Joseph Balsamo (73 page)
” Your eminence offers me your services, I think. Would it not be much more to the purpose were I to offer mine to you ? “
The cardinal’s brow darkened.
” You have obliged me, sir ‘ said he, ‘ ‘ and I am ready to acknowledge it ; but if the gratitude I am to bear you proves a heavier burden than I imagined, I shall not accept the obligation. There are still, thank Heaven ! usurers enough in Paris from whom I can procure, half on some pledge and half on my bond, one hundred thousand crowns, the day after to-morrow. My episcopal ring alone is worth forty thousand livres.” And the prelate held out his hand, as white as a woman’s, on which shone a diamond the size of a small nut.
“Prince,” said Balsamo, bowing, ” it is impossible that you can for a moment imagine that I meant to offend you.” Then, as if speaking to himself, he proceeded : “It is singular that the truth should always produce this effect on those who bear the title of prince.”
‘ ‘ What mean you ? “
” Your highness proposes to serve me ; now I merely ask you, my lord, of what nature could those services be which your eminence proposes to render me ? “
“Why, in the first place, my credit at court.”
” My lord, my lord, you know too well that that credit
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is much shaken ; in fact, I should almost as soon take the Duke de Choiseul’s, and yet he has not perhaps a fortnight to hold his place. Take my word for it, prince, as far as credit goes, depend on mine. There is a good and sterling gold. Every time that your eminence is in want of any, let me know the night before, and you shall have as much as you like. And with gold, my lord, cannot all things be procured ? “
” Not all,” murmured the cardinal, sinking into the grade of a protege, and no longer even making an effort to regain that of patron.
“Ah! true. I forgot that your lordship desires something more than gold something more precious than all the riches of the earth. But in this, science cannot assist you ; it is the province of magic. My lord, say the word, and the alchemist is ready to become the magician.”
” Thank you, sir ; but I want for nothing more I desire nothing further,” said the cardinal, in a desponding voice.
Balsamo approached him.
” My lord,” said he, ” a prince, young, handsome, ardent, rich, and bearing the name of Eohan, ought not to make such a reply to a magician.”
“Why not, sir?”
Because the magician reads his heart, and knows the contrary.”
” I wish for nothing I desire nothing,” repeated the cardinal almost terrified.
” I should have thought, on the contrary, that your eminence’s wishes were such as you dared not avow, even to yourself, since they are those of a king ! “
“Sir,” said the cardinal, with a start, “yon allude, I presume, to a subject which you introduced before when I saw you at St. Denis ? “
” I confess it, my lord.”
” Sir, you were mistaken then, and you are equally mistaken now.”
” Do you forget, my lord, that I can read as plainly what is passing at this moment in your heart as, a short time ago, I saw your carriage enter the city, drive along the boulevard,
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and stop beneath the trees about fifty paces from my house?”
” Then explain yourself ; tell me what you mean.”
” My lord, the princes of your family have always aimed at a high and daring passion ; you have not degenerated from your race in that respect.”
“I do not know what you mean, count,” stammered the prince.
” On the contrary, you understand me perfectly. I could have touched many chords which vibrate in your heart, but why do so uselessly ? I have touched the One which is necessary, and it vibrates deeply, I am certain.”
The cardinal raised his head, and with a last effort at defiance met the clear and penetrating glance of Balsamo. Balsamo smiled with such an expression of superiority that the cardinal cast down his eyes.
” Oh, you are right, my lord you are right ; do not look at me, for then I read too plainly what passes in your heart that heart, which, like a mirror, gives back the form of the objects reflected in it.”
” Silence, Count de Fenix, silence ! ” said the cardinal, completely subdued.
” Yes, you are right ; it is better to be silent, for the moment has not yet come to let such a passion be seen.” ‘ Not yet, did you say ?” ‘Not yet.”
‘ Then that love may in some future time bear fruit ? “
‘Why not?”
‘ And can you tell me, then, if this love be not the love of a madman, as it often seems to myself and as it ever will seem, until I have a proof to the contrary ? “
“You ask much, my lord. I can tell you nothing without being placed in contact with the person who inspires your love ; or, at least, with something belonging to her person.”
