The Genius (Carl Grosse)/Chapter 6
CHAP. VI.
I spent some weeks, in studying the writings I had brought with me from the forest. But they were written in so mystic and obscure a style, that I had much ado to make out a few ideas of the whole; yet so sublime were these, that I was quite charmed with them. The rest of my time was taken up with rural sports and amusements; a variety of objects diverted my imagination from constantly doating on the fair Rosalia. Only her corporeal attractions hung on my mind; as I had had no opportunity of judging her mental accomplishments. '
Don Pedro visited me as usual, and we spent the evenings together in friendly conversation. Often methought I perceived in him a profounder understanding than mine, and a more artful character than he wished me to discern. The deeper I studied the plans of the Cabal, the plainer I apprehended their system of acting, and foresaw their operations. On this account I suspected every word spoken by Pedro. The Cabal had left me some time for repose and the study of their mystic system. Two months had now elapsed, and thinking they had quite forgot me, I was preparing to return to Alcantara, where my family expected me with impatience, when an occurrence happened, which changed the direction of all the subsequent part of my life.
I had not ventured till now, to mention Francisca s name a second time tor Don Pedro. He seemed to have heard no farther from her, and the child appeared to make him forget his mother.
One morning he came to my apartments, quite out of breath, to let me know, that his wife had returned. —"To tell you the truth, said he, "I am quite indifferent about the matter. She is again melancholy, and weeps for hours; but as I told her, Don Carlos would much rejoice to see her, she quite melted in tears. What may this signify, Sennor, don t you know?"
I much suspected the drift of this question, and his eyes seemed eager to provoke an answer —"So?" replied I smiling. "Indeed, I am glad of it; the is probably in love with me."
The indifference with which I uttered this, quite disconcerted him; and trying to rally His spirits—"How do you mean?" resumed he, "you are very absurd to-day, Don Carlos."
"You see, my dear Pedro, I am very buy. Pardon my frankness. I shall be very happy to see you both here in the afternoon. For the present, I must bid you good bye."
I shook hands with him, and he went away quite confused and melancholy.
How is this? said I to myself. Francisca's come back, yet she bade me an everlasting farewell to her husband, threatening to kill herself!—And the strange and suspicious manner in which the former came to tell me of her arrival!—Either Pedro is a fool or a knave—and who's the dupe?—Carlos, if he suffer a friend to outwit him.
At this moment I went to the window, and found Elmira's name written on one of the panes. Just Heaven! cried I, who has done this? At the same moment all the scenes of my wedding-day returned with the most painful sensations to my remembrance. I painted to myself the hour when I lock'd the charming Elmira in my arms, and the dreadful moment, when in those very arms that had opened themselves to make her for ever happy, she sunk, struck by the hand of death. A dreadful suspicion loaded my heart with an immense burden. Her death was so sudden, so unnatural, and the chief, on my reception into the Cabal, spoke so enigmatically of the case, and alas! I had been obliged to swear ta Rosalia never to love Elmira again. Of what use could be such an oath, if she really was dead?—And Rosalia seemed so eager, so anxious to press me to it. Should she perhaps be still among the living? Should they only have wrested her from me, by some artful, natural contrivance?—And why?—To chain me with Rosalia's charms?—My sorrow now burst forth in a flood of tears: How different, said I, were thy charms, Elmira,—thy innocent looks, thy faithful and unassuming endearments! Never will I forget thee;———Ah! hadst thou never left Carlos—how happy would he be now!
Here I took out Elmira's portrait, kissed it with all the ardor of my affection to the once charming original, and passed the remainder of the day in reviving the picture of my past felicity.
Late in the evening Don Pedro and His consort came to visit me. Advancing through the garden, he anxiously seemed to prepare her for a part she was to act. I went to receive them below; Pedro was all friendship; we began a conversation on indifferent subjects, during which I perceived Francisca frequently pausing, probably to recollect her part, and often surprised her in a kind of secret embarrassment, which she carefully strove to conceal,
Her physiognomy characterized by all the features of beauty in distress, made a deep impression on my senses.
Pedro seemed to be aware of it, and played off several jokes. He exhorted us to be more open-hearted to each other. "Have not I a beautiful wife?" said he to me, pressing her foundly in his arms.
"Nobody doubts you, Sennor."
"And is not she fond, too, of her husband's friends?"
"Francisca here cast her eyes upon me, blushed, and instantly looked down again,
This must be, thought I, part of the character she is to perform; still I felt myself much prepossessed in her favor.
