TOM AND SARAH.
Sarah Seyton, widow of Count Macgregor, and at this time thirty-six or
thirty-seven years of age, was of an excellent Scotch family, daughter
of a baronet, and a country gentleman. Beautiful and accomplished, an
orphan at seventeen years old, she had left Scotland with her brother,
Thomas Seyton of Halsbury. The absurd predictions of an old Highland
nurse had excited almost to madness the two leading vices in Sarah's
character,--pride and ambition; the destiny predicted for her, and in
which she fully believed, was of the highest order,--in fact, sovereign
rank. The prophecy had been so often repeated, that the young Scotch
girl eventually fully credited its fulfilment; and she constantly
repeated to herself, to bear out her ambitious dream, that a
fortune-teller had thus promised a crown to the handsome and excellent
creature who afterwards sat on the throne of France, and who was queen
as much by her graces and her kind heart as others have been by their
grandeur and majesty.
Strange to say, Thomas Seyton, as superstitious as his sister,
encouraged her foolish hopes, and resolved on devoting his life to the
realisation of Sarah's dream,--a dream as dazzling as it was deceptive.
However, the brother and sister were not so blind as to believe
implicitly in this Highland prophecy, and to look absolutely for a
throne of the first rank in a splendid disdain of secondary royalties or
reigning principalities; on the contrary, so that the handsome Scotch
lassie should one day encircle her imperial forehead with a sovereign
crown, the haughty pair agreed to condescend to shut their eyes to the
importance of the throne they coveted. By the assistance of the
_Almanach de Gotha_ for the year of grace 1819, Seyton arranged, before
he left Scotland, a sort of synopsis of the ages of all the kings and
ruling powers in Europe then unmarried.
Although very ridiculous, yet the brother and sister's ambition was
freed from all shameful modes; Seyton was prepared to aid his sister
Sarah in snatching at the thread of the conjugal band by which she hoped
eventually to fasten a crown upon her brows. He would be her
participator in any and all stratagems which could tend to consummate
this end; but he would rather have killed his sister than see her the
mistress of a prince, even though the _liaison_ should terminate in a
marriage of reparation.
The matrimonial inventory that resulted from Seyton and Sarah's
researches in the _Almanach de Gotha_ was satisfactory. The Germanic
Confederation furnished forth a numerous contingent of young presumptive
sovereigns. Seyton was not ignorant of the sort of German wedlock which
is called a "left-handed marriage," to which, as being legitimate to a
certain extent, he would, as a last resource, have resigned his sister.
To Germany, then, it was resolved to bend their steps, in order to
commence this search for the royal spouse.
If the project appears improbable, such hopes ridiculous, let us first
reply by saying that unbridled ambition, excited by superstitious
belief, rarely claims for itself the light of reason in its enterprises,
and will dare the wildest impossibilities; yet, when we recall certain
events, even in our own times, from high and most reputable morganatic
marriages between sovereigns and female subjects, down to the loving
elopement of Miss Penelope Smith and the Prince of Capua, we cannot
refuse some chance of fortunate result to the imagination of Seyton and
Sarah. Let us add that the lady united to a very lovely person, singular
abilities and very varied talents; whilst there were added a power of
seduction the more dangerous as it was united to a mind unbending and
calculating, a disposition cunning and selfish, a deep hypocrisy, a
stubborn and despotic will,--all covered by the outward show of a
generous, warm, and impassioned nature.
In her appearance, there was as much deceit as in her mind. Her full and
dark eyes, now sparkling, now languishing, beneath her coal black brow,
could well dissimulate all the warmth of love and desire. Yet the
burning impulses of love never throbbed beneath her icy bosom; no
surprise of the heart or of the senses ever intervened to disturb the
cold and pitiless calculations of this woman,--crafty, selfish, and
ambitious. When she reached the Continent, she resolved, in accordance
with her brother's advice, not to commence her conjugal and regal
campaign until she had resided some time in Paris, where she determined
to complete her education, and rub off the rust of her native country,
by associating with a society which was embellished by all that was
elegant, tasteful, and refined. Sarah was introduced into the best
society and the highest circles, thanks to the letters of recommendation
and considerate patronage of the English "ambassador's" lady and the old
Marquis d'Harville, who had known Tom and Sarah's father in England.
