Joseph Balsamo (71 page)
” Alas ! I am obliged to do so.”
” Oh, be cruel, barbarous, pitiless if you will shut me up, kill me, but do not play the hypocrite ; do not pretend to compassionate while you destroy me ! “
” But only reflect a moment,” said Balsamo, without anger, and even with a caressing smile, ” is it torture to live in an elegant commodious apartment like this?”
“Grated windows iron bars on all sides no air no air ! “
“The bars are for the safety of your life, I repeat, Lorenza. “
” Oh !” cried she, ” he destroys me piecemeal, and tells me he cares for my life.”
Balsamo approached the young girl, and with a friendly gesture, endeavored to take her hand ; but, recoiling, us if from the touch of a serpent :
” Oh, do not touch me ! ” said she.
” Do you hate me, then, Lorenza ? “
” A.sk the sufferer if he hates his executioner. “
” Lorenza, Lorenza ! it is because I do not wish to be your executioner that I deprive you of a little of your liberty. If you could go and come as you like, who knows what you might do in the moments of your madness ? “
” What I might do ? Oh, let me once be free, and you shall see what I would do.”
” Lorenza, you treat the husband whom you have chosen in the sight of Heaven very strangely.”
” I chose you ? Never, never ! “
“.You are my wife, notwithstanding.”
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” Yes ; that indeed must have been the work of the demon.”
” Poor insensate ! ” said Balsamo, with a tender look.
” But I am a Roman woman,” murmured Lorenza, ” and one day I shall be revenged ‘
Balsamo shook his head gently.
” You only say that to frighten me, Lorenza ; do you not ? ” said he, smiling.
” No, no ; I shall do what I say.”
” Woman ! ” exclaimed Balsamo, with a commanding voice, ” you pretend to be a Christian does not your religion teach you to render good for evil ? What hypocrisy is yours, calling yourself a follower of that religion, and vowing to yourself to render evil for good ?”
Lorenza appeared, for an instant struck by these words. ” Oh ! ” said she, ” it is not vengeance to denounce to society its enemies it is a duty.”
‘* If you denounce me as a necromancer, as a sorcerer, it is not society whom I offend, but God ; but if I be such, the Deity by a sign can destroy me. He does not do so. Does he leave my punishment to weak men, subject to error like myself ? “
” He bears with you ‘ murmured the young girl ; ” He waits for you to reform.”
Balsamo smiled.
” And in the meantime,” said he, ” He counsels you to betray your friend, your benefactor, your husband ?”
” My husband ? Ah ! thank Heaven your hand has never touched mine that I have not blushed or shuddered at its contact.”
” Oh, mystery ! Impenetrable mystery ! ” murmured Balsamo to himself, replying rather to his own thoughts than to Lorenza’s words.
” Once for all,” said Lorenza, ” why do you deprive me of my liberty ? “
” Why, after having given yourself voluntarily to me, do you now wish for liberty ? Why do you flee from him who protects you ? Why do you ask a stranger for protection against him who loves you ? Why do yon threaten
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him who has never yet threatened you, and say you will reveal secrets which are not yours, and of which you do not comprehend the import ?”
” Oh,” said Lorenza, without replying to his questions, “the prisoner who has firmly determined to be free will be so sooner or later, and your bars of iron shall not keep me any more than your moving cage kept me ! “
“Fortunately for you, Lorehza, the bars are strong,” answered Balsamo, which a threatening calmness.
” God will send me some storm like that of Lorraine some thunderbolt which will break them ‘
” Trust me, you had better pray to Heaven to avert such an occurrence. Do not give way, I advise you, to the fancies of your overheated brain, Lorenza. I speak to you as a friend.”
