Joseph Balsamo (72 page)
” And your laboratory is heated ?”
54:2 JOSEPH BALSAMO.
” My laboratory is always heated, my lord ?”
” And you will permit me to enter it ?”
“I shall have the honor of conducting your eminence there ‘
” And I shall follow you, but only on one condition.”
“What is that?’*
” That you promise not to place me personally in contact with the devil. I am terribly afraid of his majesty Lucifer.”
“Oh, my lord!”
” Yes, for in general you employ for such a purpose the greatest rogues unhung discarded soldiers of the guards, or fencing-masters without pupils, who, in order to play the part of Satan naturally, treat their dupes to sundry fillips and tweaks of the nose, after first putting out the lights.”
” My lord,” said Balsamo, smiling, ‘ my devils never forget that they have the honor of dealing with princes, and ever bear in mind the Prince de Conde’s speech to one of them who would not keep still, viz., that if he did not conduct himself more decently, he would so rub him down with an oaken towel that he should never need washing again.”
‘ ‘ I am delighted to hear that you manage your imps so well. Let us proceed to the laboratory, then.”
” Will your eminence have the goodness to follow me ? “
” Proceed.”
CHAPTER LIX.
GOLD.
THE Cardinal de Rohan and Balsamo wound along a narrow staircase which ran parallel with the great staircase, and, like it, led to the apartments on the first floor. There, in a vaulted apartment, appeared a door which B;ilsamo opened, and a very gloomy corridor was disclosed to the cardinal’s view, who entered it resolutely.
Balsamo closed the door behind them. At the noise
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which this door made in closing, the cardinal looked back with a slight feeling of trepidation.
” My lord,” said Balsamo, ” we have now arrived. We have but one more door to open and close ; but let me warn you not to be alarmed at the sound it will make, for it is of iron.”
The cardinal, who had started at the sound of the first door, was glad to be thus prepared in time, for otherwise the grating noise of its hinges and lock would have jarred disagreeably on nerves even less susceptible than his.
They descended three steps and entered the laboratory.
The first aspect of this new apartment was that of a large room with the beams and joists of the ceiling left in their original state, and containing a huge lamp with a shade, several books, and a great number of chemical and other philosophical instruments.
After a few seconds the cardinal began to feel that he breathed with difficulty.
” What is the meaning of this?” said he. “I am stifling here, master ; the perspiration pours from my forehead. What noise is that ? “
” Behold the cause, my lord,” said Balsamo, drawing back a large curtain of asbestos cloth, and disclosing to view an immense brick furnace, in the center of which two holes glared in the darkness like the gleaming eyes of a panther.
This furnace was situated in the middle of a second apartment, double the size of the first, which the prince had not perceived, hidden as it was by the asbestos curtain.
” Ah, ha ! ” cried the prince, retreating two or three steps, ” that looks a little alarming.”
” It is a furnace, my lord.”
” Yes, but this furnace of yours has a very diabolical sort of a look. What are you cooking in it ? “
” What your eminence asked from me.”
” What I asked from you ? “
” Yes. I think your eminence said you wished for a specimen of my handiwork. I had not intended begin-
544 JOSEPH BALSAMO.
ning the operation till to-morrow evening, as you were not to visit me till the day following ; but your eminence having changed your intention, as soon as I heard you set out for my abode, I kindled the furnace and put in the ingredients for amalgamation ; so that now the furnace is boiling, and in ten minutes you will have your gold. Permit me to open this ventilator to give a current of fresh air.”
” What ! those crucibles on the furnace “
” Will in ten minutes give your highness gold as pure as that of the sequins of Venice or the florins of Tuscany. “
” I should like to see it, if it is at all practicable ‘
” Certainly. But you must use some necessary precautions.”
” What precautions ? “
” Cover your face with this mask of asbestos with glass eyes, otherwise your sight might be injured by the glowing heat.”
” Peste ! I must take care of that. I attach a good deal of value to my eyes, and would not give them for the hundred thousand crowns which you have promised me.”
“I thought so, for your eminence’s eyes are very fine.”
