Memoirs of a Physician (65 page)
” To be sure ; the diamond is pure carbon crystallized.”
Balsamo was almost stunned ; a dazzling, unexpected, unheard-of light flashed before his eyes. He covered them with both hands, as if the flame had blinded him.
” Oh, bountiful Creator ! ” said he, ” you give me too much some danger threatens me ! What precious ring must I throw into the sea to appease the jealousy of my fate ! Enough, Lorenza, for to-day.”
” Am I not yours ? order, command me.”
“Yes, you are mine ; come, come.”
And he drew her out of the laboratory, crossed the chamber of furs, and without paying any attention to a light creaking noise he heard overhead, he once more entered the barred room with Lorenza.
” So you are pleased with your Lorenza, my beloved Balsamo ? “
” Oh ! ” exclaimed he.
” What did you fear, then ? Speak tell me all.”
Balsamo clasped his hands and looked at Lorenza with an expression of such terror that a spectator ignorant of what was passing in his heart would have been totally at a loss to account for it.
“Oh!” murmured he, “and I was near killing this angel I was near expiring of despair before resolving the problem of being at once powerful and happy ! I forgot that the limits of the possible always exceed the horizon traced by the present state of science and that the majority of truths which have become facts have always in their infancy been looked upon as dreams. I thought I knew everything, and I knew nothing ! “
The young Italian smiled divinely.
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” Lorenza ! Lorenza ! v continued Balsamo; ” the mysterious design of the Creator is then accomplished, which makes woman to be born of the substance of the man, and which commands them to have only one heart in com-mon ! Eve is revived for me an Eve who will not have a thought that is not mine, and whose life hangs by the thread which I hold. It is too much, my God ! for a creature to possess ! I sink under the weight of thy gift!”
And he fell upon his knees, gazing with adoration upon the gentle beauty, who smiled on him as no earthly creature can smile.
” Oh, no ! ” he continued, ” no, you shall never leave me more ! I shall live in all safety under your look, which can pierce into the future. You will assist me in those laborious researches which you alone, as you have said, can complete, and which one word from you will render easy and successful. You will point me out, since I can-not make gold gold being a homogeneous substance, a primitive element you will point me out in what corner of the world the Creator has concealed it ; you will tell me where the rich treasures lie which have been swallowed up in the vast depths of the ocean. With your eyes I shall see the pearl grow in the veined shell, and man’s thoughts spring up under their gross earthly covering. With your ears I shall hear the dull sound of the worm beneath the ground, and the footsteps of my enemy as he approaches ! “
And Lorenza still smiled upon him ; and as she smiled she replied to his words by affectionate caresses.
” And yet,” whispered she, as if she could see each thought which whirled through his restless brain, ” and yet you doubt still, Acharat, as you have said, if I can cross the circle of our love you doubt if I can see into the distance ; but you console yourself by thinking that if I cannot see, she can.”
” She ! who ? “
” The fair-haired beauty. Shall I tell you her name ? “
” Yes.”
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” Stay Andre.”
” Ah, yes ! You can read my thoughts. Yet a last expiring fear still troubles me. Can you still see through space, though material obstacles intervene ? “
” Try me.”
” Give me your hand, Lorenza. “
The young girl passionately seized Balsamo’s hand.
” Can you follow me ? “
” Anywhere.”
” Come.”
And Balsamo, leaving in thought the Eue St. Claude, drew Lorenza’s thoughts along with him.
” Where are we ? ” asked he.
” We are upon a hill ‘ replied the young Italian.
” Yes, you are right,” said Balsamo, trembling with delight ; ” but what do you see ? “
” Before me-to the right or to the left ?”
” Before you.”
” I see a long alley with a wood on one side, a town on the other, and a river which separates them, and loses itself in the horizon, after flowing under the walls of a large chateau.”
” That is right, Lorenza. The forest is that of Vesinet ; the town St. Germain ; the chateau is the Chateau de Maisons. Let us enter the pavilion behind us. What do you see there ? “
” Ah ! in the first place, in the antechamber, a little negro fantastically dressed, and employed in eating sugar-plums.”