Pedro acted his part in a masterly manner, and had his wife only possessed half his self-command, he must have gained his end. With apparent innocence, yet by the most artful deportment, he put us in an hundred little situations, tending to authorise familiarity between us. We actually became fonder and fonder. But her blushes increased in proportion to the progress of our increasing partiality for each other. In my opinion, she had been directed to put me in confusion, without losing countenance herself, but she was inadequate to the part, and actually began to conceive a liking for me, ere she could possibly be aware of it.
All this I discovered less in herself, than in Pedro. Without losing sight of me, he gave her an hundred sly winks, not to forget herself; but she indulged the sweet impulse of her heart. At last Don Pedro finding her action rather too faithful a copy of nature, rose and apologized for his not being able to stay any longer. On taking leave, Francisca's eyes and trembling hand, made me sensible that my conjectures were not unfounded.
How was I to reconcile all these circumstances! That Pedro had a design upon me, was more than visible: but did this design relate to the plan of my brethren of the Cabal?—All this much puzzled me; I was left in the dark, but resolved to be on my guard.
Several days glided away without hearing from my neighbour, nor did I wish to see him myself, or send a servant to enquire in my name. On the evening of the fifth day as I was walking by the brook in my garden, I heard the loud sobs of a woman, very near. It was Francisca. Her moans were artless, and it was impossible for her to have seen me approach. She was sitting on the opposite side of the rivultet, and mixing her tears with the clear stream, which formed a small creek at her feet. Her attitude was so expressive of grief, that tears of sympathy at such a spectacle, gushed involuntarily from my eyes.
She must be in love, said I to myself, and thou art perhaps the unfortunate object. I far down facing her, and softly called out: "Why those tears Madonna, why so sorrowful?"
She looked around, waking, as it were from a profound dream; a melancholy glance of her eye had no sooner espied me, than she rose with a scream, and fled to hide herself in the thickest part of the contiguous bushes.
Thou seest now Carlos, whispered I to myself, the unfortunate Francisca loves thee. And what feel'st thou in return? Nothing but pity!—The fact is, I was unable to judge accurately at that period of my own sensations.
Certain, however, it is, that on her account, I delayed my journey to Alcantara. I cannot say, that I loved her, because my affections seemed to be deeply entombed in Elmira's grave; but Pedro was a villain, and it was worth while to take her from him. This strange logical conclusion, made me resolve to put off my departure.
Soon after Pedro visited me alone; he was anxious to show his candour and confidence, but there appeared something forced in every part of his demeanor. I returned his visit; and found Francisca present, but she continued mute, reserved, shy, constantly blushing or tartling.—"Are you unwell, Madonna?" said I softly pressing her hand, which was as gently returned with a blush. —"She is quite a valetudinarian," replied Pedro in her stead; a flood of tears streamed from her eyes, and on her husband's giving her-a wank, she quickly retired.
"I don t know," continued Pedro, "what ails the filly creature."
"Perhaps you treat her too harshly my friend," returned I, "you never told me any of the particulars of the reception you gave her on her return; may be, it was not quite so flattering as she expected. There's surely something amiss in this point."
"I am sure there is not," answered he with a frown.
"Then, perhaps she, like most of the ladies, is fond of company. Let us give concerts and balls, and take care lest we lose her once more."
This candid hint made him boldly speak out, and he thought himself perfecily safe, in pushing his plan a step farther.
"No, Carlos, her ailment is none of those you mention,"
"What is it then?"
"She is In love."
"In love?" exclaimed I smiling, "that's what I've remarked long ago."
"Have you, indeed? "Then I may dispense giving you information."
"There was no occasion for it. It is enough if he knows it, whom it concerns."
"I beg, Don Carlos, you ll give her no encouragement."
"You dream, Sennor, or have taken leave of your senses.—Whom do you mean?"
"You, Don Carlos; yourself."
"Should she be in love with me?"
"To be sure, with you."
"Stuff!—There's news for me!—But, Pedro, you are a wretched wit?"
"No, indeed! I am in full, full carnest."
"You see now, I am in the right. Your suspicions torment her. She sees herself rejected—what more is wanted to make a wife superlatively wretched?———You should be ashamed Pedro.—"
"I know very well, what I say,—For the present, I'll hear no more on the subject."
Thus terminated a conversation, in which each was so fain to have duped the other. I went home soon after, and did not speak to Don Pedro for several days, and when I spoke to him Francisca was out of the way, and I would not enquire for her.
Shortly after Pedro said he was obliged to go on a journey. Without telling me whither. At parting, he begged, if I had the least friendship for him, not to forget the warning he had given me. I was not disposed to return a very explicit answer; it seemed as if the name of Francisca discovered itself in all my thoughts, and as if I were not quite pleased with that discovery.