There was such an expression of concentrated anger in Balsamo’s voice, such a gloomy and threatening fire darted from his eyes, such a strange and nervous movement in his white and muscular hand as he pronounced each word slowly and solemnly, that Lorenza, subdued in the very height of her rebellion, listened to him in spite of herself. r ” You see, my child,” continued he, in the same calm and threatening tone, ” I have endeavored to make this prison a habitation fit for a queen. “Were you a queen, you could here want for nothing. Calm, then, this wild excitement. Live here as you would have lived in your convent. Accustom yourself to my presence ; love me as a friend, as a brother. I have heavy sorrows ; I shall confide them to you ; I am often and deeply deceived a smile from you will console me. The more I see you kind, attentive, patient, the more I shall lighten the rigor of your imprisonment. Who knows but that in a year nay, in six months, perhaps, you may be as free as I am, always supposing that you no longer entertain the wish to steal your freedom ? “
” No, no ! ” cried Lorenza, who could not comprehend that so terrible a resolve should be expressed in a voice so gentle, ” no ! More promises ! More falsehoods ! You have carried me off, and by violent means. I belong to myself and to myself alone ; restore me, therefore, to the
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house of God, at least, if you will not grant me my full liberty. I have until now submitted to your tyranny, because I remembered that you once saved me from robbers ; but my gratitude is already weakened. A few days more of this insulting imprisonment, and it will expire ; and then take care ! I may begin to suspect that you had some secret connection with those robbers ! “
“You do me the honor, then, to take me for a captain of banditti ? ” said Balsamo, ironically.
” I know not what you are, but I have perceived signs, I have heard strange words.”
” You have perceived signs and words ? ” exclaimed Balsamo, turning pale.
” Yes, yes ; I have intercepted them, I know them, I remember them.”
” But you will never tell them to any living soul ? You will shut them up in the depths of your heart ?”
” Oh, no ! ” exclaimed Lorenza, full of delight, in her anger, that she had found the vulnerable point of her antagonist, ” I shall treasure them up religiously in my memory; I shall murmur then .over to myself, and on the first opportunity shall say them aloud to others. I have already told them.”
” To whom ? “
” To the princess.”
” Well, Lorenza, listen ! ” said Balsamo, clinching his hands till the nails entered the flesh. ” If you have told them once, you shall never tell them again ; never shall the words you have spoken again cross your lips, for I shall keep every door closely shut, I shall sharpen the points on those bars, and raise the walls around this house, if need be, as high as those of Babel.”
” I have already told you, Balsamo,” exclaimed Lorenza, ” that no prison can hold a captive forever, especially when the love of liberty is aided by hatred of the tyrant.”
” Very well ; leave your prison, then ; but mark me, you have only twice to do so. The first time I shall chastise you so cruelly that your eyes will have no more tears to
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shed, the second time that your veins shall have no more blood to pour out.”
” Great heavens ! He will murder me ! ” screamed the young girl, in the highest paroxysm of fury, tearing her hair, and writhing on the carpet.
He looked at her for an instant with a mixture of auger and passion. At length compassion seemed to prevail.
” Come, Lorenza,” said he, ” be calm ; some future day you will be rewarded for all you suffer now, or think you suffer.”
“Imprisoned! imprisoned!” cried Lorenza, without listening to him.
” Be patient.”
“Struck.”’
” It is a period of probation.”
“Mad! mad!”
“You shall be cured.”
“Oh, put me in a mad-house at once ! Shut me up at once in a real prison ! “
“No; you have too well prepared me for what you would do in such a case.” .
“Death, then !” screamed Lorenza, “instant death !” and, bounding up with the suppleness and rapidity of some wild animal, she rushed forward to dash her head against the wall.
Balsamo had only to extend his hand toward her and to pronounce, by his will, rather than his lips, one single word, to arrest her progress ; Lorenza, checked in her wild career, staggered and fell into Balsamo’s arms. She was asleep.
The strange enchanter, who seemed to have subdued in this woman all that belonged to her physical existence without having been able to triumph over the moral life, raised her, and carried her to her couch ; then, having laid her on it, he imprinted a long kiss on her forehead, drew the curtains, and retired.
A soft and soothing sleep wrapped her in its embrace as the mantle of a kind mother wraps the froward child after it has long suffered and wept.
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CHAPTER LVIII.
THE VISIT.
