The Genius (Carl Grosse)/Chapter 28
CHAP. XII.
Caroline was grieved at this change.
The constant presence of her husband, and his tender marks of regard, became truly detestable to her. If I pleased her before, my almost continual absence now rendered me the most adorable of all mortals in her eyes. Distance served to render my character more amiable, jealousy added still more to its attractives, and Caroline's blood was wholly infected with the corroding poison of illicit love. Absorbed in a deep and speechless melancholy she became a real pro- blem to all her acquaintance. The count dreaded an explosion, and avoided seeing company, but this restraint totally disconcerted Caroline.
Meanwhile I ordered my servants to pack up my things, and resolved upon a speedy departure from my friend's seat, as soon as I should have found a sufficient apology to do it with good grace, I was certain that his heart really wished my absence, and that nothing but the most tender regard for his wife's honor prevented him from plainly telling me his mind without any preambles.
Once I returned late after midnight from one of my nocturnal revels, and knowing that the countess used to retire to rest much sooner, I hoped to find an opportunity to speak to her spouse respecting the project I meditated. However, at my approach, I was very much surprised to see a light in her apartment.
I entered the mansion, and reaching the top of the first flight of stairs, was struck at finding the countess there, exclaiming in tears, "Ah! Carlos!" These words re-echoed obscurely in my soul. What could they mean? At the same moment she fell fainting into my arms.
—"What ails you, madam?" asked I, "are you not well?"
—"I am very ill, Carlos," replied she, raising her face from my shoulder. Never had I seen a countenance so full of agitation, and her dishevelled locks hung bewildered over her face. "Pity me, Carlos," added she, "for heaven's sake! pity me!"
—"She is out of her mind," said I to myself, "or presently will be. What must I do? I cannot flatter her passion even for a moment; and suppose I really were to do it purely to pacify her for to-night, these walls have ears, and the count's friendship is dearer to me than my life."
—"O! Carlos," cried she, "is thy heart as insensible as a rock?"
—"Upon my word, madam," replied I whispering, "what can be the matter with you? Consider the place, and the count still up—"
—"Then come to my chamber!"
—"I think the count has seen, and waits for me."
—"O! come with me!" pursued she, weeping and kneeling down at my feet.
—'"Dear, dear," continued I highly alarmed, "what can ail you my lady? You seem to have lost your senses. Shall I call somebody?"
She shook her head.
—"You no doubt want to speak to me? But remember the unseasonable hour! the improper place! If you have something very particular to tell me, I promise to meet you to-morrow after midnight in the garden."
—"O Carlos!" exclaimed she with impassionate rapture, "will you meet me indeed? Will you? Ah, I well knew there still remained a glimmering spark of your former fondness!" At these words she hastily flew to my bosom, and covered my face with ardent kisses. I startled, as if I heard some noise, got softly loose from her embraces, and conducting her to her drawing-room, silently retired. "To-morrow, after midnight, Carlos! To-morrow after midnight!" cried she, with a loud voice.
I was quite embarrassed how to act. Not that my heart had spoke in the least manner in favor of Caroline, for to me she was, as it were, a woman without sex. To acquaint the count with the whole extent of his misfortune, finally struck me as a measure as necessary as it was cruel. I knew of no other means of keeping the assignation without treachery.
While I feigned to retire to my apartment, I tript on my toes back to my friend. I found him reading, and his countenance rather gloomy.
—"You are very downcast, Selami?" cried I with confidential assurance. "Has any thing happened? How is the countess?"
—"I don't think she is a-bed yet," returned he, "she was more agitated this night than I ever saw her before. She has been crying ever since morning; she complains of every thing. The weather, she says, is too cold; she murmurs at your never favoring her with your company, accuses the neighbors with cruelty for not visiting her, grumbles at the child's being unruly and troublesome—in short, God knows what ails her. What," added he frankly, "is to be done with such a strange being of a wife?"
—"Send her to a nunnery, and let it be the same where Adela is!"
Here my friend surveyed me with a wild stare. The hint was dropped, and had penetrated all his sensibility. "Alas!" exclaimed he, "what a shocking fate awaits me now?"
—"Our destinies, dear friend, are alike, The same incidents and the same sorrows ought then to rivet the closer the ties of our attachment."
—"But have I deserved it, marquis? Have I ever neglected any one duty? Bur all is in vain! My very tenderness has turned Caroline's heart. Bur be this as it may, such a woman shall never part me from my friend."
—"Your candor, Selami, warrants me, that you know my heart. You may rely on your Carlos."
—"But what will you do?"