Meanwhile I firmly resolved to avoid visiting her, as long as he should be absent. But I could plainly perceive, that the poor thing loved me, and shared none of Pedro's artifices, nay even opposed them, I purposed therefore, to pay her a visit for the sake of politeness, as she might otherwise have concluded, that I despised her. I determined at the same time, to be extremely polite to her, but keep a respectful distance.
I once paid her a visit in the garden, and after the usual compliments brought the conversation on-her husband. "Do you expect him soon back again?" commenced I.
"I rather doubt it; for he gave me orders to shut myself up, and see nobody, without the most absolute necessity."
"He is probably gone to settle some family affairs?
"It may be so. He told me nothing on the subject."
"You seem rather discontented with him, Madonna, I am your husband's friend, have you any thing to entrust to me?"
"Woe to you! if you be his friend; I have no confidence to impart."
"Ah Francisca! do I deserve such treatment. Nobody can love you as cordially as I do. And why those tears, those half-stifled sighs?"
From this, it will easily be seen, how well I kept my resolution. Francisca turned paler and paler, wept copiously, and after a long pause replied: "If you love me Carlos, spare your tenderness: for I am unworthy of it."
"Who could be worthier, than Francisca?—Tell me, I conjure you, what oppresses you so much?"
"Carlos! I am a faithless, outcast wife."
"Did Pedro say so?"
"No, Pedro has forgiven me; but I am again struggling with my heart, and this time, Carlos, I must submit."
"You love?"
She made no answer.
"You love, Francisca?" exclaimed I a second time, when half overwhelmed with despair she sunk on my bosom, laid hold of my hand, kissed and then laid it on her bosom. At this moment heaven and earth vanished before me; all my resolutions fled, and I henceforth considered Pedro as a rascally husband, that ought to lose all that was dear to an honest man. I took Francisca into my arms, and imprinted a kiss on her lips, on which she disentangled herself from my rash hands, and rose with an air of dignity.
—"Yes," cried she, "I will be proud of this passion, Carlos; yes, thou art the only being I love in the creation!"
—"And wilt thou after such a confession, leave me to myself?"
—"Must I not, Carlos?"
"No, Francisca. Will you trust your fate to me? Will you elope with me?
—"I am ready, Carlos, but in Spain we must not remain; we should be discovered every where, and they would wrest me from your arms. Take me with you to some lonely retreat beyond the sea, that I may not be forced to act against you!"
—"Against me? On what should my apprehensions be grounded?"
"The human heart often harbours horrid plans. Trust not, Carlos, even to the best of friends. But I have sworn—" Here she looked timidly all around the garden.
We now agreed to set off together the following night. Meanwhile I made every Preparation to accomplish my purpose with safety, and without any danger from pursuits.
Night came, and at the appointed hour, I went to meet Francisca at the window, as it had been previously agreed on. An alarm was given, as if some robbers had attacked the house. I first intended to feign a wish to secure her; and afterwards go in pursuit of her with Don Pedro's servants, on a different road from that she should have taken. A ladder being put up and the window open, I ascended in disguise and entered the apartment, but Francisca's bed was empty. We went all over the house; her maids were all asleep, but no where was she to be found.
Certain traces in her closet, showed, that she had been violently carried off, It seemed she had made a long and vigorous resistance; her bed was quite destroyed, and a great part of the furniture thrown down, and damaged, I was terrified at this spectacle, and thought it inconceivable, that the woman who slept in apartments contiguous to her own, should not have heard the scuffle. The servants, whom we waked, were quite astonished to see we had got into their mistress's apartment through a window, and said, they only heard a faint noise, like the whining of a dog shut out from the house to which he belongs. We now proceeded to wake the maids, who still were quite fast. But Here the riddle was solved. Nothing, not even pinching could rouse them from their lethargic sleep; and it appeared, as if some opium had been given them. We therefore desisted from all farther attempts to wake them, and they remained in this state all the following day and night.
I immediately judged, that Don Pedro must have carried her off; I knew his artful conduct, and knew also he had a design against me, in which he wished to avail himself of Francisca's assistance, but finding the latter hesitate, he was afraid, lest both of us should ultimately conspire some plot against himself. He considered her as dangerous, and unable to remove her without raising my suspicions, he clandestinely carried her olf. I was quite distracted at the idea of her situation, and enraged to see myself again deceived under the mask of friendship.
For several weeks, I neither heard of the Cabal, nor of Don Pedro. His house was quite deserted, and his domestics, not knowing what was become of their master, ran away.
Meanwhile I continued studying the mystic papers of the Cabal, dived more and more into their system, but secretly watched by their Genius, I durst not provoke the most terrible vengeance of my brethren by unravelling their plans, and such attempt would even at this time cost me my life. Their influence will probably cease, some day, with their existence as a society, and not until then shall I be at liberty to gratify the public curiosity respecting their operations and secrets.