This compliment was by no means displeasing to the cardinal, who was not a little vain of his person.
‘* Ha !” said he, putting on his mask, “so it seems we are to see what gold is ? “
” I trust so, my lord.”
” Gold to the value of one hundred thousand crowns ? “
” Yes, my lord ; perhaps even a little more, for I made a very abundant mixture.”
” Upon my honor, you are a most generous sorcerer ! ” said the prince, with a joyous palpitation of the heart.
” Less so than your highness, who so kindly compliments me. In the meantime, my lord, may I beg you to keep back a little while I take off the lid of the crucible ? “
And Balsamo, having put on a short shirt of asbestos, seized with a vigorous arm a pair of iron pincers, and raised the cover, now red-hot, which revealed to view four crucibles of a similar form, some containing a mixture of
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vermilion color, others a whitish matter, although still retaining something of a purple, transparent hue.
” And that is gold ” said the prelate, in a half whisper, as if he feared to disturb the mystery which was being accomplished before him.
” Yes, my lord. These four crucibles contain the substance in different stages, some of them having been subject to the process twelve, others only eleven hours. The mixture and this is a secret which I reveal only to a friend of the hermetic science is thrown into the matter at the moment of ebullition. But, as your eminence may see, the first crucible is now a white heat ; it has reached the proper stage, and it is time to pour it out. Be good enough to keep back, my lord.”’
The prince obeyed with the promptitude of a soldier at the command of his captain, and Balsamo, laying aside the pincers, already heated by contact with the crucibles, rolled forward to the furnace a sort of movable anvil in which were hollowed eight cylindrical molds of equal caliber.
” What is this, my dear sorcerer ? ” asked the prince.
” This, my lord, is the mold in which your ingots are to be cast.”
” Ah, ha ! ” exclaimed the cardinal, and he redoubled his attention.
Balsamo spread over the floor a thick layer of white tow as a sort of protection against accidents ; then, placing himself between the furnace and the anvil, he opened a huge book, and wand in hand, repeated a solemn incantation. This ended, he seized an enormous pair of tongs intended for grasping the weighty crucibles.
” The gold will be splendid, my lord,” said he ” of the very finest quality. “
” What ! Are you going to lift off that flaming pot ? “
” Which weighs fifty pounds. Yes, my lord ; few founders, I may say it without boasting, possess my muscles and my dexterity. Fear nothing, therefore.”
” But if the crucible were to break ? “
” Yes, that happened with me once, my lord in the
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year 1399. I was making an experiment with Nicholas Flam el, in his house in the Rue des Ecrivains, near the Church of St. Jacques la Boucherie. Poor Flamel was nearly losing his life ; and I lost twenty-seven marks of a substance even more precious than gold.”
“What the devil is that you are saying, naster ?”
” The truth.”
” Do you mean to make me believe that you pursued the great work in 1399, along with Nicholas Flamel ?”
” Precisely so, my lord. We found out the secret together, about fifty or sixty years before, when experiment-ing with Pierre le Bon in the town of Pola. He did not shut up the crucible quickly enough, and I lost the use of my right eye for nearly twelve years in consequence of the evaporation.”
” Pierre le Bon, who composed that famous book, the ‘ Margarita Pretiosa,’ printed in 1330 ?”
” The very same, my lord.”
” And you knew Pierre le Bon and Flamel ? “
“I was the pupil of the one and the teacher of the other.”
And while the terrified prelate asked himself whether the personage at his side was not the devil in person, and not one of his satellites, Balsamo plunged his long tongs into the furnace. The alchemist’s grasp was sure and rapid. He seized the crucible about four inches from the top, satisfied himself, by raising it up a little, that his hold was firm ; then, by a vigorous effort, which strained every muscle in his frame, he heaved up the terrible pot from the glowing furnace. The handle of the tongs turned glowing red immediately ; then rippling over the fused matter within, were seen white furrows like lightning streaking a black sulphurous cloud ; then the edges of the crucible turned a brownish red, while the conical base appeared still rose-colored and silver beneath the shade of the furnace ; then the metal, on the surface of which had formed a violet-colored scum, crested here and there with gold, hissed over the mouth of the crucible, and fell flashing into the dark mold, around the top of
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which the golden wave, angry and foaming, seemed to insult the vile metal with which it was forced into contact.
