FURENS AMORIS.
Night closed in while Rudolph was on his way to the notary's. The pavilion
occupied by Jacques Ferrand was buried in profound obscurity. The wind
howled, the rain fell as during that gloomy night when Cecily fled forever
from the notary's house. Extended on a bed in his sleeping apartment,
feebly lighted by a lamp, Jacques Ferrand was dressed in black trousers and
vest; one of the sleeves of his shirt was turned back, and a ligature
around his attenuated arm announced that he had just been bled. Polidori
was standing near the bed, with one hand on the bolster, and appeared to
regard the features of his accomplice with inquietude.
Nothing could be more hideously frightful than the face of Ferrand, who was
then plunged into that torpor which ordinarily succeeds violent attacks. Of
a mortal pallor, strongly relieved by the shadows of the alcove, his face,
streaming with a cold sweat, announced the last stage of consumption; his
closed eyelids were so swollen and injected with blood, that they appeared
like two reddish lobes in the middle of this visage of cadaverous lividity.
"One more attack like the last, and all is over," said Polidori, in a low
tone, and, retiring from the bed, he commenced walking slowly up and down
the room.
"Just now," he resumed, "during the attack which nearly proved fatal, I
thought myself in a dream, as I heard him describe all the monstrous
hallucinations which I crossed his brain. His sense of hearing was of a
sensibility so incredibly painful that, although I spoke to him as low as
possible, yet it seemed to him, he said, that his head was a bell, and that
an enormous clapper of brass, set in motion by the least sound, struck
against it from time to time with a deafening and horrid noise."
Polidori again drew near the bed, and remained in a contemplative attitude.
The tempest raged without; it soon burst forth in violent gusts of wind and
rain, which shook all the windows of the dilapidated mansion.
Notwithstanding his audacious wickedness, Polidori was superstitious; dark
presentiments agitated him; he felt an indefinable uneasiness; the howlings
of the storm, which alone disturbed the mournful silence of the night,
inspired him with an alarm against which he struggled in vain. To drive
away these gloomy thoughts, he again examined the features of his
accomplice.
"Now," said he, leaning over him, "his eyelids fill with blood. What
sufferings! how protracted! and under what varied forms! Oh!" added he,
with a bitter smile, "when nature becomes cruel, and plays the part of
tormentor, she defies the most ferocious combinations of men. Oh! this face
is frightful. These frequent convulsions which overspread it contract it,
and at times render it fearful." Without, the tempest redoubled its fury.
"What a storm!" said Polidori, throwing himself into a chair, and leaning
his face on his hands. "What a night! what a night! Nothing could be more
fatal for the situation of Jacques."
After a long silence, Polidori resumed, "When I think of the past, when I
think of the ambitious projects which, in concert with Sarah, I founded on
the youth and inexperience of the prince--how many events! by what degrees
have I fallen into the state of criminal degradation in which I live! I,
who had thought to effeminate this prince, and make him the docile
instrument of the advancement of which I had dreamed! From preceptor I
expected to become minister. And notwithstanding my learning, my mind, from
misdeed to misdeed I have attained the last degree of infamy. Behold me, in
fine, the jailer of my accomplice. Oh, yes! the prince is without pity.
Better a thousand times for Jacques Ferrand to have placed his head on the
block; better a thousand times the wheel, fire, the molten lead which burns
and sinks into the flesh, than the torments this wretch endures. As I see
him suffer, I begin to be alarmed for my own fate. What will they do with
me--what is reserved for me, the accomplice of Jacques? To be his jailer
will not suffice for the vengeance of the prince. He has not saved me from
the scaffold to let me live. Perhaps an eternal prison awaits me in
Germany. Better that than death. I can only place myself blindly at the
discretion of the prince; it is my sole chance of safety."
At this moment the storm was at its height; a chimney, blown down by the
violence of the wind, fell on the roof and into the court with a noise like
thunder. Jacques Ferrand, suddenly aroused from his state of torpor, moved
on the bed. A hollow groan attracted the attention of Polidori.