I now related to him without reserve, what had happened at the top of the stairs, Instead of being shocked at the account, he was quite enraptured with the honor and sincerity of his friend.
—"O my second self!" exclaimed he with enthusiasm, "art thou really a man? art thou really my friend? or is my happiness a mere illusion?"
—"My love is reality. Your Carlos detests ingratitude. Oft have you found me weak and urresolute, but treacherous—never!"
We now agreed to try one more gentle remedy with the countess. His heart was quite averse to using harsh means, though an expedient of such a Kind, firmly practised at first, might probably have been productive of the best consequences. The assignation fixed for the next night, afforded me the best opportunity of making a declaration to Caroline, and the count left it to my eloquence to bestow it as strong and forcible as I possibly could. I insisted on his being a secret witness of our discourse, to which he made many objections, but informing him that I absolutely would do nothing in the matter without his granting the above condition, he ultimately yielded to my intreaties.
Heaven alone knows in what manner I spent the remainder of the night and the fol lowing day. I solely occupied myself with studying how to address Caroline. The count, with matchless presence of mind, appeared as attentive as ever to his spouse, whose mind was wholly occupied with me. Meanwhile the roseate hue of her expanded hopes suffused her cheeks, and she seemed to be rocked by some sweet dream. At night she ate no supper, her frame trembled with solicitous expectation, her looks became indiscreet, and she lost all the powers of self command.
Though we continued several hours at table, yet the Countess, notwithstanding her impatience, would not be the first to rise. It certainly was the main business not to raise suspicion at the very last moment. My friend, after all, complained of a violent head-ach; wished Caroline a good night, who thanked him more eagerly than ever, and shook hands with me. Having withdrawn, I remained a little while longer; and intimating to her, that the count was not to be trusted, and that we ought to be cautious we spoke on indifferent matters, but I could not prevent her from rising and embracing me. I then disentangled myself, and beckoned her to follow.
The count, according to agreement, had already taken post in the garden, and it might be one o'clock in the morning. It was as clear and serene a night as can possibly be expected in the month of October. I told the countess to enter the garden through the principal gate, while I should find my way into it through a little private door, to which I got access by taking a circuitous tour through the different yards and out-buildings of the castle. She obeyed. I had hardly reached the place of rendezvous, before a soft hand suddenly seized mine; it was that of Caroline, who notwithstanding all the haste I made, had got the start, and sallying forth from a thicket, surprised, and loaded me with caresses. "Thus," said the, "I catch thee Carlos!—But thou shrinkest from thy Caroline?"
She left me no time to return an answer. Nothing but the certainty of the count's being in ambush could keep me from yielding to human frailty, and from returning some of the lavished kisses of this enchantress. I seized her hand, and got away from her embraces. She seemed struck at my indifference. I led her trembling to a green seat, over which several tall bushes formed an arbor, behind which the count was hidden. She took this for a sure token of my remaining affection, and flattered herself with the sweet hope of this seat's becoming the couch on which I would gratify her wishes. In this belief she sank almost senseless on my bosom.
Had I been able to recal a single spark of my former passion for Caroline, and been alone and unobserved, I would have found it difficult to withstand her melting kisses and touching prayers. I had purposely laid it down as a condition, that the count himself should be present, because I was doubtful how far I might trust my own sensations.
She perceived that I used every effort to break loose from her, but taking it for a piece of virile coquetry, she only clung to me the faster. "Why seek to wind thyself from my arms? asked she smiling; "no, no, Carlos, thou shan't escape me as thou didst yesterday."
—"But I must, Caroline. Only recover yourself, and acknowledge in, me not only your true friend, but also the confidant of your husband's bosom."
—"O worthless man!" resumed she, startling back as from a monster, "is this the reception your treacherous smiles had promised me?"
—"It certainly is; I only expected to learn from you a secret, in which I might have served you with my advice.. Did not you choose me your friend, and is there aught you wish for better than real friend ship?"
She threw herself on the ground, and held me fast by the knees. "No, no, Carlos, pursued she, "'tis neither confidence nor friendship, but love I demand. Here I deposit it at your feet, and if your cruelty reject it—my bosom shall bear these pangs till the grave will case me of my burden."
Here she reposed her head on my knee, and a long pause ensued. I could not help shedding tears, and am assured my friend did as much for his unhappy wife.
I endeavoured to raise the countess, "Rise, madam," quoth I, "you ask too much from me. Can Caroline give way to so unworthy a passion?"
—"No, Carlos," replied she, "I know I ask what is reasonable. Years have I known thee and thy susceptible heart. It has always been open to the tenderest love, and for me alone thou wilt now be cruel!"