LORENZA was not mistaken. A carriage, after having entered Paris by the Barriere St. Denis, and traversing the faubourg of that name throughout its entire length, had turned the angle formed by the last house and the Porte St. Denis, and was rapidly advancing along the boulevard. This carriage contained M. Louis de Rohan, Bishop of Strasbourg, whose impatience led him to anticipate the time fixed upon for seeking the sorcerer in his den. The coachman, a man of mettle and well accustomed to aid the handsome prelate in his gallant adventures amid the darkness and perils of certain mysterious streets, was by no means discouraged, when, after having passed the boulevards of St. Denis and St. Martin, still thronged with people and well lighted, he received the order to proceed along the lonely and dismal boulevard of the Bastile. The carriage stopped at the corner of the Rue St. Claude, on the boulevard itself, and, after a whispered order from its master, took up a concealed position under the trees about twenty paces off.
Then M. de Rohan, who was dressed in the ordinary costume of a civilian, glided down the street and knocked at the door of the house, which he easily recognized by the description of it given to him by the Count de Fenix.
Fritz’s footsteps echoed in the courtyard, and the door was opened.
” Is it not here that the Count de Fenix resides ? ” asked the prince.
‘Yes, inonseigneur.”
‘ Is he at home ? “
‘Yes, monseigueur.”
‘ “Well, say that a gentleman wishes to see him ‘
‘ His Highness the Cardinal de Rohan, is it not ? ” asked Fritz.
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The prince stood perfectly confounded. He looked all around him, and at his dress, to see whether anything in his retinue or costume had revealed his rank ; but he was alone, and in the dress of a layman.
” How do you know my name ? ”* said he.
” My master has just told me this very instant that he expected your eminence.”
” Yes but to-morrow, or the day after ‘
” No, monseigneur this evening.”
“Your master told you that he expected me this evening ? “
“Yes, monseigneur.”
“Very well; announce me, then,” said the cardinal, putting a double louis-d’or into Fritz’s hand.
” in that case,’” said Fritz, ‘ will your eminence have the goodness to follow me ? “
The cardinal made a gesture in the affirmative.
Fritz then advanced with a rapid step toward the antechamber, which was lighted by a massive bronze cande-labrum containing twelve wax tapers. The cardinal followed, surprised and thoughtful.
” My friend,” said he, stopping at the door of the saloon, ” there must be a mistake, I think, and in that case I do not wish to intrude on the count. It is impossible that he can expect me, for he was not aware that I intended to come to-night.”
” Monseigneur is the Prince Cardinal de Rohan, Bishop of Strasbourg, is he not ? ” inquired Fritz.
” Yes, my friend.”
“Well, then, it is monseigneur whom my master the count expects.”
And lighting successively the candles of two other candelabra in the saloon, Fritz bowed and retired.
Five minutes elapsed, during which the cardinal, agitated by a strange emotion, gazed at the elegant furniture of this saloon, and at the eight pictures by the first masters which hung from the walls. The door opened, and the Connt de Fenix appeared on the threshold.
” Good evening, my lord 1 ” said he, simply.
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” I am told that you expected me,” exclaimed the cardinal, without replying to this salutation “that you expected me this evening ? It is impossible ! “
“I beg your pardon, my lord, but I did expect you,” replied the count. ” Perhaps you doubt the truth of my words on seeing the poor reception I give you ? But I have only lately arrived in Paris, and can scarcely call myself installed here yet ; your eminence must, therefore, be good enough to excuse me.”
” You expected me ? But who could have told you that I was coming ? “
“Yourself, my lord.”
” How so ? “
” Did you not stop your carriage at the Barri re St. Denis ? “
“Yes.”
” Did you not summon your footman to the carriage door, and give him the order, ‘Rue St. Claude in the Marais, by the Faubourg St. Denis and the boulevard ‘ words which he repeated to the coachman ? “
’” Yes, certainly ; but you must have seen me, and heard me.”
“I did see and hear you, my lord.”
“Then yon were there ?”
“No, my lord, I was not there.”
” And where were you ?”
” I was here.”
” You saw me and heard me from this ?”
” Yes, my lord.”
” Come, come !”
” Monseigneur forgets that I am a sorcerer ‘
” Ah, true ; I did forget that. But, monsieur, what am I to call you the Baron Balsamo, or the Count de Fenix ? “
” In my own house, my lord, I have no name ; I am called THE MASTER.”
” Yes, that is the hermetical title. So, then, master, you expected me ? “
” I did expect you.”