Persons of deceitful, calculating, and cold dispositions acquire with
great facility language and manners quite in opposition to their natural
character, as with them all is outside, surface, appearance, varnish,
bark; or they soon find that, if their real characters are detected,
they are undone; so, thanks to the sort of instinct of self-preservation
with which they are gifted, they feel all the necessity of the moral
mask, and so paint and costume themselves with all the alacrity and
skill of a practised comedian. Thus, after six months' residence in
Paris, Sarah was in a condition to contest with the most Parisian of
Parisian women, as to the piquant finish of her wit, the charm of her
liveliness, the ingenuousness of her flirtation, and the exciting
simplicity of her looks, at once chaste and passionate.
Finding his sister in full panoply for his campaign, Seyton left with
her for Germany, furnished with the best letters of introduction. The
first state of the German Confederation which headed Sarah's "road-book"
was the Grand Duchy of Gerolstein, thus styled in the diplomatic and
infallible _Almanach de Gotha_ for the year of grace 1819:
"_Genealogy of the Sovereigns of Europe and their Families_.
"GEROLSTEIN.
"Grand Duke: MAXIMILIAN RODOLPH, 10th December, 1764. Succeeded
his father, CHARLES FREDERIC RODOLPH, 21st April, 1785. Widower
January, 1808, by decease of his wife, LOUISA AMELIA, daughter
of JOHN AUGUSTUS, Prince of BURGLEN.
"_Son_: GUSTAVUS RODOLPH, born 17th April, 1803.
"_Mother_: Dowager Grand Duchess Judith, widow of the Grand
Duke, CHARLES FREDERIC RODOLPH, 21st April, 1785."
Seyton, with much practical good sense, had first noted down on his list
the youngest princes whom he coveted as brothers-in-law, thinking that
extreme youth is more easily seduced than ripened age. Moreover, we have
already said that the brother and sister were particularly recommended
to the reigning Duke of Gerolstein by the old Marquis d'Harville,
caught, like the rest of the world, by Sarah, whose beauty, grace, and,
above all, delightful manners, he could not sufficiently admire.
It is superfluous to say that the presumptive heir of the Grand Duchy of
Gerolstein was Gustavus Rodolph: he was hardly eighteen when Tom and
Sarah were presented to his father. The arrival of the young Scotch
lady was an event in the German court, so quiet, simple, and almost
patriarchal in its habits and observances. The Grand Duke, a most worthy
gentleman, governed his states with wise firmness and paternal kindness.
Nothing could exceed the actual and moral happiness of the principality,
whose laborious and steady population, by their soberness and piety,
presented a pure specimen of the German character. This excellent people
enjoyed so much real felicity, and were so perfectly contented with
their condition, that the enlightened care of the Grand Duke was not
much called into action to preserve them from the mania of
constitutional innovations. As far as modern discovery went, and those
practical suggestions which have a wholesome influence over the
well-being and morals of his people, the Grand Duke was always anxious
to acquire knowledge himself, and apply it invariably for the use and
benefit of his people, his residents at the capitals of the different
states of Europe having little else to occupy themselves whilst on their
mission but to keep their master fully informed as to the rise and
progress of science and all the arts which are connected with public
welfare and public utility.
We have said that the Duke felt as much affection as gratitude for the
old Marquis d'Harville, who, in 1815, had rendered him immense service;
and so, thanks to his powerful recommendation, Sarah of Halsbury and her
brother were received at the court of Gerolstein with every distinction,
and with marked kindness. A fortnight after her arrival, the young
Scotch girl, endued with so profound a spirit of observation, had easily
penetrated the firm character and open heart of the Grand Duke. Before
she began to seduce his son,--a thing of course,--she had wisely
resolved to discover the disposition of the father. Although he had
appeared to dote on his son, she was yet fully convinced that this
father, with all his tenderness, would never swerve from certain
principles, certain ideas as to the duty of princes, and would never
consent to what he would consider a _mésalliance_ for his son, and that
not through pride, but from conscience, reason, and dignity. A man of
this firm mould, and the more affectionate and good in proportion as he
is firm and determined, never abates one jot of that which affects his
conscience, his reason, and his dignity.
