The Genius (Carl Grosse)/Chapter 11
CHAP. XI.
I arrived in three days at Alcantara, where the door of my father's house was opened to me by my trusty servant Alfonso, who on my sudden disappearance from the villa, had gone thither to wait for my return. He stared at me for some minutes, then recognizing me clapped his hands, exclaiming:—"Good Heavens! What a trim do I meet you in, my Lord! Has any thing happened to you?" I shook the honest fellow by the hind, and told him not to be uneasy on my account, as I would tell him every thing at a convenient time. He now informed me, that my father had been dead for some months, and grieved very much at the idea of having lost his son. He added that my mother had been left sole heiress of his fortune, and was still quite downcast owing to the double loss of a husband and a beloved son. I flew immediately into my mother's arms, who was quite transported with joy at my return. Having related my adventures in the garden of the villa, she shook her sides with laughter but, on seeing the wounds and contusions I had received, she soon altered her tone. The dogs and the cudgels had put me in such a condition, as obliged me to keep my bed a whole week.
Don Fernandos di Albengha, a young nobleman whom I had early learned to love and esteem as a neighbour, a friend and a playmate came to congratulate me on my re-appearance, and related to me, that since I left the villa, Francisca returned to her husband's house, and that Don Pedro disappeared shortly before her arrival. He added, that he had frequently conversed with Francisca, but the seemed very shy of honoring him with her confidence, though from the close connexion between her and Don Antonio, he had reason to suppose the latter fully acquainted with the particulars of her case. He farther observed, that Don Antonio had improved the revenue of my estates by one half to what it formerly was, and concluded with advising me, to give notice both to him and Francisca, of my return to Alcantara.
I followed this advice, and soon saw my worthy friend with Francisca at my mother's to bid me welcome. They both received me with rapture, anxiously asked how I did, and were astonished at the paleness of my face and the bruises which still were discoverable in it.
Don Antonio's servants stood quite thunderstruck at my appearance, and began to dread for the consequences of the assault they had committed upon me. Their master perceiving their embarrassment insisted upon knowing the reason of it, when I informed him of the whole transaction, interceding at the same time in behalf of the confounded varlets, who came on their knees to beg my pardon, which I very readily granted all this would not satisfy Don Antonio; though I used every means to palliate their conduct as the result of an excessive zeal in what they thought their master's interest, he was inflexible, and ordered them to quit his service that very instant, as he would not feed and encourage a set of barbarous miscreants, who had had the assurance of maltreating a person in the garb of poverty, because he desired to speak to him. He then instantly dismissed them, warning them against similar misdemeanours in future, and protesting that had it not been for my generous intercession they should not have got off so easily, as he would have delivered them up to the correction of the police.
I lost no time to obtain the desired eclaircissements respecting the fate of Francisca. But Don Antonio was as much in the dark on this subject as myself, and Francisca treated me with the same mysterious reserve. I also perceived, that her former fondness for me had been transferred to my friend, who seemed to be rather indifferent about it.
They both remained with me for a week, and returned afterwards to the villa. Having passed two months more at Alcantara, during which I received the congratulatory visits of all the nobility of that city and its environs, I prepared to set out for Paris, whither two of my friends, Don Fernandos and Don Bernardo had already preceded me.
After a short and prosperous passage I reached the famous port of Marseilles, where I spent several days to view the beauties of the city and its environs. Returning one night with Alfonso who had accompanied me to town, we lost our way on a cross-road, and it being already midnight, I went to knock at a little cottage to ask accommodation for the night. A window in the first story being half open, and a light in the room, I resolved to knock at the door, to demand the hospitality of the owners, whose affability to strangers, like that of all the inhabitants of that part of France, had been described to me in a very flattering manner.
No body answered. I knocked once more, when, no answer being returned and hearing somebody cough, I opened the door and entered the parlor.
A young female was fitting at the farther end of the room, busied with needlework. Her dress was that of a person rather above the common fort, and the place itself exhibited traces of neatness and elegance. Lifting her eyes from a picture that hung before her to recognize the nightly intruder, she uttered a loud shriek on casting the first glance on me; and—to my unspeakable surprize and happiness—I found it was my adored Elmira!!—I fell at her feet; she rushed into my arms; heaven and earth fled from our entranced senses; it was the grand and sublime moment of meeting again!
"For Heaven's sake!" said I recovering from the first transport occasioned by this inconceivable adventure,—" is it thee, my Elmira? How camest thou to rise again from the eternal darkness of the grave? How camest thou hither?"
—"Yes, Carlos, it is me."
—"Ah! dare I believe it, that I hold thee again in my arms? How can I hold thee fast enough, for fear of thy dying a third time? Behold, my love, here is the handkerchief, with which I caught the blood which streamed from thy deadly wounds by my side in the carriage. I have had it about me ever since."
Elmira beheld both me and the handkerchief with amazement
—"What say you, Carlos? I—streaming with blood by thy side in the carriage!—Indeed, I don't understand you!"