” What would be necessary ?”
” A ringlet, however small, of her beautiful golden hair, for example.”
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” Yes, you are a man profoundly skilled in the human heart ; you read it as I should read an open book.”
” Alas ! that is just what your great granduncle, the Chevalier Louis de Rohan, said to me when I bid him farewell on the platform of the Bastilla, at the foot of the scaffold which he ascended so courageously.”
” He said that to you that you were profoundly skilled in the human heart ? “
” Yes, and that I could read it ; for I had forewarned him that the Chevalier de Preault wonld betray him. He would not believe me, and the Chevalier de Preanlt did betray him.”
“But what singular analogy do you draw between my ancestor and myself ? ” said the cardinal, turning pale in spite of himself.
” I did so merely to remind you of the necessity of being prudent, my lord, in obtaining a tress of hair whose curling locks are surmounted by a crown.”
” No matter how obtained, you shall have the tress, sir.”
” It is well. In the meantime, here is your gold, my lord ; I hope you no longer doubt its being really gold ?”
” Give me a pen and paper.”
” What for, my lord ? “
” To give yon a receipt for the hundred thousand crowns which you are so good as to lend me.”
” A receipt to me, my lord ? For what purpose ? “
” I borrow often, my dear count, but I tell you beforehand, I never take gifts.”
“As you please, prince.”
The cardinal took a pen from the table and wrote a receipt for the money in an enormous illegible hand, and in a style of orthography which would shock a poor curate’s housekeeper of the present day.
” Is that right ? ” asked he, as he handed it to Balsamo.
“Perfectly right,” replied the count, putting it in his pocket without even looking at it.
” You have not read it., sir ? “
” I have your highness’s word ; and the word of a Rohan is better than any pledge.*’
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” Count de Fenix,” said the cardinal, with a slight inclination, very significant from a man of his rank, ” you speak like a gentleman ; and if I cannot lay you under any obligation to me, I am at least fortunate in being obliged to such a man.”
Balsamo bowed in his turn, and rang a bell, at the sound of which Fritz appeared.
The count spoke a few words to him in German. He stooped, and like a child carrying a handful of oranges a little embarrassed, to be sure, but by no means oppressed with the burden he carried off the eight ingots wrapped up in tow.
” He is a perfect Hercules, that fellow,” said the cardinal.
” He is tolerably strong, indeed, my lord, but since he has been in my service, I give him every day three drops of an elixir compounded by my learned friend, Doctor Althotas. So, you see, the rogue profits by it. In a year he will be able to carry a hundred-weight with one hand ‘
“Wonderful! Incomprehensible ! ” murmured the cardinal. ” I shall never be able to resist speaking of all this.”
” Oh, speak of it by all means,” replied Balsamo, laughing ; ” but remember that, by so doing, yon bind yourself to come in person and extinguish the flame of the fagots, if by chance the parliament should take it in their heads to burn me alive in the Place de Greve.”
And having escorted his illustrious visitor to the outer gate, Balsamo took leave of him with a respectful bow.
” But I do not see your servant,” said the cardinal.
” He has gone to carry the gold to your carriage, my lord.”
” Does he know where it is ? “
“Under the fourth tree to the right, on the boulevard that was what I said to him in German, my lord.”
The cardinal raised his hands in astonishment, and disappeared in the darkness.
Balsamo waited for Fritz’s return, and then entered the house, closing all the doors carefully behind him.
DUMAS VOL. VI. X
554: JOSEPH BALSAMO.
CHAPTER LX.
THE ELIXIR OF LIFE.
BALSAMO, being now alone, proceeded to listen at Loreuza’s door. She was still sunk in a soft and gentle sleep. He half opened a wicket in the door, and contemplated her for some time in a sweet and tender reverie. Then, shutting the wicket, he crossed the apartment which we have described, and which separated Lorenza’s apartment from the laboratory, and hastened to extinguish the fire in the furnace by throwing open an immense conduit, which allowed the heat to escape into the chimney, and at the same time gave passage to the water of a reservoir on the roof.