Sarah was on the point of renouncing her enterprise in the face of
obstacles so insurmountable; but, reflecting that, as Rodolph was very
young, and his gentleness and goodness, his character at once timid and
meditative, were generally spoken of, she thought she might find
compensation in the feeble and irresolute disposition of the young
prince, and therefore persisted in her project, and again revived her
hopes.
On this new essay, the management of herself and brother were most
masterly. The young lady knew full well how to propitiate all around
her, and particularly the persons who might have been jealous or envious
of her accomplishments, and she caused her beauty and grace to be
forgotten beneath the veil of modest simplicity with which she covered
them. She soon became the idol, not only of the Grand Duke, but of his
mother, the Dowager Grand Duchess Judith, who, in spite of, or through,
her ninety years of age, loved to excess every thing that was young and
charming.
Sarah and her brother often talked of their departure, but the sovereign
of Gerolstein would never consent to it; and that he might completely
attach the two to him, he pressed on Sir Thomas Seyton the acceptance of
the vacant post of his "first groom of the chamber," and entreated Sarah
not to quit the Grand Duchess Judith, as she could not do without her.
After much hesitation, overcome by the most pressing entreaties, Sarah
and Seyton accepted such brilliant offers, and decided on establishing
themselves at the court of Gerolstein, where they had been for two
months.
Sarah, who was an accomplished musician, knowing the taste of the Grand
Duchess for the old masters, and, above all, for Gluck, sent for the
_chef-d'oeuvre_ of this attractive composer, and fascinated the old
princess by her unfailing complaisance, as well as the remarkable skill
with which she sang those old airs, so beautiful in their melody, so
expressive in their character.
As for Seyton, he knew how to make himself very useful in the occupation
which had been conferred upon him. He was a good judge of horses, was
orderly and firm in his conduct and arrangements, and so, in a short
time, completely remodelled the stables of the Grand Duke, which, up to
that time, had been neglected, and become disorganised.
The brother and sister were soon equally beloved, fêted, and admired in
this court. The master's preference soon commands the preference of
those below him. Sarah required, in aid of her future projects, too much
aid not to employ her insinuating powers in acquiring partisans. Her
hypocrisy, clothed in most attractive shapes, easily deluded the
simple-hearted Germans, and the general feeling soon authorised the
extreme kindness of the Grand Duke.
Thus, then, our designing pair were established at the court of
Gerolstein, agreeably and securely placed without any reference to
Rodolph. By a lucky chance, some days after the arrival of Sarah, the
young prince had gone away to the inspection of troops, with an
aide-de-camp and the faithful Murphy. This absence, doubly auspicious to
the views of Sarah, allowed her to arrange at her ease the principal
threads of the fillet she was weaving, without being deterred by the
presence of the young prince, whose too open admiration might, perhaps,
have awakened the suspicions of the Grand Duke. On the contrary, in the
absence of his son, he did not, unfortunately, reflect that he was
admitting into the closest intimacy a young girl of surpassing beauty,
and of lively wit, as Rodolph must discover at every moment of the day.
Sarah was perfectly insensible to a reception so kind and generous,--to
the full confidence with which she was introduced into the very heart of
this sovereign family. Neither brother nor sister paused for a moment in
their bad designs; they determined upon a principle to bring trouble and
annoyance into this peaceable and happy court; they calmly calculated
the probable results of the cruel divisions they should establish
between a father and son, up to that period so tenderly united.
* * * * *
A few words concerning Rodolph's early days may be necessary. During his
infancy, he had been extremely delicate. His father reasoned thereon in
this strange manner: "English country gentlemen are generally remarkable
for their robust health. This advantage results generally from their
bodily training, which is simple, rural, and develops their full vigour.
Rodolph must leave the hands of women; his temperament is delicate, and,
perhaps, by accustoming this child to live like the son of an English
farmer (with some few exceptions), I shall strengthen his constitution."