"He is awaking from his stupor," said he, approaching him slowly.
"Polidori," murmured Jacques Ferrand, still stretched on the bed, and with
his eyes closed. "Polidori, what noise was that?"
"A chimney has fallen down," answered Polidori, in a low tone; "a frightful
hurricane shakes the house to its foundations. The night is horrible,
horrible!"
The notary did not hear, and half turning his head, whispered, "Polidori,
are you there?"
"Yes, yes, I am here," said Polidori, in a louder voice; "but I answered
softly, fearing to affect your hearing, as I did a few moments ago."
"No, now your voice reaches my ear without causing me those painful
sufferings; for it seemed to me, at the least noise, as if a thunderbolt
had broken in my head. And yet, in the midst of all this noise, of these
sufferings without name, I distinguished the voice of Cecily calling me."
"Always this infernal woman--always. But drive away these thoughts, they
will kill you."
"Drive them away!" cried Jacques Ferrand; "oh! never, never!"
"What mad fury! It alarms me."
"Hold, now," said the notary, in a husky voice, with his eyes fixed on an
obscure corner of the alcove. "I see already--like a living thing--a shape
appearing--there--there!"
And he pointed with his bony finger in the direction of the vision.
"Hush, be quiet, unhappy man!"
"Oh! there, there!"
"Jacques, it is death."
"Oh! I see her," added Ferrand, his teeth set. "There she is! how handsome
she is; how handsome! See her long black hair; it floats in disorder upon
her shoulders! And her small teeth, which are seen through her half-opened
lips: her lips so red and humid! What pearls! Oh! her large eyes seem in
turn to sparkle and die. Cecily! Cecily! I adore you!"
"Jacques," cried Polidori, alarmed, "do not excite yourself by these
phantoms."
"It is not a phantom."
"Take care; a short time ago, you know, you imagined also that you heard
the songs of this woman, and your hearing was suddenly affected by fearful
sufferings--take care!"
"Leave me," cried the notary, with impatience, "leave me! Of what use is
hearing, except to listen to her?--sight, except to see her?"
"But the tortures which ensue, miserable fool!"
The notary did not finish. He uttered a sharp cry of pain, throwing himself
backward on the bed.
"What is the matter?" asked Polidori, with astonishment.
"Put out that light; its glare is too vivid. I cannot support it; it blinds
me!"
"How?" said Polidori, more and more surprised.
"There is but one lamp with a shade, and its light is very feeble."
"I tell you that the light increases here. Hold! more! more! Oh! it is too
much! it becomes intolerable!" raved on Jacques Ferrand, shutting his eyes
with an expression of increasing pain.
"You are mad! This chamber is hardly light, I tell you. I have just turned
down the lamps; open your eyes, you will see."
"Open my eyes! But I shall be blinded by the torrents of dazzling light
which flood this apartment. Here, there, everywhere, sheets of
fire--thousands of shining atoms," cried the notary, raising himself; then,
uttering a cry of pain, he placed his hands on his eyes. "But I am blinded!
the burning light pierces my eyelids! it consumes me! Put out that light!
it casts an infernal flame."
"No more doubt," said Polidori; "his sight is stricken in the same manner
as his hearing was just now. He is lost! To bleed him anew in this state
would be fatal. He is lost!"
Another sharp, terrible yell from Jacques Ferrand resounded throughout the
chamber.
"Executioner! put out the lamp! Its burning splendor penetrates through my
hands; they are transparent! I see the blood! it circulates in my veins! I
did well to close my eyelids! this fiery lava would have entered! Oh, what
torture! It is as if my eyes were pierced with red-hot needles! Help!
help!" cried he, struggling in his bed, a prey to horrible convulsions.
Polidori, alarmed at the violence of this attack, extinguished the light.
And both were left in utter darkness. At this moment was heard the noise of
a carriage, which stopped at the street door. When the chamber became
darkened, Ferrand's agony ceased by degrees, and he said to Polidori, "Why
did you wait so long before you put out this lamp? Was it to make me endure
all the torments of the damned? Oh, what I have suffered! Oh, heaven! how I
have suffered!"