Then, carefully placing the cardinal’s receipt in a black morocco case :
” The word of a Rohan is good,” murmured he ; ” but for myself alone ; and it is well that the brethren yonder should know how I employ their gold.”
As these words died away on his lips three short, quick taps on the ceiling made him raise his head.
” Oh, ho ! ” said he, ” there is Althotas calling me.”
Then while he continued his task of giving air to the laboratory and arranging everything in order, the taps were repeated louder than before.
” So ! he is getting impatient ; it is a good sign.”
And Balsamo took a long iron rod and knocked on the ceiling in answer. He then proceeded to remove an iron ring fixed in the wall ; and by means of a spring which was disclosed to view, a trap-door was detached from the ceiling and descended to the floor of the laboratory. Balsamo placed himself in the center of this machine, wbich, by means of another spring, gently rose with its burden, with as much ease as in the opera the gods and goddesses are carried up to Elysium, and the pupil found himself in the presence of the master.
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The new dwelling of the old alchemist might be about eight or nine feet high, and sixteen in diameter ; it was lighted from the top like a well, and hermetically closed on the four sides. This apartment, as the reader may observe, was a perfect palace when compared with his habitation in the vehicle.
The old man was seated in his armchair on wheels, in the center of a marble table formed like a horse-shoe and heaped up with a whole world, or, rather, a whole chaos, of plants, vials, tools, books, instruments, and papers covered with cabalistic characters.
He was so absorbed that he never raised his head when Balsamo appeared. The light of an astral lamp, suspended from the culminating point of the window in the roof, fell on his bald, shining head. He was turning to and fro in his fingers a small white bottle, the transparency of which he was trying before his eye, as a good housekeeper tries the eggs which she buys at market. Balsamo gazed on him at first in silence ; then, after a moment’s pause :
” Well,” said he, ” have you any news ? “
“Yes, yes; come hither. Acharat, you see me enchanted transported with joy ! I have found I have found “
” What ? “
” Pardieu ! what I sought.”
“Gold?”
” Gold, indeed ! I am surprised at you ! “
” The diamond ? “
” Gold ! diamonds ? The man raves ! A fine discovery, forsooth, to be rejoiced at ! “
” Then what you have found is your elixir ?”
” Yes, my son, yes ! The elixir of life ! Life ? what do I say ? the eternity of life ! “
” Oh !” said Balsamo, in a dejected voice for he looked on this pursuit as mere insanity , ” so it is that dream which occupies you still ? “
But Althotas, without listening, continued to gaze delighted at his vial.
“At last,” said he, ” the combination is complete ; the
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elixir of Aristaeus, twenty grains ; balm of Mercury, fifteen grains ; precipitate of gold, fifteen grains ; essence of the cedar of Lebanon, twenty-five grains.”
“But it seems to me that with the exception of the elixir of Aristaeus, this is precisely your last combination, master.”
” Yes ; but I had not then discovered one more ingredient, without which all the rest are as nothing.”
” And have you discovered it now ? “
“Yes.”
” Can you procure it ? “
” I should think so.”
“What is it ?”
” We must add to the several ingredients already combined in this vial the three last drops of the life-blood of an infant.”
” Well, but where will yon procure this infant ? ” said Balsamo, horror-struck.
” I trust to you for that.”
” To me ? You are mad, master ! “
” Mad ? And why ? ” asked the old man, perfectly unmoved at this charge, and licking with the utmost delight a drop of the fluid which had escaped from the cork of the vial and was trickling down the side.
” Why, for that purpose yon must kill the child.”
” Of course we must kill him 4 and the handsomer he is, the better.”
” Impossible ! ” said Balsamo, shrugging his shoulders, ” children are not taken in that way to be killed.”
” Bah ! ” cried the old man, with hideous coolness, ” and what do they do with them, then ? “
“Pardieu ! They rear them.”
” Oh ! Then the world is changed lately ? It is only three years ago since we were offered as many infants as we chose for four charges of powder and half a bottle of eau-de-vie.”
” Was it in Congo, master ?”
“Yes, yes, in Congo! It is quite the same to me whether the child be black or white. Those who were