The Genius (Carl Grosse)/Chapter 29
CHAP. XIII.
On our arrival at Venice, we found an astonishing concourse of strangers, Never was there a carnival more brilliant. The square at St. Mark was crowded all day long with thousands of curious masks. Plays, balls, pleasure-excursions gave a fair display to the spirit of intrigue and gallantry.
He that does not thrive successfully among the Venetian ladies, may renounce love and love-matters for life. The count and I were every where known, and having no reason to keep incognito, we resolved to spare no expences to do honor to our rank. We were of course looked upon as good and substantial conquests. The count, owing to his consummate personal accomplishments won many a heart, and I must confess, that the figure which myself cut was much inferior to his own.
Without the least envy I let him follow his brilliant fortunes. Only on some occasions, when I thought: Caroline's rights too much invaded, I strove to keep him within bounds. He loved me so well as to have subjected himself entirely to my control, had I wished for it. Nevertheless his extreme susceptibility, made him commit many excesses, from which I would have found it very difficult to restrain him. Indeed I often wished him a genius, that might have accompanied him to those secret haunts, whither my looks were unable to penetrate.
The Dutchess de F** ultimately captivated his taste. She combined all those qualifications, which the count loved to find in a woman. He frankly owned his passion to me. I was rather glad to hear, that one serious attachment should restrain him from committing other excesses, "The count saw nothing else in that lady than a woman of sensibility, who was prepared to bless him with her friendship. I confirmed him in his opinion of the purity and disinterestedness of her love; because such a thought could only keep him from making an attempt upon her virtue which was probably too weak, not to yield to his influence. But the dutchess herself soon destroyed those honorable ideas in his mind. She scorned immoderate reserve, and true to the character of an Italian woman, that had hitherto been always accustomed to captivate her own countrymen by sensual pleasure, she even could make no exception in her principles with regard to a foreigner.
She was very unhappily married to an old and jealous husband, who kept her much shut up, and at the time she got acquainted with the count, she probably had not yet commited any infidelity to the bed of the former. So closely had she always been watched as to have it put out of her power to give so much encouragement to any man as she afterwards did to the count, nor was there one before that hit upon the secret of familiarizing himself with the old duke, and bringing him over to his interest.
Such was my friend's success. He first began to make the old man his friend, and at last became his most intimate confidant. The duke thought it his duty to introduce him to his spouse, however averse he had previously represented her to great company, and however fond of solitude. At last not a day passed without his pressing Selami to stay dinner or supper with him. The rest of the night was spent in revels in places of public resort, in the streets, in houses of ill-fame, and under various disguises, so that the duke and he were often in danger of losing their life, getting a sound drubbing, or being prosecuted.
Although I was certain of the count's suffering himself to be thus led about with inward reluctance, and his participating in those dissipations only as far as they kept the duke from his lady, and brought himself the nearer to her, yet methought he went too far.
As to the duchess she felt herself secretly obliged to my friend for this dissolute course of life. It afforded an opportunity to both, to make sure not only of every present happy moment, but likewise to enjoy those promised by futurity. Their mutual attachment to each other, which took place even before the count had been introduced to her, furnished them a thousand little artifices to express, unperceived, their sensations even before the eyes of the world, to give assignations, and to make any arrangement they pleased.
Count Selami finally brought it so far, as to obtain for myself the free access to the duke's house. I shewed so much indifference for the continuance of this connexion, that the duke would not even take the trouble of being jealous of me. At last his grace fancied, that some secret grief made me so dull and reserved, and in order to cure me of my supposed distemper, he soon thought proper to admit me to share his riotous pleasures, which I feigned to do so warmly, as to gain at last his confidence and friendship, almost in the same degree as the count. Thus I had not only the gratification of witnessing the fine manœuvres of a clandestine love-affair, but of rendering important services to the lovers themselves.
They were however not a bit the nearer the accomplishment of their wishes; and though the dutchess was then far less watched, yet her husband's friendship would but seldom permit him to lose sight of the count. This long privation wound up the desires of the fair Italian to the highest pitch, and she resolved to hazard every thing for the sake of gratification.
The count was apprised of this resolution to which were added the bitterest complaints against his want of spirited enterprise. She threatened him with a nightly visit, as soon as she should be able to escape but half-way from the duke, and my friend, who perceived all the danger of loving more from caprice than inclination, trembled at the approach of each coming night, and was constantly consulting with me about the means of preventing any disagreeable surprise.
At last the night, so long wished for by the dutchess, came. Her husband had returned very much intoxicated from a nocturnal banquet. He was taken so ill owing to his having surfeited himself, as to render it necessary to send for a medical man, who ordered an immediate bleeding. But the patient only grew worse, fell into a violent fever, and began to grow delirious. The next step was, to remove him from the dutchess's apartment to another. The latter immediately put on her zendale[1], gave the necessary orders to her waiting-woman, and hastened through a private door of the ducal palace to a gondola, which, by her commands, had been Kept in readiness for several nights on the canal.
