Of all the revulsions of feeling that can befall the heart, I know of
none to compare in poignant agony with the sudden consciousness that you
are hated where once you were loved; that where once you had turned for
consolation or sympathy you have now nothing to expect but coldness
and distrust; that the treasure of affection on which you have counted
against the day of adversity had proved bankrupt, and nothing remained
of all its bright hopes and promises but bitter regrets and sorrowful
repinings.
It was in the very last depth of this spirit I now locked myself in my
room to determine what I should do, by what course I should shape my
future. I saw the stake for which Madame Cleremont was playing. She had
resolved that my mother's marriage should be broken, and she herself
declared Lady Norcott. That my father might be brought to accede to such
a plan was by no means improbable. Its extravagance and its enormity
would have been great inducements, had he no other interest in the
matter.
I began to canvass with myself how persons poor and friendless could
possibly meet the legal battle which this question should originate, and
how my mother, in her destitution and poverty, could contend against the
force of the wealth that would be opposed to her. It had only been by
the united efforts of her relatives and friends, all eager to support
her in such a cause, that she had been enabled to face the expenses of
the suit my father had brought on the question of my guardianship. How
could she again sustain a like charge? Was it likely that her present
condition would enable her to fee leaders on circuit and bar magnates,
to pay the costs of witnesses, and all the endless outgoings of the law?
So long as I lived, I well knew my poor mother would compromise none of
the rights that pertained to me; but if I could be got rid of,--and the
event of the morning shot through my mind,--some arrangement with her
might not be impossible,--at least, it was open to them to think so; and
I could well imagine that they would build on such a foundation. It was
not easy to imagine a woman like \ Madame Cleremont, a person of the
most attractive manners, beautiful, gifted, and graceful, capable of a
great crime; but she herself had shown me more than once in fiction the
portraiture of an individual who, while shrinking with horror from the
coarse contact of guilt, would willingly set the springs in motion which
ultimately conduce to the most appalling disasters. I remember even her
saying to me one day, “It is in watching the terrible explosions their
schemes have ignited, that cowards learn to taste what they fancy to be
the ecstasy of courage.”
While I thought what a sorry adversary I should prove against such a
woman, with all the wiles of her nature, and all the seductions by which
she could display them, my eyes fell upon the packet from Fiume, which
still lay with its seal unbroken. I broke it open half carelessly. It
contained an envelope marked “Letters,” and the following note:--
“Herr Owen,--With this you are informed that the house of Hodnig
and Oppovich has failed, dockets of bankruptcy having been yesterday
declared against that firm; the usual assignees will be duly appointed
by the court to liquidate, on such terms as the estate permits. Present
liabilities are currently stated as below eight millions of florins.
Actual property will not meet half that sum.
“Further negotiations regarding the Hunyadi contract on your part are
consequently unnecessary, seeing that the most favorable conditions you
could obtain would in no wise avert or even lessen the blow that has
fallen on the house.
“I am directed to enclose you by bill the sum of two hundred and
eighteen florins twenty-seven kreutzers, which at the current exchange
will pay your salary to the end of the present quarter, and also to
state that, having duly acknowledged the receipt of this sum to me
by letter, you are to consider yourself free of all engagement to the
house. I am also instructed to say that your zeal and probity will be
duly attested when any reference is addressed to the managers of this
estate.
“I am, with accustomed esteem and respect,
“Your devoted servant,
“Jacob Ulrich.
“P. S. Herr Ignaz is, happily for him, in a condition that renders him
unconscious of his calamity. The family has retired for the present
to the small cottage near the gate of the Abazzia Villa, called 'Die
Hutte,' but desires complete privacy, and declines all condolences.--J.
U.
“2nd P. S. The enclosed letters have arrived here during your absence.”
