_From the Chevalier De Rabilier’s remarkable
Events of the present Century._
(Concluded from page 27)
They were accordingly united in the pleasing bonds of Hymen, which are
never so indissoluble, as when religion and virtue, disinterested love,
and real worth form the bright links of the mystic chain. But as all
sublunary happiness is liable to a change, a most dreadful reverse
succeeded to this seemingly well established scheme of domestic
enjoyment. The duchess from some accident in lying-in, notwithstanding
every possible assistance from the faculty, expired three days after
presenting her spouse with an heir to his noble possessions. It would be
needless to attempt a description of the grief and confusion caused by
so dire a misfortune, which were not confined to the castle of St.
Lucar, but spread like an epidemic disease throughout the whole
district. The church bells rang their usual melancholy dirge, and were
echoed by the responsive sighs of city and country for many miles round:
to complete this scene of woe, the disconsolate widower, penetrated with
the most lively anguish, followed his beloved partner to the tomb in
less than six months.
The young duke, now an orphan, remained under the tutelage of the count
d’Alvarez, uncle to his father, a nobleman whose fortune was by no means
equal to his rank and numerous family.--The immense riches of his ward
tempted him to sacrifice the last of this illustrious family to the
abominable desire of enriching his own children with the spoils. A mind
capable of forming so black a design is commonly capable of carrying it
into execution; yet this barbarian, not daring to shed innocent blood
with his own hand, bribed one of his domestics to carry the young
nobleman to some remote place, and there strangle him. But the servant
who fortunately had never been stained with so detestable a crime as
wilful murder, though somewhat encouraged by the hopes of a further
recompense, seized the wretched victim, and with a tremor and agitation,
that equally denoted reluctance and want of skill in the weapons of
death, gave him three stabs in the left arm with a poignard, which
instantly fell from his convulsed and shaking hand. The cries of this
lovely infant, and the blood which ran plentifully from his wounds,
quite overcame the youthful assassin, and recalled a sense of the act he
was about to perpetrate. He melted into tears, and forgetting both his
interest and rigid lord’s commands, ran with speed to a neighbouring
surgeon, who on examining the wounds, found them not mortal, though
dangerous, and deep enough to leave indelible marks of their malignity
on the back of his shoulders.
The domestic having in part discharged the duties of humanity, returned
to his lord, and informed him that he had fully executed the bloody
commission, which was readily believed, and a report immediately
circulated that the young duke died suddenly in a convulsion fit,
a coffin was accordingly filled with rubbish, and solemnly interred the
following night.
Notwithstanding these precautions, the servant became very uneasy in his
mind, and returned privately to the surgeon, under whose care he had
left the wounded infant. He found him much mended, and dreading a
discovery of the fraud put on his cruel master, which would have
endangered his own life, as well as that of the young nobleman, whom he
was now determined to preserve, he conveyed him to a distant province,
and committed him to the care of an honest peasant, who for a
considerable sum in hand promised to take particular notice both of his
nurture and safety.
The young duke remained six years in this situation, when the same
domestic appeared, and to rid himself effectually of every probable idea
of being discovered, brought the child to Malaga, where he sold him to
one Jacob de Mendez, a Portuguese Jew, who was about to embark for
Constantinople, at the same time telling him, that being the natural son
of a Spanish nobleman, by a young lady of the first distinction at the
court, it was necessary on several accounts, that so strong a proof of
frailty should be removed to a great distance. The Jew paid the price,
promised secrecy, embarked with his slave, or pupil, for the Levant, and
happily arrived at the port of Modon, in the Morea, from whence he went
by land to Constantinople, where we will leave him for the present, and
return to the uncle in Spain, whose project of murdering his innocent
ward was not attended with the satisfaction he had at first imagined.