—"No, Caroline; the wife of my bosom-friend, is, after him, the next to my heart. I once loved you with too much juvenile fondness, and renounced my passion, to resign all its claims into the hands of the noblest and most deserving of men."
I started these remonstrances in hopes of embittering her against me. But the quite misconstrued my meaning, and thought to find in it some remains of love and jealousy. "How can Carlos thus upbraid me?" continued she, "Have I not sufficiently expiated my error? Have I not pined away in the fairest blossom of life, parted and absent from thee? and now returned repentant to thy feet, to offer thee the possession of my whole being, while every pulse beats for thee, while every thought of my mind bears thy image—O Carlos!—can't thou reject me?"
She fell to the ground in an agony of painful convulsions, and wrung her hands in despair. I lifted her to replace her on the feat, when the melted in tears. No man ever found himself in such a situation. I was watched, yet so very much alone, that I could expect no help but from my own powers.
—"Dearest countess," answered I, "you never was more mistaken than at this moment. I am unworthy of your love, and never merited it. Else how could I have forgot you so soon?"
—"So soon? Eternal God! is there no hopes for me, Marquis? speak—speak out, I conjure you! Why have you brought me hither in this damp and foggy night?"
She now began to rave, and all her words indicated a strong derangement of her mental faculties. She wildly beat about with her hands. Her whole frame was in convulsion. Her sparkling eyes became extinct, and she sell down as pale as a corpse. The faint glimpses of the planet of night shed new horrors over this trying scene. She only uttered some deep moans, and I had hardly strength enough to prevent her from taking away her life.
The count approached. We tried every means to restore her to her senses, where after a long paroxysm of dilirium, she seemed to recognize him, her hair stood an end, she violently wrested herself from us, and was on the point of throwing herself into an adjacent canal, but I fortunately prevented her from accomplishing the sinister purpose. Shame, rage, despair, and deluded and insulted love deprived her of reason, and the grief which secretly preyed on her bosom, now broke forth with such violence, as to cramp every vein of her body, and to throw her into a trance, from which it was dubious whether we should ever be able to rouze her again.
After trying various remedies in vain, she finally awoke from her lethargy, and staring wildly around, began to speak. But every word she said was incoherent, and declared the entire derangement of the faculties of her mind.
She took me for her husband, and her husband for me, but could bear neither of us to be about her.
Her recovery was very flow, and her short lucid intervals were succeeded by dreadful relapses. We seldom appeared in her apartment, and she fortunately seemed to have lost all remembrance of us. Her infant son was the only being she spoke to, and she always kept him playing by her bed-side. There was not one among her neighbors and acquaintances she knew again, and a sombre melancholy had blighted all her wishes and desires.
The count was utterly at a loss what to do with her. His inventive powers were exhausted, and he consulted me respecting the travelling to Italy formerly proposed, as the last expedient he could try, I advised him to propose it himself to the Countess, but he might as well have addressed himself to a dumb animal. She gazed at him with a bewildered look, like one who hears words without-comprehending them, and then cast her eyes down again.
Meanwhile I was considering of the propriety of sending her to the Penitent Sisters at Seville, where the company of my Adela and their former friendship, might probably be more efficacious in curing her, than all her husband's care and delicate forbearance. But uncertain of the real state of Adela's heart, which her tender letters could not clear up entirely to my satisfaction, I felt at first some scruples to expose the countess under the pretence of effecting her recovery to far greater dangers. If Adela's heart was not radically mended, and a companion had been sent her, with a passion in her breast more ardent than her own, what must have been the result of the company of two women, who in the heat of their temper, and the excess of their ungratified feelings, might have been capable of every mischief? I also considered, that Adela's returning affection towards me, would perhaps rouse Caroline's jealousy. From these reflections I thought it best to prevail on my friend to let me go to Seville, where I intended personally to found Adela's state of mind, and then decide with him the project of sending or not sending his Caroline to the same place.
He approved of my resolution, and I set out accordingly. Arrived at Seville, I went to an inn, not far from the convent of the Penitent Sisters, where I painted my face, eye-brows and mouth, put a large plaister on my right eye, dressed myself in the disguise of a servant, wearing the livery of the domesticks of the governor of Alcantara, and took a letter written and sealed by me to Adela, to acquaint her with a speedy visit from Countess Caroline Selami.
I arrived at the gate of the cloister, just as the nuns were at prayers, I rung the bell, and the porter coming up to me, I asked her, casting a sheepish look on the direction of the letter, if there was not a certain Marchioness de Grandez there, I had got a letter for her?