So intensely imbued was my mind with suspicion and distrust, that it was
not till after long and careful examination I satisfied myself that this
letter was genuine, and that its contents might be taken as true. The
packet it enclosed would, however, have resolved all doubt; they were
three letters from my dear mother. Frequent reference was made to other
letters which had never reached me, and in which it was clear the mode
in which she had learned my address was explained. She also spoke of
Sara as of one she knew by correspondence, and gave me to understand
how she was following every little humble incident of my daily life with
loving interest and affection. She enjoined me by all means to devote
myself heartily and wholly to those who had befriended me so generously,
and to merit the esteem of that good girl, who, caring nothing for
herself, gave her heart and soul to the service of her father.
“I have told you so much,” said she, “of myself in former letters”
(these I never saw) “that I shall not weary you with more. You know why
I gave up the school, and through what reasonings I consented to call
myself Lady Norcott, though in such poverty as mine the assumption of a
title only provoked ridicule. Mr. McBride, however, persuaded me that a
voluntary surrender of my position might be made terrible use of against
me, should--what I cannot believe--the attempt ever be made to question
the legality of my marriage with your father.
“It has been so constantly repeated, however, that Sir Roger means to
marry this lady,--some say they are already married,--that I have had
careful abstracts made of the registry, and every detail duly certified
which can establish your legitimacy,--not that I can bring myself to
believe your father would ever raise that question. Strangely enough, my
allowance, left unpaid for several years, was lately resumed, and Foster
and Wall received orders to acknowledge my drafts on them, for what,
I concluded, were meant to cover all the arrears due. As I had already
tided over these years of trial and pressure, I refused all save the sum
due for the current year, and begged to learn Sir Roger's address that
I might write to him. To this they replied 'that they had no information
to give me on the subject; that their instructions, as regarded payments
to me, came to them from the house of Rodiger, in Frankfort, and in the
manner and terms already communicated to me,'--all showing me that the
whole was a matter of business, into which no sentiment was to enter, or
be deemed capable of entering.”
It was about this period my mother came to learn my address, and she
avowed that all other thoughts and cares were speedily lost in the
whirlpool of joy these tidings swept around her. Her eagerness to see
me grew intense, but was tempered by the fear lest her selfish anxiety
might prejudice me in that esteem I had already won from my employers,
of whom, strangely enough, she spoke freely and familiarly, as though
she had known them.
The whole tone of these letters--and I read them over and over--calmed
and reassured me. Full of personal details, they were never selfish in
its unpleasant sense. They often spoke of poverty, but rather as a thing
to be baffled by good-humored contrivance or rendered endurable by
habit than as matter for complaint and bewailment. Little dashes of
light-heartedness would now and then break the dark sombreness of
the picture, and show how her spirit was yet alive to life and its
enjoyments. Above all, there was no croaking, no foreboding. She had
lived through some years of trial and sorrow, and if the future had
others as gloomy in store, it was time enough when they came to meet
their exigencies.
What a blessing was it to me to get these at such a time! I no longer
felt myself alone and isolated in the world. There was, I now knew, a
bank of affection at my disposal at which I could draw at will; and
what an object for my imitation was that fine courage of hers, that took
defeats as mere passing shadows, and was satisfied to fight on to the
end, ever hopeful and ever brave.
How I would have liked to return to Madame Cleremont, and read her some
passages of these letters, and said, “And this is the woman you seek to
dethrone, and whose place you would fill! This is she whose rival you
aspire to be. What think you of the contest now? Which of you should
prove the winner? Is it with a nature like this you would like to
measure yourself?”
How I would have liked to have dared her to such a combat, and boldly
declared that I would make my father himself the umpire as to the
worthier. As to her hate or her vengeance, she had as much as promised
me both, but I defied them; and I believed I even consulted my safety by
open defiance. As I thus stimulated myself with passionate counsels, and
burned with eagerness for the moment I might avow them, I flung open my
window for fresh air, for my excitement had risen to actual fever.
