The Genius (Carl Grosse)/Chapter 12
CHAP. XII.
Thus I had spent near four months in all the charms of rural occupation and retirement. I hoped yet to enjoy full as many years as I had counted days in this blessed state; but no human happiness is of unimpeded duration, Elmira, I soon perceived, to be in a lingering, sickly condition, the consequence of her former child-bed, and her disorder, which in defiance of all remedies, rather augmented than diminished, cost me many a tear—many a sorrowful hour. Herself was but too sensible of it, and the rapid decline of her health, pierced only the more visibly through all the efforts she would make, to conceal it from me. Often did I rouse her from the irresistible gloom that overcast the blossoms of her youthful days, but, alas! I only roused her to relapse the next moment the deeper. The choice she made of her books in the little library, grew more serious and melancholy every day, and her guitar, inanimate to festive lays, resounded only the heart-breaking strain of elegiacs and funeral dirges.
This is also the reason, why I studiously avoided all questions relative to her story since our parting. She never seemed to elude any opportunity to dwell on its details, and would frequently recount some of them of her own accord—but then, her heart seemed so full that I immediately fought to bring the conversation on another topic, which less affected her. At last the said to me in one of her woeful moments: "Dear Carlos, those hours which afforded me leisure from the beginning of my solitude, have been applied to write out my history, and you will once find it in a little case among the rest of my papers."—From this time, I dreaded nothing so much, as the word that could drop the least hint at the opportunity of informing myself of those secrets.
It behoves me, however, to state here; that although Elmira had written many letters to me to come and join her, they had all been intercepted, probably by the inconceivable influence of that horrid Cabal, of which I am a going to relate another wonderful instance. I never knew that Elmira had a brother, till my sweet little Amados once brought me a ring, which he fetched from one of the rooms above stairs. It was of gold; quite plain; and had the name Emanuel engraved on it. Elmira surprised me looking at it, wrest it with some violence from my hands, kissed and pressed it to her bosom, lifted her eyes to Heaven, and exclaimed: "Alas! My poor brother!"
—"Your brother! my dear?—" answered I with astonishment.
—"Yes, indeed, my brother, my unfortunate brother, who became the victim of that horrid society, whose baneful schemes we have hitherto but half evaded. Alas! my whole family was left to destruction by those monstrous barbarians!
At this moment I thought it would not be trespassing the laws of prudence and discretion to intreat her to give me an account of the whole business, which she did as nearly as possible in the following words:
—"Till my twelfth year, I had two brothers living; the younger, a hot and fiery youth, devoted himself to the navy, and distinguished himself on every occasion by his daring spirit, but was soon carried off by a cannon-ball in an engagement with a piratical ship of Algiers. Emanuel, my elder brother, destined to be the prop of our name and family, remained after my father's demise, with my mother and me, on one of our estates. He was free, liberal, friendly, brave, the support of our house, and the boast and benefactor of all his dependants.
"Fond of social pleasure and joviality, he gathered around him a large circle of friends and acquaintances, who would not only spend the summer with us, but even stay part of the winter. Among them-was a certain Don Pedro Nunez.
"This man was one of my brother's bosom-friends, but at the same time a consummate picture of artifice and hypocrisy. He succeeded by a thousand designing means, to alienate my brother's heart from the bosom of his family, and to disgust his mind with the still comforts of domestic life. Having plunged into a ceaseless round of follies and dissipations termed fashionable, he shunned the sober delight of our own conversation, and often was absent from us for many weeks together,
"Fortunately for us all, my father had appointed my mother sole heiress by his will, reserving only an annuity for my brother, the increasing or diminishing of which solely depended on her own pleasure. Thus by putting him under restrictions, she certainly circumscribed his numerous excesses, but made him at the same time, conceive a mortal hatred against her; and nobody interfering to effect a reconciliation between them, shocking scenes naturally ensued. Under these circumstances I kept myself as much as possible upon the passive, comforted my mother, but all my efforts to appease, mend or reclaim Emanuel not only miscarried, but even threatened to prove dangerous in case of perseverance on my part. He began to confider me as an accomplice leagued against him.
"Soon we discovered the cause of this unnatural conduct, which could indeed not remain concealed! It was a girl, Don Pedro's intimate acquaintance, and perhaps one of the most wanton, cunning and malicious creatures under the fun. It could not be denied, that he was handsome, but making her charms the instrument of her dark and villanous machinations, she completely undid my brother, among whose faults vanity and self-love were not the smallest. Constantly habituated to her dangerous company, he became gloomy and melancholy whenever he was absent from her but for an hour, and his frantic passions would then break loose in such symptoms, as made both my mother and me tremble for our safety.
"It was plainly visible in his whole deportment, that his mind hung brooding over some dark purpose, to execute which his resolution seemed to stagger. He was vexed at being kept in bounds by the salutary measures of maternal prudence; and to have no other resource than her property to supply his imaginary wants, filled him with despair. His soul had gradually been betrayed from levities into crimes, and several hints, too, had actually been given him with proffered means of assistance, to enable him to get all our fortune into his own hands. His creditors teazed him night and day with their importunities and menaces; he knew of no medium; his pretended friends shammed poverty; and he began to wander from one plan of atrociousness to another.