The Grand Duke sent to England for a man worthy of the trust, and
capable of directing such a course of bodily culture, and Sir Walter
Murphy, an athletic specimen, of a Yorkshire country gentleman, was
entrusted with this important charge. The direction which he gave to the
mind and body of the young prince were such as entirely coincided with
the views and wishes of the Grand Duke. Murphy and his pupil lived for
many years in a beautiful farmhouse, situated in the midst of woods and
fields, some leagues from the capital of Gerolstein, and in a most
picturesque and salubrious spot. Rodolph, free from all etiquette, and
employed with Murphy in outdoor labour proportionate to his age, lived
the sober, manly, and regular life of the country, having for his
pleasure and amusement the violent exercises of wrestling, pugilism,
riding on horseback, and hunting. In the midst of the pure air of the
meadows, woods, and mountains, he underwent an entire change, and grew
up as vigorous as a young oak; his pale cheek became suffused with the
ruddy glow of health; always lithe and active, he underwent now the most
severe fatigues, his address, energy, and courage supplying what was
deficient in his muscular power; so that, when only in his fifteenth or
sixteenth year, he was always the conqueror in his contests with young
men his superiors in age.
His scientific education necessarily suffered from the preference given
to his physical training, and Rodolph's knowledge was very limited; but
the Grand Duke very wisely reflected that, to have a well-informed mind,
it must be supported by a strong physical frame, and that, this
acquired, the intellectual faculties would develop themselves the more
rapidly.
The kind Walter Murphy was by no means a sage, and could only convey to
Rodolph some primary instruction; but no one knew better than he how to
inspire his pupil with the feeling of what is just, loyal, and generous,
and a horror of every thing that was mean, low, and contemptible. These
repugnances, these powerful and wholesome admonitions, took deep and
lasting root in the very soul of Rodolph; and although, in after life,
these principles were violently shaken by the storm of passions, yet
they were never eradicated from his heart. The levin bolt strikes,
splits, and rends the deeply planted tree; but the sap still maintains
its hold in the roots, and a thousand green branches spring fresh from
what was taken for a withered and dead tree.
Murphy, then, gave to Rodolph, if we may use the expression, health to
both body and mind; he made him robust, active, and daring, with a love
for all that was good and right, and a hatred for whatsoever was wicked
and bad. Having fulfilled his task to admiration, the squire, called to
England on very important business, left Germany for some time, to the
great regret of Rodolph, who loved him extremely.
His son's health having been so satisfactorily established, the Grand
Duke turned his most serious attention to the mental education of his
dearly beloved son. A certain Doctor César Polidori, a renowned
linguist, a distinguished chemist, learned historian, and deeply versed
in the study of all the exact and physical sciences, was entrusted with
the charge of cultivating and improving the rich but virgin soil so
carefully and well prepared by Murphy. This time the Grand Duke's choice
was a most unfortunate one, or, rather, his religious feelings were
infamously imposed upon by the person who introduced the doctor to him,
and caused him to think on Polidori as the preceptor of the young
prince. Atheist, cheat, and hypocrite, full of stratagem and trick,
concealing the most dangerous immorality, the most hardened scepticism,
under an austere exterior, profoundly versed in the knowledge of human
nature, or, rather, only having tried the worst side,--the disgraceful
passions of humanity,--Doctor Polidori was the most hateful Mentor that
could have been entrusted with the education of a young man.
Rodolph left with the deepest regrets the independent and animating life
which he had hitherto led with Murphy to go and become pale with the
study of books, and submit himself to the irksome ceremonies of his
father's court, and he at once entertained a strong prejudice against
his tutor. It could not be otherwise.
On quitting his young friend, the poor squire had compared him, and with
justice, to a young wild colt, full of grace and fire, carried off from
his native prairies, where he had dwelt, free as air, and joyous as a
bird, to be bridled and spurred, that he might under that system learn
how to moderate and economise those powers which, hitherto, he had only
employed in running and leaping in any way he pleased.