” Yes, Zamore ; proceed, proceed !”
“An empty salon, splendidly furnished. The spaces above the doors painted with goddesses and cupids.”
” The salon is empty, you say ? “
“Yes.”
” Let us go still further.”
“Ah! we are in a splendid boudoir, lined with blue satin embroidered with flowers of natural colors.”
” Is that empty also ?”
” No ; a lady is reclining upon a sofa.”
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” What lady ? Do you not remember to have seen her before ? “
” Yes ; it is the Countess Dubarry.”
” Right, Lorenza ! I shall go frantic with delight. What does the lady do ? “
“She is thinking of you, Balsamo.”
” Of me ? “
“Yes.”
” Then yon can read her thoughts ?”
” Yes ; for I repeat, she is thinking of you.”
” For what purpose ? “
“You have made her a promise.”
“Yes.”
” You promised her that water of beauty which Venus, to revenge herself on Sappho, gave to Phaon.”
‘ ‘ Yes, yes ! you are right again ! And what does she , do while thinking ? “
” She comes to a decision.”
” What decision ? “
” She reaches out her hand toward the bell ; she rings ; another young lady enters.”
“Dark or light-haired ?”
“Dark.” -
“Tall or short?”
“Little.”
” Her sister. Listen to what she says to her.”
” She orders the horses to be put to her carriage.”
” Where does she wish to go ? “
” To come here.”
” Are you sure ? “
” She is giving the order. Stay she is obeyed. I see the horses and the carriage. In two hours she will be here.”
Balsamo fell upon his knees.
“Oh!” exclaimed he, “if in two hours she should really be here, I shall have nothing left to ask for on earth ! “
” My poor Balsamo ! then you still feared ?”
” Yes, yes ! “
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” And why did you fear ? Love, which completes t”he material existence, increases also our mental powers. Love,” like every generous emotion, brings us nearer to God, and all wisdom comes from God.
” Lorenza ! Lorenza ! you will drive me mad with joy.”
Balsamo now only waited for another proof to be completely happy. This proof was the arrival of
Mme.
Dubarry.
The two hours of suspense were short. All measures of time had completely ceased for Balsamo.
Suddenly the young girl started and took Balsamo’s hand.
” You are doubting yet,” said she, ” or ycu wish to know where she is at this moment.”
” Yes,” said Balsamo, ” you are right.”
” Well,” replied Lorenza, ” she is thundering along the boulevards at the full speed of her horses ; she approaches ; she turns into the Rue St. Claude ; she stops before the door and knocks.”
The apartment in which they were, was so retired and quiet, that the noise of the iron knocker could not penetrate its recesses. But Balsamo, raised upon one knee, was anxiously listening.
At this moment two knocks, struck by Fritz, made him bound to his feet, for the reader will remember that two knocks were the signal of an important visit.
” Oh ! ” said he, ” then it is true 1 “
” Go and convince yourself, Balsamo ; but return quickly.”
Balsamo advanced toward the fireplace.
” Let me accompany you,” said Lorenza, ” as far as the door of the staircase.”
” Come!”
And they both passed together into the chamber of furs.
” You will not leave this room ? “
” No ; I will await you here. Oh ! do not fear ; you know the Lorenza who loves you is not the Lorenza whom you fear. Besides ” She stopped and smiled.
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” What ? ” asked Balsamo.
” Can you not read in my soul as I read yours ? “
“Alas! no.”
“Besides, you can command me to sleep until you return. Command me to remain immovable upon this sofa, and I shall sleep and be motionless.”
” Well, my Lorenza, it shall be so. Sleep and await my return here.”
Lorenza, already struggling with sleep, fell back upon the sofa, murmuring :
” You will return soon, my Balsamo, will you not ? “
Balsamo waved his hand. Lorenza was already asleep. But, so beautiful, so pure with her long flowing hair, the feverish glow upon her cheeks, her half-opened and swimming eyes so little like a mortal, that Balsamo turned again, took her hand and kissed it, but dared not kiss her lips.