About two years after, a strange malady, unknown to the most experienced
physicians, broke into the old nobleman’s house, and carried off every
one of his numerous issue in less than a month. He himself was attacked
by a malignant fever, in which he remained delirious for above six
weeks. At length he recovered, and penetrated with the keenest remorse
for the unworthy steps he had taken to destroy his innocent pupil, the
first use he made of his understanding was a participation of his griefs
to the servant who had been his accomplice in the crime, who, believing
all danger from his lord’s resentment at an end, confessed the whole
truth. This indeed appeased in some measure, the agonies with which the
Count’s mind was tortured; he now conceived a glimmering ray of hope
that he might one day be instrumental in restoring the young nobleman to
his lawful possessions; Providence, moved by his deep contrition, seemed
to applaud the just design; he recovered his health, and took every
method that prudence could suggest, but his enquiries were a long time
fruitless. Happening, however, to be at Marseilles when the Cæsar,
a ship in the Levant trade, arrived in the port, the disconsolate count,
learned from the captain, who had sailed from Constantinople about six
weeks before, that the Portuguese Jew, to whom the young duke was sold
by the servant at Malaga, had presented him to lord Paget, ambassador
from England, who had returned to London before the French vessel set
sail. Count d’Alvarez, on receiving this agreeable news, sent an express
to London, but the messenger arrived too late; the young gentleman was
not to be found in that city, all he could learn was, that, after living
with a barber in Picadilly, who taught him to shave and dress, he had
engaged with Count de Gallas, the Imperial Minister, who returned to
Vienna some months before. Old Alvarez, not in the least discouraged,
sent his confessor to the Emperor’s court, where the Count de Gallas
informed him that the domestic in question had quitted his service, and
went to live with the Baron d’Obersdorf, governor of Inspruck in Tyrol,
where he then resided. That he had married a chamber-maid belonging to
Madame, the Baroness, and was much respected in the family.
On this interesting intelligence, the good priest set out for Inspruck,
and being conducted to an audience, the governor acquainted him, that
the young man he so diligently sought, was gone about a month before to
reside on a farm, which the governor had let him at an easy rent,
sixteen miles from Munich in Bavaria, where he believed him to be
extremely happy, with an amiable girl who had waited on his lady, and
was now become his wife. Hither the indefatigable friar hastened, and at
length discovered the retreat of this long-lost alien from his family
and friends. After some preparatory compliments and questions, the young
farmer confessed that he knew nothing of his real name, rank or country.
All that he possibly could remember of his early days was his being a
slave to a merchant in Turkey, who told him frequently that he was
natural son to a Spanish lord. The friar requested to examine his
shoulders, and beholding three distinct marks of a poignard, or other
sharp weapon, in the places before described, hesitated not a moment to
pronounce him the undoubted heir of the duchies of Medina, and St.
Lucar. It is impossible to describe the astonishment of the young
gentleman, or the lively alarms of his amiable spouse, on the discovery
of their true condition. Instead of being elevated or flattered by this
double access of immense wealth and princely dignity, they only feared
that such a change in circumstances might some way or other deprive them
of the innocence and tranquility they enjoyed with each other in a
moderate sphere of life. The young farmer, now duke of Medina Celi, and
lord of the town and port of St. Lucar, positively insisted on the
acquiescence of his family with his choice, and their respect for the
deserving person, whom he should introduce to them as his wife, as a
necessary condition of his returning amongst them. Matters being thus
settled, the confessor, with the duke and his fair spouse, set off for
Inspruck, to take leave of, and thank the noble Baron and Baroness
d’Obersdorff for all their favours, who understanding, that their graces
intended passing through Vienna in their way to Spain, recommended them
so strenuously to his imperial majesty Charles the sixth, father to the
present illustrious dowager queen of Hungary and Bohemia, as to ensure
them a very honourable reception.
After a few weeks stay at the court of Vienna, they all set out for
Spain by the way of Italy, and arrived by easy journies at Genoa,
embarked on board the Princess Louisa, an English man of war, who landed
them safely at Cadiz, where the old count d’Alvarez, with a number of
domestics and carriages, waited their arrival. From hence their graces
set out with a retinue worthy their rank and virtues, for the castle of
St. Lucar, which was finely illuminated on this joyful occasion, and
where they yet enjoy the reward of their sufferings and constancy. His
grace is now in the seventy-fourth year of his age, and the duchess in
her grand climacteric. Both are strong and healthy for their time of
life, and continue patterns of every virtue than can do honour to their
rank and fortune; happy parents of a numerous and lovely offspring,
blessed by the poor, revered by the rich, and in favour with God and
man.
* * * * *
+For the New-York Weekly Magazine.+
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