It was very dark without Night had set in about two hours, but no
stars had yet shone out, and a thick impenetrable blackness pervaded
everywhere. Some peasants were shovelling the snow in the court beneath,
making a track from the gate to the house-door, and here and there a
dimly burning lantern attached to a pole would show where the work
was being carried out. As it was about the time of the evening when
travellers were wont to arrive, the labor was pressed briskly forward,
and I could hear an overseer's voice urging the men to increased zeal
and activity.
“There has been a snow-mountain fallen at Miklos, they say,” cried one,
“and none can pass the road for many a day.”
“If they cannot come from Pesth, they can come from Hermanstadt, from
Temesvar, from Klausenberg. Guests can come from any quarter,” cried the
overseer.
I listened with amusement to the discussion that followed; the various
sentiments they uttered as to whether this system of open hospitality
raised the character of a country, or was not a heavy mulct out of the
rights which the local poor possessed on the properties of their rich
neighbors.
“Every flask of Tokayer drunk at the upper table,” cried one, “is an
eimer of Mediasch lost to the poor man.”
“That is the true way to look at it,” cried another. “We want neither
Counts nor Tokayer.”
“That was a Saxon dog barked there!” called out the overseer. “No
Hungarian ever reviled what his land is most famed for.”
“Here come travellers now,” shouted one from the gate. “I hear horses at
full speed on the Klausenberg road.”
“Lanterns to the gate, and stand free of the road,” cried the overseer;
and now the scene became one of striking excitement, as the lights
flitted rapidly from place to place; the great arch of the gate being
accurately marked in outline, and the deep cleft in the snow lined on
either side by lanterns suspended between posts.
“They 're coming at a furious pace,” cried one; “they 've passed the
toll-bridge at full gallop.”
“Then it's the Count himself,” chimed in another, “There 's none but he
could force the toll-bar.”
“It's a country wagon, with four _juckers_; and here it comes;” and as
he spoke four sweating horses swung through the gateway, and came full
speed into the court.
“Where is Kitzlach? Call Kitzlach! call the doctor!” screamed a voice
from the wagon. “Tell him to come down at once.”
“Out with the _juchera_, and harness a fresh team,” cried the same
voice. And now, as he descended from the wagon, he was surrounded
with eager figures, all anxious to hear his tidings. As I could gather
nothing from where I was, I hastily threw on a fur coat, and made my
way down to the court. I soon learned the news. A terrible disaster had
befallen the hunting-party. A she-boar, driven frantic by her wounds,
had dashed suddenly into the midst of them, slightly wounded the Count
and his head Jager, but dangerously one of the guests, who had sustained
a single combat with her and killed her; not, however, without grievous
injury to himself, for a large blood-vessel had been severed; all the
efforts to stanch which had been but half successful.
“Have you your tourniquet, doctor?” cried the youth from a wagon, as the
equipage was turned again to the gate.
“Everything--everything.”
“You 'll want any quantity of lint and bandages; and, remember, nothing
can be had down yonder.”
“Make your mind easy! I've forgotten nothing. Just keep your beasts
quiet till I get up.”
I drew nigh as he was about to mount, and whispered a word in his ear.
“I don't know,” said he, gruffly. “I can't see why you should ask.”
“Why don't you get up?” cried the youth, impatiently.
“There's a young fellow here importuning me to ask you for a place in
the wagon. He thinks he knows this stranger.”
“Let him get in at once, then; and let's have no more delays.” And
scarcely had we scrambled to our places, than the loud whip resounded
with the quick, sharp report of pistol-shots, and the beasts sprung out
at once, rushed through the narrow gateway, and were soon stretching
along at their topmost pace through impenetrable blackness.
Crouching in the straw at the bottom of the wagon, I crept as closely as
I could to where the doctor was seated beside the young man who drove.
I was eager to hear what I could of the incident that had befallen; but,
to my great disappointment, they spoke in Hungarian, and all I could
gather, from certain dropping expressions, was that both the Count and
his English friend had been engaged in some rivalry of personal daring,
and that the calamity had come of this insane contest. “They'll never
say 'Mad as a Hunyadi' any longer up at Lees. They 'll say 'Mad as an
Englishman.'”