Two knocks were heard a second time. The lady was becoming impatient, or Fritz feared that his master had not heard him. Balsamo hastened to the door, but as he closed it behind him, he fancied he heard a second creaking noise like the former one. He opened the door again, looked round, and saw nothing but Lorenza sleeping, and her breast heaving beneath the magnetic sleep.
Balsamo closed the door and hastened toward the salon, without uneasiness, without fear, without foreboding all heaven in his heart. But he was mistaken ; it was not sleep alone which oppressed Lorenza’s bosom and made her breathe so heavily. It was a kind of dream which seemed to belong to the lethargy in which she was plunged a lethargy which nearly resembled death.
Lorenza dreamed, and in the hideous mirror of her gloomy dreams she fancied she saw through the darkness which commenced to close around her, the oaken ceiling open, and something like a large circular platform descend slowly with a regular, slow, measured movement, accompanied by a disagreeable hissing noise. It seemed to her as if she breathed with difficulty, as if she were almost suffocated by the pressure of this moving circle.
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It seemed to her as if upon this moving trap something moved some misshapen being like Caliban in the ” Tempest ” a monster with a human face an old man whose eyes and arms alone were living, and who looked at her with his frightful eyes, and stretched his fleshless arms toward her.
And she she, poor child she writhed in vain without power to escape, without dreaming of the danger which threatened her. She felt nothing but the grasp of two living flesh-hooks seizing upon her white dress, lifting her from her sofa and placing her upon the trap, which reas-ceuded slowly toward the ceiling, with the grating noise of iron scraping against iron, and amid a hideous mocking laugh from the monster with the human face who was raising her aloft without shock and without pain.
CHAPTER LXII.
THE PHILTER.
As Lorenza had foretold, it was
Mme.
Dubarry who had just knocked at the gate.
The beautiful countess had been ushered into the salon. “While awaiting Balsamo’s arrival, she was looking over that curious Book of Death engraved at Mayeuce, the plates of which, designed with marvelous skill, show death presiding over all the acts of man’s life, waiting for him at the door of the ballroom after he had pressed the hand of the woman he loves, dragging him to the bottom of the water in which he is bathing, or hiding in the barrel of a gun he carries to the chase.
Mme.
Dubarry was at the plate which represents a beautiful woman daubing her face with rouge and looking at herself in the glass, when Balsamo opened the door and bowed to her, with the smile of happiness still beaming upon his face.
” Excuse me, madame, for having made you wait ; but I had not well calculated the distance, or was ignorant of the speed of your horses. I thought you still at the Place Louis XV.”
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“What do you mean ?” asked the countess. “You knew I was coming, then ? “
” Yes, madame ; it is about two hours ago since I saw you in your boudoir lined with blue satin, giving orders for your horses to be put to the carriage.”
” And you say I was in my blue satin boudoir ? “
” Embroidered with flowers colored after nature. Yes, countess, you were reclining upon a sofa ; a pleasing thought passed through your mind ; you said to yourself : ‘ I will go and visit the Count de Fenix,’ then you rang the bell.”
” And who entered ? “
‘* Your sister, countess am I right ? You requested her to transmit your orders, which were instantly executed.”
” Truly, count, you are a sorcerer. Yon really alarm me.”
” Oh ! have no fear, countess ; my sorcery is very harm-less.”
” And you saw that I was thinking of you ? “
” Yes ; and even that you thought of me with benevolent intentions.”
” Ah ! you are right, my dear count ; I have the best possible intentions towards you, but confess that you deserve more than intentions you, who are so kind and so useful, and who seemed destined to play in my life the part of tutor, which is the most difficult part I know.”
” In truth, madame, you make me very happy. Then I have been of use to you ? “
” What ! you are a sorcerer, and cannot guess ? “
” Allow me, at least, the merit of being modest.”
f( As you please, my dear count ; then I will first speak of what I have done for you.”
” I cannot permit it, madame ; on the contrary, speak of yourself, I beseech you.”
“Well, my dear count, in the first place give me that talisman which renders one invisible ; for on my journey here, rapid as it was, I fancied I recognized one of Monsieur de Kichelieu’s grays.”
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