Rodolph began by telling Polidori that he had no taste for study, but
that he greatly preferred the free exercise of his arms and legs, to
breathe the pure air of the fields, to traverse the woods and the
mountains, and that a good horse and a good gun were preferable to all
the books in the universe. The doctor was prepared for this antipathy,
and was secretly delighted at it, for, in another way, the hopes of this
man were as ambitious as those of Sarah. Although the grand duchy of
Gerolstein was only a secondary state, Polidori indulged the idea of
being one day its Richelieu, and of making Rodolph play the part of the
do-nothing prince. But, desirous above all things of currying favour
with his pupil, and of making him forget Murphy, by his own concession
and compliance, he concealed from the Grand Duke the young prince's
repugnance for study, and boasted of his application to, and rapid
progress in, his studies; whilst some examinations arranged between
himself and Rodolph, which had the air of being impromptu questions,
confirmed the Grand Duke in his blind and implicit confidence. By
degrees the dislike which Rodolph at first entertained for the doctor
changed, on the young prince's part, into a cool familiarity, very
unlike the real attachment he had for Murphy. By degrees, he found
himself leagued with Polidori (although from very innocent causes) by
the same ties that unite two guilty persons. Sooner or later, Rodolph
was sure to despise a man of the age and character of the doctor, who so
unworthily lied to excuse the idleness of his pupil. This Polidori knew;
but he also knew that if we do not at once sever our connections with
corrupt minds in disgust, by degrees, and in spite of our better reason,
we become familiar with and too frequently admire them, until,
insensibly, we hear without shame or reproach those things mocked at and
vituperated which we formerly loved and revered. Besides, the doctor
was too cunning all at once to shock certain noble sentiments and
convictions which Rodolph had derived from the admirable lessons of
Murphy. After having vented much raillery on the coarseness of the early
occupations of his young pupil, the doctor, laying aside his thin mask
of austerity, had greatly aroused the curiosity and heated the fancy of
the young prince, by the exaggerated descriptions, strongly drawn and
deeply coloured, of the pleasures and gallantries which had illustrated
the reigns of Louis XIV., the Regent, and especially Louis XV., the hero
of César Polidori. He assured the misled boy, who listened to him with a
fatal earnestness, that pleasures, however excessive, far from
demoralising a highly accomplished prince, often made him merciful and
generous, inasmuch as fine minds are never more predisposed to
benevolence and clemency than when acted upon by their own enjoyments.
Louis XV., the _bien aimé_, the well-beloved, was an unanswerable proof
of this. And then, added the doctor, how entirely have the greatest men
of all ages and all countries abandoned themselves to the most refined
epicureanism,--from Alcibiades to Maurice of Saxony, from Anthony to the
great Condé, from Cæsar to Vendome! Such conversations must make deep
and dangerous impressions on a young, ardent, and virgin mind, and such
theories could not be without their results.
In the midst of this well regulated and virtuous court, accustomed,
after the example of its ruler, to honest pleasures and harmless
amusements, Rodolph, instructed by Polidori, dreamt of the dissipated
nights of Versailles, the orgies of Choisy, the attractive
voluptuousness of the Parc-au-Cerfs, and also, from time to time, of
some romantic amours contrasting with these. Neither had the doctor
failed to prove to Rodolph that a prince of the Germanic Confederation
should not have any military pretension beyond sending his contingent to
the Diet. The feeling of the time was not warlike. According to the
doctor, to pass his time delightfully and idly amongst women and the
refinements of luxury,--to repose from time to time from the animation
of sensual pleasures, amidst the delightful attractions of the fine
arts,--to hunt occasionally, not as a Nimrod, but as an intelligent
epicurean, and enjoy the transitory fatigues which make idleness and
repose taste but the sweeter,--this, this was the only life which a
prince should think of enjoying, who (and this was his height of
happiness) could find a prime minister capable of devoting himself
boldly to the distressing and overwhelming burden of state affairs.
Rodolph, in abandoning himself to ideas which were free from
criminality, because they did not spring from the circle of fatal
probabilities, resolved that when Providence should call to himself the
Grand Duke, his father, he would devote himself to the life which César
Polidori had painted to him under such brilliant and attractive colours,
and to have as his prime minister one whose knowledge and understanding
he admired, and whose blind complaisance he fully appreciated. It is
useless to say that the young prince kept the most perfect silence upon
the subject of those pernicious hopes which had been excited within him.
Knowing that the heroes of the Grand Duke's admiration were Gustavus
Adolphus, Charles XII., and the great Frederic (Maximilian Rodolph had
the honour of belonging to the royal house of Brandenburg), Rodolph
thought, reasonably enough, that the prince, his father, who professed
so profound an admiration for these king-captains, always booted and
spurred, continually mounted on their chargers, and engaged in making
war, would consider his son out of his senses if he believed him capable
of wishing to displace the Tudescan gravity of his court by the
introduction of the light and licentious manners of the Regency.