"Now do you suffer less?"
"I still experience a violent irritation, but it is nothing to what I felt
just now. I cling to life because the memory of Cecily is all my life."
"But this memory kills, exhausts, consumes you." The notary did not hear
his accomplice, who foresaw a new hallucination. In effect, Ferrand
resumed, with a burst of convulsive and sardonic laughter:
"To take Cecily from me! But they do not know that, by concentrating all
the power of one's faculties on a single object, the impracticable is
gained. Thus, directly, I am going to the chamber of Cecily, where I have
not dared to go since her departure. Oh, to see, to touch the vestments
which have belonged to her; the glass before which she dressed--it will be
to see herself! Yes; by fixing my eyes on this glass, soon shall I see
Cecily appear. It will not be an illusion--a mist; it will be she; I shall
find her there, as the sculptor finds the statue in the block of marble."
"Where are you going to?" said Polidori, hearing Jacques Ferrand getting up
from his bed, for the most profound obscurity still reigned in the
apartment.
"I go to find Cecily."
"You shall not go. The sight of her chamber will kill you."
"Cecily awaits me there."
"You shall not go--I hold you," said Polidori, seizing the notary by the
arm.
Jacques Ferrand, arrived at the last stage of weakness, could not struggle
against Polidori, who held him with a vigorous hand.
"You wish to prevent me from going to find Cecily?"
"Yes; and, besides, there is a lamp lighted in the next room; you know what
effect the light produced just now upon your sight!"
"Cecily is there; she awaits me. I would traverse a blazing furnace to join
her. Let me go. She told me I was her old tiger. Take care, my claws are
sharp."
"You shall not go. I will rather tie you on your bed as a madman."
"Polidori, listen; I am not mad--I have all my reason. I know very well
that Cecily is not materially there; but for me, the phantoms of my
imagination are worth more than realities."
"Silence!" cried Polidori, suddenly, listening; "just now I thought I heard
a carriage stop at the door. I was not mistaken. I hear now the sound of
voices in the court."
"You wish to distract my thoughts. The trick is too plain."
"I hear some one speak, I tell you, and I think I recognize---"
"You wish to deceive me," said Ferrand, interrupting Polidori; "I am not
your dupe."
"But, wretch, listen then--listen. Ah! do you not hear?"
"Let me go--Cecily is there--she calls me. Do not make me angry, in my
turn, I tell you. Take care--do you understand? take care."
"You shall not go out."
"Take care---"
"You shall not go out from here; it is my interest that you should remain."
"You prevent me from going to find Cecily; my interest wills that you
should die. Hold then!" said the notary, in a hollow voice.
Polidori uttered a cry.
"Scoundrel! you have stabbed me in the arm; but the wound is slight; you
shall not escape me."
"Your wound is mortal. It is the poisoned dagger of Cecily which has
stabbed you; I always carried it about me; await the effects of the poison.
Ah! you loosen your grasp; you are going to die. You should not have
hindered me from going to find Cecily," added Jacques Ferrand, feeling in
the dark for the door.
"Oh!" murmured Polidori, "my arm stiffens--a mortal coldness seizes me--my
knees tremble under me--my blood thickens in my veins--my head turns.
Help!" cried the accomplice of Ferrand, collecting all his strength for a
last cry; "help! I die!"
And he sunk under his own weight upon the floor. The crash of a glass door,
opened with so much violence that several panes were broken to pieces, the
ringing voice of Rudolph, and a noise of hasty footsteps, seemed to respond
to Polidori's cry of anguish. Jacques Ferrand, having at length found the
lock in the dark, opened the door leading into an adjoining apartment, and
rushed into it, his dangerous weapon in his hand. At the same moment,
threatening and formidable as the genius of vengeance, the prince entered
the room from the opposite side.