Count Selami had likewise taken every precaution to receive her in the house we inhabited. At the least knock given, the door was to be opened. The count never went to bed before day-break, and when he was obliged to go out, I was always waiting for her. The dutchess having intimated to him, that her visit was very nigh, he withdrew from company much sooner than usual, and we spent the remainder of the night in friendly conversation. His expectation was very sanguine, and he placed no great reliance in the circumspection of the lady, whom the violence of her passion seemed to have entirely blinded. The least noise, the least rustling made him startle, his face would change color at every creaking of the door, and even the knocks at neighboring houses seemed to alarm him.
One night a loud rapping was heard at our door. The wire was pulled to open it, but nobody came. We both rose to listen, bur could not hear the least noise for several minutes. The count impatiently took a candle, went again to the house-door, and holding his ear for some time to the key-hole, he opened it, went out, and at the distance of two or three yards, found a woman drest in white lying almost lifeless on the ground. He called me to his assistance. We took up the lady, her zendale was torn, and her dress in the utmost derangement. I held the light to her face, and we recognized the dutchess!
Having carried her into our parlor, it was a good while before she recovered her senses. Her voice was bewildered, and the first wish she expressed was to be brought home. We promised to escort her, and conjuring her to be easy, requested she would, give us an account of what had happened.
"Lose no time," said she all in a tremble, "to make the strictest search all over this house; for there must be some strangers in it." The count having rung all the servants to make the desired search, the dutchess thus continued her story:
—"It is more than half an hour ago, that I arrived in the canal before your door. But I could not leave my gondola; because two young men, in deep conversation, were standing before it. As far as I could see through darkness, they wore a kind of uniform, and spoke rather low in a foreign language, so that I could not understand a single word they said.
—"Having waited in vain several minutes for their going, and afraid lest I should lose too much time, I ventured to land and knock at your door. I pulled the wire and it opened. But that very moment, one of the young people forced in his way with me, threw me on the ground, gagged my mouth, dragged me out again, tore my veil, and while the other gently shut the door, beat me with his fists till I fainted, I was unable to cry out, and believe that the marks of their blows will for ever remain on my body."
Here she bared her arms and part of her neck, which were covered with livid bruises, contusions, and scratches. "I assure you," added she, "that there is no part of my body that has not felt the furious gripes of those merciless ruffians."
The count was distracted with sorrow and rage at this unfortunate adventure. He ran for his sword and wanted to ally forth into the streets, vowing destruction to the savage villains. The dutchess however prevented him, alledging, that she first wished herself safe home, and had not time to wait the result of his expedition, which he would have plenty of leisure to undertake and terminate after she should be gone.
My friend was obliged to comply, and we both saw the dutchess home, properly armed. We waited till she had entered the palace by the same private door through which she first came. On our return we searched every part of the house from top to bottom, but with as little success as our servants had done before us.
The count began to think, that this incident would not as much prejudice him in the dutchess's affections, as serve to render her cautious for the future. And he well knew, that a woman that can coolly reflect on her passion, is already half-way of getting the better of it entirely. But no such disposition was in that lady's heart. She concealed her pain, applied plaisters to the wounded parts, and afterwards was more imprudent and rasher than ever. Impatient desire sparkled in her eyes, and had not illness prevented her husband, he could not but have perceived the change of her conduct.
The duke soon recovered, and was determined, before the commencement of the Lent season to give a brilliant fete to the count at his villa in the environs of Venice. Most of the nobles were invited, and the best musicians engaged.
Two days before the intended fête, the count happened to fall out with the duke over a game at billiards in a coffee-house of the metropolis. The count left him abruptly, with a kind of challenge, and thinking his honor wounded resolved to come to an entire rupture with him. Returning home, my friend immediately acquainted me with what had happened, and very little was wanting for him to have also quarrelled with me. Seeing his countenance flushed with anger I could not help laughing at his complaints, and when he asked me why I did so, I replied, "you may thank Heaven for this occurrence. If you will be ruled by my advice, you will find it one of the happiest of your life."
I now communicated a plan to Selami, which after some hesitation he consented to adopt. That same hour we went to the duke, who feigned not to recollect the least part of what had happened; I offered my mediation, effected a perfect reconciliation, and they both went immediately after to one of the principal taverns, to celebrate the restoration of their good understanding. The next morning the duke set out to his villa, to give directions for finishing the preparations for the approaching fete.