” Now for the second,” said Balsamo, seizing another crucible ; and another mold was filled with the same strength and dexterity as the first. The perspiration poured from the operator’s forehead ; and the cardinal, standing back in the shade, crossed himself.
In fact, the scene was one of wild and majestic horror.
Balsamo, his features lighted by the reddish glare of the glowing metal, resembled one of the damned of Michael Angelo or Dante writhing in the depths of their flaming caldrons ; while over all brooded the feeling of the mysterious and unknown.
Balsamo took no breathing time between the two operations ; time pressed.
” There will be a slight loss,” said he, after having filled the second mold. ” I have allowed the mixture to boil the hundredth part of a minute too long.”
” The hundredth part of a minute ! ” exclaimed the cardinal, no longer seeking to conceal his stupefaction.
“It is enormous in alchemy,” replied Balsamo, quietly ; “but in the meantime, your eminence, here are two crucibles emptied, and two molds filled Avith one hundred pounds’ weight of pure gold.”
And seizing the first mold with his powerful tongs, he plunged it into water, which hissed and bubbled around it for some time. Then he opened it and took out a lump of solid gold in the form of a sugar-loaf flattened at each extremity.
” We shall have some time to wait for the other crucibles,” said Balsamo. ” Will your eminence, in the meantime, be seated, or would you prefer to breathe for a few moments a cooler atmosphere than this ?”
“And that is really gold ?” asked the cardinal, without replying to the operator’s question.
Balsamo smiled. The cardinal was his.
” Do you doubt it, my lord ? “
” Why you know science is often mistaken “
548 JOSEPH BALSA.MO.
” Prince, your words do not express yonr whole meaning,” said Balsamo. “You think that I am deceiving you, and deceiving you wittingly. My lord, I should sink very low in my own opinion could I act such a part, for my ambition, in that case, would not extend beyond the walls of my cabinet, which you would leave, filled with wonder, only to be undeceived on taking your ingots to the first goldsmith’s you should meet. Come, come, my lord. Do not think so meanly of me, and be assured that, if I wished to deceive you, I should do it more adroitly, and with a higher aim. However, your eminence knows how to test gold ? “
” Certainly. By the touch-stone.”
“You have doubtless had occasion, my lord, to make the experiment yourself, were it only on Spanish doub-loons, which are much esteemed in play because they are of the purest gold, but which, for that very reason, are frequently counterfeited.”
” In fact, I have done so before now.”
” Well, my lord, here are the stone and the acid.”
” By no means ; I am quite convinced.”
” My lord, do me the favor to assure yourself that these ingots are not only gold, but gold without alloy.”
The cardinal appeared unwilling to give this proof of his incredulity, and yet it was evident that he was not convinced. Balsamo himself tested the ingots, and showed the result of the experiment to his guest.
” Twenty-eight carats,” said he ; ” and now I may pour out the two others.”
Ten minutes afterward the four ingots lay side by side on the tow, heated by their contact.
” Your eminence came here in a carriage, did you not ? At least when I saw you, you were in one.”
“Yes.”
” If your lordship will order it to the door, my servant shall put the ingots into it.”
” One hundred thousand crowns ! ” murmured the cardinal, as he took off his mask to feast his eyes on the gold lying at his feet.
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” And as for this gold, your highness can tell whence it comes, having seen it made ? “
” Oh, yes ; I shall testify “
” Oh, no ! ” said Balsamo, hastily ; ” savants are not much in favor in France. Testify nothing, my lord. If instead of making gold I made theories, then, indeed, I should have no objection.”
” Then, what can I do for you ?” said the prince, lift-ing an ingot of fifty pounds with difficulty in his delicate hands.
Balsamo looked at him steadily, and without the least respect began to laugh.
“What is there so very ludicrous in what I have said ? ” asked the cardinal.