A year--eighteen months--passed away. At the end of this time Murphy
returned from England, and wept for joy on again embracing his young
pupil. After a few days, although unable to discover the reason of a
change which so deeply afflicted him, the worthy squire found Rodolph
chilled and constrained in his demeanour towards him, and almost rude
when he recalled to him his sequestered and rural life. Assured of the
natural kind heart of the young prince, and warned by a secret
presentiment, Murphy thought him for a time perverted by the pernicious
influence of Doctor Polidori, whom he instinctively abhorred, and
resolved to watch very narrowly. The doctor, for his part, was very much
annoyed by Murphy's return, for he feared his frankness, good sense, and
keen penetration. He instantly resolved, therefore, cost what it might,
to ruin the worthy Englishman in Rodolph's estimation. It was at this
crisis that Seyton and Sarah were presented and received at the court of
Gerolstein with such extreme distinction. We have said that Rodolph,
accompanied by Murphy, had been absent from the court on a journey for
some weeks. During this absence the doctor was by no means idle. It is
said that intriguers discover and recognise each other by certain
mysterious signs, which allow of them observing each other until their
interests decide them to form a close alliance, or declare unremitting
hostility.
Some days after the establishment of Sarah and her brother at the court
of the Grand Duke, Polidori became a close ally of Seyton's. The doctor
confessed to himself, with delectable cynicism, that he felt a natural
affinity for rogues and villains, and so he said that without pretending
to discover the end which Sarah and her brother desired to achieve, he
was attracted towards them by a sympathy so strong as to lead him to
imagine that they plotted some devilish purpose. Some questions of
Seyton's as to the disposition and early life of Rodolph, questions
which would have passed without notice with a person less awake to all
that occurred than the doctor, in a moment enlightened him as to the
ulterior aims of the brother and sister; all he doubted was, that the
aspirations of the Scotch lady were at the same time honourable as well
as ambitious. The arrival of this lovely young woman appeared to
Polidori a godsend. Rodolph's mind was already inflamed with amorous
imaginings; Sarah might become, or be made, the delicious reality which
should substantiate so many glorious dreams. It was not to be doubted
but that she would secure an immense influence over a heart submitted to
the witching spell of a first love. The doctor instantly laid his plan
to direct and secure this influence, and to make it serve also as the
means of destroying Murphy's power and reputation. Like a skilful
intriguer, he soon informed the aspiring pair that they must come to an
understanding with him, as he alone was responsible to the Grand Duke
for the private life of the young prince.
Sarah and her brother understood him in a moment, although they had not
told the doctor a syllable of their secret designs. On the return of
Rodolph and Murphy, all three, combined by one common intent, tacitly
leagued against the squire, their most redoubtable enemy.
* * * * *
What was to happen did happen. Rodolph saw Sarah daily after his return,
and became desperately enamoured. She soon told him that she shared his
love, although she foresaw that this love would create great trouble. He
could never be happy; the distance that separated them was too wide! She
then recommended to Rodolph the most profound discretion, for fear of
arousing the Grand Duke's suspicions, as he would be inexorable, and
deprive them of their only happiness,--that of seeing each other every
day. The young prince promised to be cautious, and conceal his love. The
Scotch maiden was too ambitious, too self-possessed, to compromise and
betray herself in the eyes of the court; and Rodolph, perceiving the
necessity of dissimulation, imitated Sarah's prudence. The lovers'
secret was carefully preserved for some time; nor was it until the
brother and sister saw the unbridled passion of their dupe reach its
utmost excess, and that his infatuation, which he could hardly restrain,
threatened to burst forth afresh, and destroy all, that they resolved on
their final _coup_. The doctor's character authorising the confidence,
besides the morality which invested it, Seyton opened to him on the
necessity of a marriage between Rodolph and Sarah; otherwise, he added,
with perfect sincerity, he and his sister would instantly leave
Gerolstein. Sarah participated in the prince's affection, but,
preferring death to dishonour, she could only be the wife of his
highness.