"In my mother's bed-chamber there also slept her waiting-woman. The latter is wakened one night by a noise in the apartment. My brother enters with a candle in one hand, and a large clasp-knife in the other; pale, disfigured, agitated, and almost incognizable. He advances to my mother's bed, lifts the murderous steel, and after a momentary pause, throws down the knife with remorseful indignation, bursts into tears, sets down the candle, kneels at the bed side, kisses my mother's hand, opens a window, and in an instant, flings himself-into the yard. The waiting-woman, who had hitherto been struck dumb with fear, utters a cry; the w hole house is alarmed, but too late;—Emanuel's body lies dead on the ground, with part of his brains dashed out by his side.
"Our grief at this shocking catastrophe may easily be conceived. My mother soon followed him; and I, too, found myself for some time on the brink of the grave. On her death-bed, I promised her never to speak of this dreadful scene, and have kept my promise to this hour. I soon after was informed, that my unfortunate brother had been enticed to be one of the horrid Cabal, whose barbarous decrees I have never yet ceased to bewail."
Here Elmira concluded the mournful tale.—"Was this," said I to myself, "thy friend Don Pedro, who always attempted to influence thy passions?" I could not help thinking, that he intended to make his wife play the same part with me, which he had made the pretended enamorata act with the unfortunate Emanuel. It was he too, that accompanied me to the hovel in the forest, to deliver up, as it were, his victim with security, and who secretly stole away afterwards, to elude every discovery which chance might have thrown into my way, and which, in case of the least mistake, would certainly not have escaped my penetration. The mystic tenor of every other part of his conduct, as well as the real nature of his relations to Francisca, I resolved to leave to time and more favourable circumstances.
But what sufferings did still await me?—The charms of Elmira began to fade visibly under the pressure of her languishing complaint. She was now become so extremely feeble, as to be no longer able to rise from her bed. I seldom left her even for a moment, and every care which marital tenderness could bestow, every skill which physical aid could display, were vainly lavished on her desperate case. In fine, a violent hemorrhage put a stop to the remainder of her suffering existence, hardly leaving her time enough to commend our little Amados to my paternal love, to embrace me, and kiss off with her last breath my sighs and tears.
The poor little babe too seemed, alas! to want my care no more. He had sucked in the mortal poison with his mother's milk. Lying constantly by her side on the bed, he had solicitously endeavoured to dispel the awful shades of approaching death, by his fond and innocent caresses. But when he found her tongue mute to his sweet prattle; when he saw her eyes closed to eternal sleep; when her eloquent mien could tell him no more how infinitely she cherished him; when all his attempts to rouse her from that deep slumber proved fruitless: when he beheld me in a state of desperate stupefaction, and Alfonso, the maid and all our neighbours in tears, he appeared to become sensible, that his dear mother had bid him an everlasting adieu. The poor little orphan could not weep; he would frequently hide his glowing face in my lap and ask: "When will mamma awake? Is she angry with us? Why don't she answer, papa?"—My silent grief told him enough, and he comprehended it by degrees.—And when he heard, that she would soon be borne away from his sight, he ran with all the eagerness of distress into the garden, and shortly after came back with a nosegay of her favourite jessamines, which he stuck, as his last farewell on her unconscious bosom.
Oft have I surprised him afterwards, lingering pensive on the flowery beds, culling the expanded roses, and scattering their leaves, as if they could charm no more, on the wings of the fleeting breeze. Sometimes when I was with him, he would pluck a nosegay, divide it conscientiously into equal shares, and present one half to me; but then he hung his head, and of the other half, flower after flower, dropt from his hands. He sobbed aloud, pickt them up again, and with a trembling arm held them towards the sky, because Elmira had told him, she should one day ascend thither. Thus withered gradually the blossom of a once blest union, and two moons had not quite revolved over my devoted head, than this darling of my soul was entombed with his mother in the same grave.
The few friends, whom I had gained in the vicinage of my desolate cot, did all they could to soothe my sorrow. Their kind offices were not misbestowed, since I saw myself not quite abandoned to solitude. By several innocent fêtes they imperceptibly revived my languid spirits, and by man!y and salutary conversations, relieved my mind from the heavy load that must otherwise have crushed it.
I married Juana, (this was the name of the girl whom my ever to be lamented wife had adopted as a companion and a friend) to an honest farmer, and intending to quit the cottage whose presence never ceased to retrace the painful picture of my past happiness, I resigned it to her as a portion, with all its appurtenances. The boon was received with gratitude, and long have its haunts refounded with blessings on the donor.
I derived the greatest comfort from the papers Elmira had left behind her: from them I perceived for the first time, all the extent of the loss I had sustained in that excellent woman. I was very eager to get possession of them, the moment I could, with propriety, do it. It was this eagerness that saved them, as attempts had been made by my invisible persecutors to deprive me of this valuable deposit. But the security of my locks bade defiance to a flight attack, and they wanted perhaps time or inclination, to make a more forcible attempt. On the same evening I paid the last funeral rites to my deceased wife, I perused and burnt them all the next morning. My memory keeps faithfully stored every memorable part of their contents, and no human being could forthwith interpose between me and Elmira.