—"What? Have you forgotten all!—How we escaped from the Genius? How these hands carried you to the carriage, to quit the villa for ever?—How a pistol shot made you expire in a few minutes?"
She looked at me with a smile of bitter sorrow.
—"Poor Carlos!—Joy has deprived you of your senses! Do you recollect what you have just spoken?"
--"What? Should I have been deceived again?—No, Elmira; tell me candidly, don't you recollect none of the particulars I have mentioned?"
"Not a syllable of the whole, my dear Carlos!"
—"Then this is the blood of an impostor!"———Here I threw down the handkerchief.
—"If your senses are not disordered, it certainly must be."
Thus the morning came amidst mutual raptures. We had a thousand things to say to each other, but our eagerness made us impart nothing. Never was language so poor, never reason so lost in amazement.
—"Here then," exclaimed I awaking, "shall be the end of my miseries! May Providence complete her work, and preserve thee to my faithful arms."
—"Ah! Carlos," returned she, "we shall this day celebrate a double meeting. I know your story, and hope you will spare me the recital of its grievous and aggravating circumstances. You have been insidiously and basely led astray. But I escaped from the monsters, in the most dangerous moment, and just as they thought to have entirely secured my person, I fled to this foreign land, with no other property than your portrait and a few rings and other jewels. Their produce was more than enough to purchase this humble cottage, a little garden, a meadow, and some live stock, which has hitherto served for my support, and which these hands, whose whiteness and softness you will no more have reason to admire, have done their best to procure."
—"Formerly, Elmira, these hands were the witnesses of your beauty, but they are now dearer to me as the signs of your virtue. Even at the altar I did not embrace them so fervently as I now do."
At these, words my faithful Alfonso who, to leave us undisturbed, had passed the whole night in an adjacent penthouse to take care of our horses, entered the room, and with tears of sincere gladness bedewed the hands of his recovered mistress, who received his homage with suitable benignity.
The morning was beautifully serene, and Elmira showed me the whole of her new premises, which respired neatness and simplicity, blended with elegance. She had also purchased a select collection of good books, and a fine guitar stood in the room neither covered with dust nor out of tune. She had received a young country girl into her service, whom she treated rather as a companion than a menial dependant. This girl had acquired such a degree of cultivation by the example and conversation of her mistress, as to prove worthy of such distinguished treatment. Her mind was well stored with good sense, and The often shortened or rather charmed away the tedious hours of Elmira.
We took breakfast in the garden, in a large bower of lilac-trees, whose shades protected us from the sultriness of the day, and the coolness of the evening. Every spot in this little garden was tastefully laid out, and all the favorite flowers were collected in romantic groups.
"All this," exclaimed Elmira with a kind of enthusiasm, "becomes henceforth the conjoint property of my Carlos. But behold, this rose tree here, I cannot share with you."
—"And why not, my sweet Elmira?"
—"Because it is not my own."
—"Who, then, is the fortunate being, that can claim such a property in this sacred place?"
—"If you will promise me beforehand, that you will love him but half as tenderly as I do, I'll procure you his acquaintance."
—"What a glow in your eyes! What damask blushes on your fair checks? Dearest Elmira, is there any one besides me, that can participate in thy love and affection?"
—"None, that will not steal likewise part of your heart from your fond Elmira, Promise me first of all to love him as well as me?"
—"My confidence in you knows no bounds. Here take my hand. Your virtue can cherish nobody that ought not to be dear to me also."
Trembling with joy and impatience, the conducted me back to the house, and nimbly flew up stairs before me. She opened a closet which I had not observed, and looking back, whispered to me: "Softly, softly, Carlos, he is asleep still!"
She took me by the hand, led me to a bed, and opened the curtains—O Heavens what a spectacle to my sight! A beauteous little boy, gently slumbering as on a bed of roses, rocked by some sweet dream, laid here with one half of his fair frame exposed to my admiring eyes! My amiable confort clasping her arms around me, and reposing her blushing countenance on my bosom, lisped to me: "Remember the few blissful hours of my bridal state at St. Jago! This is the fruit of our loves! It is thy son Carlos! He shall share thy heart with me!"
I recognized my image in his face, and his floe-black eyes as he awoke. His innocent and contented mien seemed somewhat ruffled at the presence of a stranger. He then stretched forth his little arms with a smile of confidence to his mother, who loaded him with embraces. "Dear Mamma," cried he, on my giving him the first tender welcome, "is this Papa? You always told me he would love me very much on his return."
Many live to see and feel much. But who that has not felt it, can express the rapture with which a parent receives the offspring of his love, and reads again in his infantine face, the moments of chaste delight that ushered it into being? Eloquence shrinks from the task, and the harmony of two wedded souls rivets itself faster, in the conviction of their being but one.
The day elapsed in forming plans and making arrangements for our future system of housekeeping. I solemnly promised Elmira, never to quit this charming retreat as long as her presence should embellish it.