comprehending what this exclamation meant.
” Here it is,” said the count, presenting it to the cardinal.
” Sir, what is this ? ” said he.
” I wish to know,” said the princess, ” whether the signature to that document be genuine or not.”