I then went to inform the Inferior Council of the Republic, of the disagreement that had arisen between my friend and his grace. Burt I found somebody had got the start of me, and the information I gave, only corroborated the fact, and strengthened the general opinion of a duel being about to take place, Their reconciliation was a secret that had not transpired, and as the danger appeared very imminent the senators sent an order to the duke, to remain at his villa till farther notice, while the count as a foreigner, was obliged to give his parole not to leave the city in three days.
The whole went off wondrously well. The duke, almost bursting with rage, ruminated a long while in his mind, what could be the reason of this surprising mandate. He could not bear his honorable exile, disguised himself as a peasant at night, and returned to Venice. He did not wish immediately to go home, and loitered about several place of public resort, to hear if he could not pick up some intelligence relative to his affair.
He was so fortunate as to find it the general topic of conversation almost wherever he went. He was just on the point of leaving the great square of St. Mark, when he was recognized by a young foreigner in French regimentals, who accosted him, saying, "Your grace would do best to go home, as you will find Count Selami there." Here the foreigner hastily walked off, and left the duke quite astonished in the middle of the street.
"Count Selami?" said the duke to himself, "what can he want there when I am out of town? Strange, that a foreigner should give me this intelligence in so mysterious a manner! But more strange, that I am betrayed! It will be unsafe for me to remain much longer in the streets.—But the world loves scandal, and the count, who has no doubt heard of my misfortune, is in all likelihood gone to apprise my spouse of it. Somebody saw him enter the palace, and took it into his head to spread this injurious report in some parts of the town. These reflections consoled him a little, but the sensations of jealousy and the fear of danger alternately struggled with his heart.
The count, who had actually given some superficial information to the dutchess of the real state of the affair, actually went in the evening to confirm it to her by his own presence. She received him like a woman, that has long panted for an opportunity of expressing to the darling of her heart the whole extent of her tenderness. They had never yet been able to converse so free and undisturbed together. They had a thousand plans to fettle, a thousand measures to propose for facilitating their future meetings, and on the point of gratifying their wishes, a sudden and violent knocking was heard at the palace-gate. Suspecting, lest it should be the duke himself, the alarmed lovers quitted each others arms—the dutchess had ordered one of her women to be on the look-out, but she did not make her appearance. At last she came to inform her mistress, that she need not be alarmed, as the noise at the gate had only been a runaway-knock, given by some drunken or mischievous person who delighted in giving servants unnecessary trouble.
This report gave fresh courage to the gallant couple, who no sooner began to indulge themselves in new acts of dalliance, than they were a second time alarmed by the most thundering raps, which continued with redoubled force.
In less than a second after, the chambermaid ran into the apartment almost out of breath to inform her mistress, that she believed, the person who knocked last, was the duke himself in the disguise of a peasant. Meanwhile the gate was opened to him. Nobody can conceive the unspeakable embarrassment which the loving pair felt on this occasion. An escape was impracticable, and had the dutchess even been able to hide the count, it was not less certain, that her spouse, had he had the smallest suspicion, would have searched every corner, and a discovery might probably have cost the life of both. They resolved therefore to urge the same excuse, which the duke's ingenuity had already suggested to himself in favor of his friend. The chess-board being placed before the sopha on which the dutchess was fitting, the count hastily took place in a chair facing her, and both shammed to be quite absorbed in the depth of gambling.
This was by far the best expedient they could recur to. The dutchess burst out in a loud laugh respecting this clever contrivance to extricate themselves from the awkward predicament in which they stood. The count imitated her mirth, loudly exclaiming, "What a strange position of the game!" when the duke just entered the apartment, and perfectly caught the illusion.
Neither of them in their affected attention to the game feigned to perceive his entrance. The dutchess now made a move, and I cried out, "Bravo! a masterly move!" The duke beckoned his spouse who now seemed to have perceived him to be quiet, and stole on his toes behind the count's chair to overlook his play. The latter, who at the alarm of his grace's arrival had had presence of mind enough to put on his sword, sat gravely meditating how to retrieve the fortune of the game, which was supposed to go against him. After a moment's pause, which could not give the husband time to perceive the whole sham of the contrivance, he swept off all the men with his hand, exclaiming, "Madam, I have lost!" The dutchess then feigned to start up at the sight of her lord, and hastening to embrace him, overturned the table, candles and all.—The count jumped up with an air of sudden surprise, while the lady cried, "A fine trick monsignor duke! How can you thus frighten me?"
—"Madam," replied the unsuspecting husband, "I wished to give you unexpected joy?"
—"I shall not thank you, monsignor, you have spoiled the count's good luck."
—"It was not my intention. I rather came to extricate him."