"Monster!" cried Rudolph, advancing toward Jacques Ferrand, "it is my
daughter whom you have killed! You are going--"
The prince did not finish; he recoiled alarmed. One would have said that
his words had pierced Jacques Ferrand. Throwing his poniard aside, and
placing both his hands before his eyes, the wretch fell with his face to
the floor, uttering a howl that was anything but human. In consequence of
the phenomenon of which we have spoken, of which a profound darkness had
suspended the action, when Jacques Ferrand entered this chamber brilliantly
lighted, he was struck with a vertigo, similar to that which we have
already described, more intolerable than if he had been exposed to a
torrent of light as incandescent as that of the disk of the sun. And the
agony of this man was a fearful spectacle; he writhed in frightful
convulsions, tearing the floor with his nails, as if he wished to dig a
hole to escape from the horrible tortures caused by this glaring light.
Rudolph, one of his servants, and the porter of the house, who had been
compelled to conduct the prince to this apartment, were transfixed with
horror. Notwithstanding his just horror, Rudolph felt an emotion of pity
for the unheard-of suffering of Jacques Ferrand; he ordered him to be laid
on a sofa. This was not done without difficulty; for, fearing to be
submitted again to the direct action of the light, the notary struggled
violently, but when it streamed in his face he uttered another yell, which
filled Rudolph with terror. After protracted torments, these attacks
ceased, exhausted by their own violence. Arrived at the mortal period of
his delirium, he remembered still the words of Cecily, who had called him
her tiger; by degrees, his mind again wandered; he imagined himself a
tiger! Crouched in one of the corners of the room, as in his den, his
hoarse, furious cries, the grinding of his teeth, the spasmodic contortions
of the muscles of his forehead and face, his glaring look, gave him a vague
and frightful resemblance to this ferocious beast.
"Tiger--tiger--tiger I am," said he, in a broken voice, gathering himself
up in a heap; "yes, tiger. How much blood! In my lair--corpses--torn to
pieces! La Goualeuse--the brother of this widow--the child of Louise--here
are corpses; my tigress Cecily shall take her share." Then looking at his
bony fingers, of which the nails had grown very long during his illness, he
added these words: "Oh! my sharp nails: an old tiger I am, but more active,
and strong, and bold. No one shall dare dispute my tigress, Cecily. Ah! she
calls! she calls!" said he, looking around, and seeming to listen. After a
moment's pause, he groped his way along the wall, saying, "No; I thought I
heard her; she is not there, but I see her, oh! always, always! Oh! there
she is! She calls me--she roars--she roars there! I come, I come."
And Jacques Ferrand dragged himself toward the middle of the chamber on his
hands and knees. Although his strength was exhausted, from time to time he
advanced by a convulsive spring: then he would pause, seeming to listen
attentively.
"Where is she? where is she? I approach, she flies. Ah! there; oh! she
awaits me; go; go, Cecily, your old tiger is yours," cried he.
And with a desperate effort he succeeded in getting on his knees. But,
suddenly, falling backward with alarm, his body crouched on his heels, his
hair standing on end, his look wild, his mouth distorted with terror, his
hands stretched out, he seemed to struggle with age against an invisible
object, and cried, in a broken voice, "What a bite--help--my arms break--I
cannot take it off--sharp teeth. No, no, oh! not the eyes--help--a black
serpent--oh! its flat head--its burning eyeballs. It looks at me--it is
the devil. Ah! he knows me--Jacques Ferrand--at the church--holy
man--always at the church-avaunt!" And the notary, raising himself a little
and sustaining himself with one hand on the floor, tried with the other to
make the sign of the cross.
His livid face was covered with sweat, and all the symptoms of approaching
death were manifested. He fell immediately backward, stiff and inanimate;
his eyes seemed to start from their sockets; horrible convulsions stamped
his features with unearthly contortions, like those forced from dead bodies
by a galvanic battery; a bloody foam inundated his lips, and the life of
this monster became extinct in the midst of one of his horrid visions, for
he muttered these words: "Night--dark! dark specters--brazen skeletons--
red-hot--twine around me their burning fingers--my flesh smokes--specter--
bloody--no! no--Cecily--fire--Cecily!" Such were the last words of Jacques
Ferrand.