—"Poor lady!" began the talkative sister, "I am glad there is some joyful news for her. The letter, I suppose, comes from her husband! Poor thing! she almost devours his letters before she has read them!"
—"But pray, what kind of a woman is that Marchioness?"
—"A very great lady, I assure you master; so sweet, so-mild, so virtuous—"
—"Only think!" interrupted I with an air of simplicity.
—"When her ladyship first came, she did nothing but weep. She was quite pining away, and the other ladies could hardly get a word out of her mouth. What ails you madam? What's the matter? every one would ask her, and there Is not one that had not wished to know the secret."
—"I dare say," replied I, "and would not care if I knew it myself."
—"There is no telling what it really was, but there are many suspicions?"
—"Oddso!"
—"They say, her spouse is of a wild, fiery temper, and, who knows, what other scenes may have happened in the family!"
Good God! thought I, somebody must have betrayed them.—"Perhaps the Marquis was jealous," answered I, "and if the lady be handsome, I don't see why he shou'dn't?"
—"That's impossible, master. She is the pattern of virtue. Several persons came to visit her here, but she never would see strangers nor speak to them. I rather think it is the Marquis's fault."
Here I breathed more freely. So the honor of my wife was screened, I little cared what the world thought of mine.
—"Very true, sister," cried I, "the marquis is a sad fellow, he has played a thousand strange tricks, and God knows! when he means to leave them off."
—"So you know him?"
"And who does not from hear-say? I'm sure he must be one of the wildest jockies alive. But church is over now, and I have orders to deliver this letter personally to the marchioness. Will you have the goodness to tell her, that a servant of the Governor of Alcantara, that came hither with his master, is charged with a letter from Don Carlos?"
—"But I am afraid she won't see you."
—"Then only tell her the letter comes from her husband, and that my orders are to deliver it into no other hands but her own."
I was confident that however shy she might be of receiving strangers, she could not refuse admittance to a person sent by her husband. The sister went and returned a little while after, with the intelligence of her having orders to introduce me into the parlor.
I followed the sister, and found Adela ready to receive me at the barred window. Without deigning to honor me with a single look she eagerly snatched the letter from my hands, inspected the direction and seal, kissed it, broke it open, and began to peruse the contents. But with such eager haste did she seem to read, as to be often obliged to peruse certain passages over again, in order not to lose the sense.
Meanwhile I had leisure enough to examine the features of my wife's countenance. They became brighter and serener, the more she went on reading. Tenderness, love, and candor beamed in her eyes, and at the conclusion of the letter a big tear trickled down her face. She would not even turn away to hide it from me, but let it drop on the letter, which she once more fervently kissed.
—"Do you come straight from Alcantara, my good friend?" asked she putting the letter in her bosom.
—"Yes, Madam, I came with letters from the Governor, my master, for the archbishop of this place."
—"Do you know the Marquis de Grandez?"
—"Who should not know such a benevolent man? He always wishes to see every body happy."
These words affected her. "You are right," returned she sighing, "but he does often lavish his kindness on the ungrateful "
—"The world abounds with them, madam."
Here her eyes swelled with tears, but the inward consciousness of her guilt made her hide them and she turned aside to wipe them off.
—"Do you see him often?"
—"Very often."
—"Then you are more fortunate than I!"
—"Why Madam? you will see him once, and then continue with him for good."
—"God bless you for this good prophecy. Should I ever leave this convent, I'll remember it to your advantage. But now take this small present for your message."
Here she handed me a double pistole in gold, through the bars of the window, I eagerly seized her hand and kissed it, and while I was stooping and holding it fast, I pulled a small diamond ring which she well knew, off my finger, and put it on that on which she wore her wedding-ring. I then quickly turned round to be gone. She did not perceive the ring till I had got to the door, when she cried out, "Heavens, what is that? Should it———O stop, stop a little?" Bur I impetuously shut the door and made off.
My heart was quite pleased with the discovery I had made of my Adela's entire amendment, and already congratulated myself on my future happiness. I was sure now, that her company would soon restore Caroline to her reason, and on my return to Toledo, I acquainted my friend with the success of my excursion, and he now joy fully consented to send his spouse to live with mine. A fortnight after, Coroline being much better than she had been lately, my friend communicated our plan to her, and she expressed a lively desire to be with my Adela in the manner proposed. The count accompanied her to the convent, where he found Adela to whom he delivered a very promising and tender letter from me.
On his return, we agreed to set out together on our long-projected tour through Italy. We were just in time for the carnival at Venice. We wrote therefore to our spouses, to acquaint them with our intended departure, and promised to return within a twelvemonth at farthest.