This exalted flight of ambition stupefied the doctor, who had never
imagined that Sarah's imagination soared so high. A marriage surrounded
by numberless difficulties and dangers appeared impossible to Polidori,
and he frankly told Seyton the reasons why the Grand Duke would never
submit to such a union. Seyton agreed in the importance of the reasons,
but proposed, as a _mezzo termini_ which should meet all objections, a
marriage, which, although secret, should be legal, and only avowed after
the decease of the Grand Duke. Sarah was of a noble and ancient house,
and such a union was not without precedent. Seyton gave the prince eight
days to decide; his sister could not longer endure the cruel anguish of
uncertainty, and, if she must renounce Rodolph's love, she must act up
to her painful resolve as promptly as might be.
Certain that he could not mistake Sarah's views, the doctor was sorely
perplexed. He had three ways before him,--to inform the Grand Duke of
the matrimonial project, to open Rodolph's eyes as to the manoeuvres
of Tom and Sarah, to lend himself to the marriage. But to inform the
Grand Duke would be to alienate from him for ever the heir presumptive
to the throne. To enlighten Rodolph on the interested views of Sarah was
to expose himself to the reception which a lover is sure to give when
she whom he loves is depreciated in his eyes; and then, what a blow for
the vanity or the heart of the young prince, to let him know that it was
for his royal rank alone that the lady was desirous to wed him! On the
other hand, by lending himself to this match, Polidori bound Rodolph and
Sarah to him by a tie of the strongest gratitude, or, at least, by the
complicity of a dangerous act. No doubt, all might be discovered, and
the doctor exposed to the anger of the Grand Duke, but then the marriage
would have been concluded, the union legal. The storm would blow over,
and the future sovereign of Gerolstein would become the more bound to
Polidori, in proportion as the doctor had undergone greater dangers in
his service. After much consideration, therefore, he resolved on serving
Sarah, but with a certain qualification, which we will presently refer
to.
Rodolph's passion had reached a height almost of frenzy. Violently
excited by constraint, and the skilful management of Sarah, who
pretended to feel still more than he did the insurmountable obstacles
which honour and duty placed between them and their liberty, in a few
days more the young prince would have betrayed himself. Thus, when the
doctor proposed that he must never see his enchantress again, or possess
her by a secret marriage, Rodolph threw himself on Polidori's neck,
called him his saviour, his friend, his father; he only wished that the
temple and the priest were at hand, that he might marry her that
instant. The doctor resolved (for reasons of his own) to undertake the
management of all. He found a priest,--witnesses; and the union (all the
formalities of which were carefully scrutinised and verified by Seyton)
was secretly celebrated during a temporary absence of the Grand Duke at
a conference of the German Diet. The prophecy of the Scotch soothsayer
was fulfilled,--Sarah wedded the heir to a throne.
Without quenching the fire of his love, possession rendered Rodolph more
circumspect, and cooled down that violence which might have compromised
the secret of his passion for Sarah; but, directed by Seyton and the
doctor, the young couple managed so well, and observed so much
circumspection towards each other, that they eluded all detection.
An event, impatiently desired by Sarah, soon turned this calm into a
tempest,--she was about to become a mother. It was then that this woman
evinced all those exactions which were so new to, and so much
astonished, Rodolph. She protested, with hypocritical tears streaming
from her eyes, that she could no longer support the constraint in which
she lived; a constraint rendered the more insupportable by her
pregnancy. In this extremity she boldly proposed to the young prince to
tell all to his father, who was, as well as the Dowager Grand Duchess,
fonder than ever of her. No doubt, she added, he will be very angry,
greatly enraged, at first, but he loves his son so tenderly, so blindly,
and had for her (Sarah) so strong an affection, that his paternal anger
would gradually subside, and she would at last take in the court of
Gerolstein the rank which was due to her, she might say in a double
sense, because she was about to give birth to a child, which would be
the heir presumptive to the Grand Duke. These pretensions alarmed
Rodolph: he knew the deep attachment which his father had for him, but
he also well knew the inflexibility of his principles with regard to all
the duties of a prince. To all these objections Sarah replied, unmoved:
"I am your wife in the presence of God and men. In a short time, I shall
no longer be able to conceal my situation; and I ought not to blush at
that of which I am, on the contrary, so proud, and would desire openly
to acknowledge."
The expectation of posterity had redoubled Rodolph's tenderness for
Sarah, and, placed between the desire to accede to her wishes and the
dread of his father's wrath, he experienced the bitterest anguish.
Seyton sided with his sister.