I went to visit my parents and relations at Alcantara, but all their efforts to keep me among them proved abortive, I became indeed, unfit for all such company, and the influence of the covenant, made me daily more mysterious and close in my conduct. It was in the middle of spring, when I returned to my rural solitude; I found Don Pedro's house as deserted as I left it, and could not discover the smallest traces of the fate of that unfortunate pair. One day, I found a little key on a side-table, with which I unlocked a bureau and found some of Pedro's writings in it. They belonged to the Cabal, and taking them home with me, I devoted whole days and nights to study them, in hopes of making some important discovery.
Thus occupied, I once sat up till one o'clock in the morning. Every body had retired to rest, and having opened one of the windows of my bed-chamber which faced the garden, to brace my nerves with the aromatic exhalations of the blossom of the lemon trees, I heard a loud knocking at the large gate. I shuddered with fright. What could it be?
All the servants are asleep. The knocking increases in loudness, a cry is heard, the gate opens, and the whole house resounds with strange murmurs. I hear several footsteps in the different apartments, the drawing-room door opens, somebody unlocks my bed-chamber, a slender form in white rushes in, and flies to my bosom.
Half-killed with fright, I had shut my eyes at the being's approach, and durst not open them again. The lights only cast a faint gleam, and the figure was so much muffled, that I could not recognize it. I thought it must be Francisca, and pressed her to my heart. I kissed her lips; but here I remarked they were not Francisca s. Begone woman," cried I, "thou art not Francisca. Who art thou?"
—"What, Carlos! Dost thou not know thy wife, not know thy Elmira?"
Heavenly powers! It was Elmira.
I now recognized her in the fire of her embraces, in the mellifluous softness of her voice. But it was no more that Elmira who once charmed me; that serene, sprightly, celestial being. A deadly pale distinguished her cold mien, a cloud of melancholy encircled her beauteous exes; she turned dubious from my embraces, and seemed to ask with all the eloquence of silent anxiety: "Who is that Francisca after whom you thus eagerly enquired?"—I felt my heart in a glow, and endeavoured to pacify her by dint of caresses, but my tongue denied its office, and I was unable to utter a single word.
—"Does thy Elmira," began she at last, "still find thee as tender to her, as when she left thee?"
—"Yes, yes,"—replied I in faltering accents—"this sudden surprize has almost deprived me of my senses—How, my love, hast thou escaped from the tomb? Or art thou bur the spirit of my angelic spouse sent to administer momentary consolation to a widowed wretch?"
—"Let this embrace tell thee; fond husband, who I am. There's no such ardor in departed spirits. But art thou, too, as faithful and true to her, as she is to thee? Be sincere, Carlos!"
These words were like a thunder-storm in mine cars. The joy at meeting again was so short, and so soon did it make its transition to the anxieties of jealousy, If the formidable Cabal had wrested her from me, she must also have heard of my infidelity, of my hellish phrenzy. This thought struck me quite dumb for some time, and I finally exclaimed,
—"Cursed, monstrous Cabal! Thou hast robbed me of my all."
—"What says my love?" continued Elmira, fondly pressing her pale countenance on my cheeks. "Be candid to thy wife."
—"Alas! Elmira, thou knowest my tender heart. In my arms, I saw thee expire; and before my eyes thou wast committed to the tomb. How could I even dream of such a shameful fraud? Long have I mourned thy loss, and only sought thy image in another fair. Thou never desiredst me not to love again?"
—"I know it, nor could I with it. But sweet husband, no more!—Now Elmira re turns to the possession of your heart. Her fidelity merits it, and her sufferings purchased the boon at a dear rate, I hope my Carlos will disclaim other affections, and find all his wishes gratified in me."
—"I certainly will, my sole and loveliest treasure!"
My senses were still absorbed in a conflict between illusion and reality. It was too romantic a case, to see a departed, lifeless wife again in one's arms. I did not wonder at her being taken from me, but was astonished at her return, Or had she eloped? And how had it been possible? I scarce could credit the conviction of my own reason; when I asked her the particulars.
Elmira now turned paler, timidly cast her eyes around the room, and hid herself terrified in my bosom.
—"Not a word of it at present," added she with a quavering voice, "we are not safe for a moment; first let us fly, as far as we are able, and as soon as possible. Hear'st thou, my love?—Use all possible dispatch, if thou still cherishest Elmira. Ah! they will wrest me from these loving arms!"
I paused for several minutes. I knew, that the Cabal had laid no injunction on me, contrary to this scheme. I promised to get every thing ready for our flight, soothed her alarmed mind with the tenderest expressions, and conducted her to another apartment to take some rest; I fastened the windows and doors, and threw myself with extreme lassitude on my bed.