The count now embraced his friend with great demonstrations of gladness at seeing him again. They remained together an hour longer, to arrange measures for adjusting their affair. The count insisted on the duke's returning to his villa, and even accompanied him part of the way, On his return to Venice the morning began to appear, and he thought it best to betake himself to rest, as he dreaded the worst consequences from a second visit to the dutchess.
What confirmed him in those apprehensions was the account which the duke had given him on the road, relative to what had happened in the great square of St. Mark.
The count reflected on the circumstance of its being a person in the regimentals of an officer who gave the duke information at his being at the palace, and concluded that it must have-have been one of the same who so unmercifully beat the dutchess some weeks before. He also began to imagine, that it must be the same person who gave the first alarm by a runaway-knock. He never heard, that the lady had any other lover, yet such a thing was very possible.
The next day the proceedings against the two reconciled friends were quashed by the interference of the duke's powerful friends, and the fête at the villa was celebrated with the most pompous splendor.
The duke, the dutchess, my friend and I, agreed to go to a masquerade on Shrove-Tuesday, which was the last entertainment to be given before the commencement of Lent. The two lovers previously projected a plan to profit by the throng occasioned by the great number of masks, to give the duke the slip, in order to accomplish their long impeded happiness.
It was resolved, that all four of us should go together. The count who swore he would not leave the duke, proposed to me at the request of the latter, to escort the dutchess the whole night as her cavalier or cicisbeo, I declined this honor, declaring myself wholly inadequate to the trust. The duke laughed at my modest diffidence, and the custom of the country absolutely requiring a cavalier to attend his spouse, he insisted on the count's accepting of the flattering office, It was farther settled between us, that the count and the dutchess should wear the disguise of a shepherd and shepherdess. The duke chose the costume of an harlequin, and I appeared, as I generally did, in a black doming.
We arrived in the ball-room, and found it uncommonly crowded. We had not gone many yards, when our friend harlequin got himself hemmed in by some masks. We had put a red silken patch on his hat, unknown to him, that we might be the better able to recognize him. He was so little and weak, as to find it impossible, for some time, to get out of the crowd. The count and the dutchess, agreeable to their scheme, walked up and down the room for a few minutes, and then retired to a distant chamber of the ball-house, to change their dress. A carriage was waiting at the door, to convey them to a snug private house out of the neighborhood.
The count had given orders to his valet, who was much like himself in size, to appear with a girl, that bore some outward resemblance to the dutchess, in the same shepherd's dress, which he and his lady wore, and not to lose sight of the harlequin, whom he taught them to recognize by the patch of red silk on his hat. This valet was remarkable for his cunning and acuteness, and having agreed among ourselves, not to speak but by signs, he immediately made an excellent substitute for the intriguing couple. But harlequin who began to be tired of being squeezed and pushed about, made an hundred signs to his supposed spouse to retire. The latter from want of recollection, answered his gestures by all sorts of random signals, which the duke was utterly at a loss to understand. Provoked at her stubbornness he finally retired to another room, and left the shepherd and shepherdess to themselves.
Common and insignificant as my own disguise was, I got nevertheless soon surrounded by several persons, who wanted to enter into conversation with me, and endeavored to part me from my friend and the dutchess, while they still continued in the room. At last a mask also wearing a black domino, addressed me in Spanish, saying, "How do you like the Venetian ladies, Don Carlos?"—I made no answer, and so well forced my way through the insidious group as not to lose sight of the two lovers till I knew them in perfect safety.
I then returned to the bustling crowd, when I was again accosted by a mask, that whispered in my ear, "Marquis, your friend is in danger. The duke misses his lady. There's not a moment to be lost."
I stood for some time in motionless amazement. Our harlequin, whom I distinguished by the patch, now run quite furious through the room, beckoning and staring at every person. I laid hold of him by the sleeve, asking what could be the matter? He answered by a pantomimic gesture, expressing the motion of stabbing me with a dagger, impetuously broke loose from me, and strutted quite in a rage.
I thought it high time to inform Selami of this strange occurrence, I hastened to the room in which he had unmasked himself, and met him down stairs, just on the point of stepping into the carriage with his lady. I told him all, and it was unanimously resolved to return to the room, in order to make a proper enquiry into the matter. We there found the harlequin as boisterous as before, "Let us avoid him," said the dutchess, and retire to another apartment."
In our retreat, the count perceived a cross marked with chalk on my domino, which had probably been made at my entrance to distinguish me. He rubbed it off. We went into one of the gaming-rooms, and to our great surprise, found our harlequin sitting there with great composure at a pharo-table.
To be sure of his being the identical man we wanted, we gave him several of the signs agreed upon. He immediately rose, knew and so closely followed us, that we could not get rid of him for a moment all the remainder of the night.
- ↑ A dress peculiar to the italian ladies. It is a kind of veil.