The young fellow spoke in wondrous admiration of the wounded man's
courage and coolness, and described how he had taught them to pass a
light ligature round his thigh, and tighten it further by inserting a
stick to act as a screw. “Up to that,” said he, “he had been bleeding
like a tapped Wein-kass; and then he made them give him large goblet» of
strong Bordeaux, to sustain him.”
“He's a bold-hearted fellow then?” said the doctor.
“The Count declares he has never met his equal. They were alone together
when I started, for the Englishman said he had something for the Count's
own ear, and begged the others to withdraw.”
“So he thought himself in danger?”
“That he did. I saw him myself take off a large signet ring and lay it
on the table beside his watch, and he pointed them out to Hunyadi as he
came in, and said something in English; but the Count rejoined quickly,
'No, no. It's not come to that yet.'”
While they spoke slowly, I was able to gather at least the meaning of
what passed between them, but I lost all clew so soon as they talked
eagerly and rapidly, so that, confused by the unmeaning sounds, and made
drowsy by the fresh night-air, I at last fell off into a heavy sleep.
I was awakened by the noise of the wheels over a paved street. I looked
up, and saw, by the struggling light of a breaking dawn, that we were in
a village where a number of people were awaiting us. “Have you brought
the doctor?” “Where is the doctor?” cried several together; and he was
scarcely permitted to descend, so eager were they to seize and carry him
off.
A dense crowd was gathered before the door of a small two-storied house,
into which the doctor now disappeared; and I, mixing with the mass,
tried as best I might, to ask how the wounded man was doing, and what
hopes there were of his life. While I thus went from one to another
vainly endeavoring to make my question intelligible, I heard a loud
voice cry out in German, “Where is the young fellow who says he knows
him?”
“Here,” cried I, boldly. “I believe I know him,--I am almost sure I do.”
“Come to the door, then, and look in; do not utter a word,” cried a tall
dark man I soon knew to be Count Hunyadi. “Mind, sir, for your life's
sake, that you don't disturb him.”
I crept on tiptoe to the slightly opened door, and looked in. There, on
a mattress on the floor, a tall man was lying, while the doctor knelt
beside him, and seemed to press with all his weight on his thigh. The
sick man slowly turned his face to the light, and it was my father! My
knees trembled, my sight grew dim; strength suddenly forsook me, and I
fell powerless and senseless to the ground.
They were bathing my face and temples with vinegar and water to rally me
when the doctor came to say the sick man desired to see me. In a moment
the blood rushed to my head, and I cried out, “I am ready.”
“Be calm, sir. A mere word, a gesture, may prove fatal to him,”
whispered the doctor to me. “His life hangs on a thread.”
Count Hunyadi was kneeling beside my father, and evidently trying to
catch some faint words he was saying, as I stole forward and knelt down
by the bedside. My father turned his eyes slowly round till they fell
upon me,--when their expression suddenly changed from the look of weary
apathy to a stare of full and steadfast meaning,--intense, indeed, in
significance; but I dare not say that this conveyed anything like love
or affection for me.
“Come closer,” cried he, in a hoarse whisper. “It is Digby, is it not?
This boy is my son, Hunyadi,” he said, with an increased effort. “Give
me your hand.” He took my trembling fingers in his cold moist hand,
and passed the large signet ring over my second finger. “He is my heir.
Gentlemen,” he cried, in a tone at once haughty and broken by debility,
“my name, my title, my fortune all pas» to _him_. By to-morrow you will
call him Sir Digby--”
He could not finish; his lips moved without a sound. I was conscious of
no more than being drawn heavily across the floor, not utterly bereft of
reason, but dulled and stunned as if from the effect of a heavy blow.
When I was able, I crept back to the room. It was now the decline of
day. A large white cavalry cloak covered the body. I knelt down beside
it, and cried with a bursting heart till late into the night.