"The marriage is indissoluble," said he to his royal brother-in-law;
"the Grand Duke may exile you from his court,--you and your
wife,--nothing more; but he loves you too much to have recourse to such
an extremity. He will endure what he cannot prevent."
These reasons, strong enough in themselves, did not soothe Rodolph's
anxieties. At this juncture, Seyton was charged by the Grand Duke with
an errand to visit several breeding studs in Austria. This mission,
which he could not refuse, would only detain him a fortnight: he set out
with much regret, and in a very important moment for his sister. She was
chagrined, yet satisfied, at the departure of her brother; for she would
lose his advice, but then he would be safe from the Grand Duke's anger
if all were discovered. Sarah promised to keep Seyton fully informed,
day by day, of the progress of events, so important to both of them;
and, that they might correspond more surely and secretly, they agreed
upon a cipher, of which Polidori also held the key. This precaution
alone proves that Sarah had other matters to tell her brother of besides
her love for Rodolph. In truth, this selfish, cold, ambitious woman had
not felt the ice of her heart melt even by the beams of the passionate
love which had been breathed to her. Her maternity was only with her a
means of acting more effectually on Rodolph, and had no softening effect
on her iron soul. The youth, headlong love, and inexperience of the
prince, who was hardly more than a child, and so perfidiously ensnared
into an inextricable position, hardly excited an interest in the mind of
this selfish creature; and, in her confidential communications with him,
she complained, with disdain and bitterness, of the weakness of this
young man, who trembled before the most paternal of German princes, who
lived, however, very long! In a word, this correspondence between the
brother and sister clearly developed their unbounded selfishness, their
ambitious calculations, their impatience, which almost amounted to
homicide, and laid bare the springs of that dark conspiracy crowned by
the marriage of Rodolph. One of Sarah's letters to her brother was
abstracted by Polidori, the channel of their mutual communications; for
what purpose we shall see hereafter.
A few days after Seyton's departure, Sarah was at the evening court of
the Dowager Grand Duchess. Many of the ladies present looked at her with
an astonished air, and whispered to their neighbours. The Grand Duchess
Judith, in spite of her ninety years, had a quick ear and a sharp eye,
and this little whispering did not escape her. She made a sign to one of
the ladies in waiting to come to her, and from her she learned that
everybody was remarking that the figure of Miss Sarah Seyton of Halsbury
was less slender, less delicate in its proportions than usual. The old
princess adored her young protégée and would have answered to God
himself for Sarah's virtue. Indignant at the malevolence of these
remarks, she shrugged her shoulders, and said aloud, from the end of the
saloon in which she was sitting:
"My dear Sarah, come here."
Sarah rose. It was requisite to cross the circle to reach the place
where the princess was seated, who was anxious most kindly to destroy
the rumour that was circulated, and, by the simple fact of thus crossing
the room, confound her calumniators, and prove triumphantly that the
fair proportions of her protégée had lost not one jot of their symmetry
and delicacy. Alas! the most perfidious enemy could not have devised a
better plan than that suggested by the worthy princess in her desire to
defend her protégée. Sarah came towards her, and it required all the
deep respect due to the Grand Duchess to repress the murmur of surprise
and indignation when the young lady crossed the room. The
nearest-sighted persons saw what Sarah would no longer conceal, for her
pregnancy might have been hidden longer had she but have chosen; but the
ambitious woman had sought this display in order to compel Rodolph to
declare his marriage. The Grand Duchess, who, however, would not be
convinced in spite of her eyesight, said, in a low voice, to Sarah:
"My dear child, how very ill you have dressed yourself to-day,--you,
whose shape may be spanned by ten fingers. I hardly know you again."
We will relate hereafter the results of this discovery, which led to
great and terrible events. At this moment, we will content ourselves
with stating, what the reader has no doubt already guessed, that
Fleur-de-Marie was the fruit of the secret marriage of Rodolph and
Sarah, and that they both believed their daughter dead.
It has not been forgotten that Rodolph, after having visited the house
in the Rue du Temple, had returned home, and intended, in the evening,
to be present at a ball given by the ---- ambassadress. It was to this
fête that we shall follow his royal highness, the reigning Grand Duke of
Gerolstein, Gustavus Rodolph, travelling in France under the name of the
Count de Duren.