Elizabeth's reply to Ripperda's note, respecting the delicate scruple
of his son, told him that herself would be present at the scene of
reconciliation.
To go to this portentous interview, was, to Louis, like setting forth
to execution. A curtain seemed to have dropped between him and all the
world. It closed out, not only every domestic comfort, but every aim of
ambition. Fame was now robbed of its glory; and the ardour of pursuit,
turned into a joyless resolve of fulfilling his task from a sense of
duty alone. His heart felt like a petrifaction in his breast; his veins
were chilled; and, with a cloud over every faculty, he paced his way,
as a man in a dream, through the often trod, but now hateful galleries
of the Imperial Palace. He knew not how his faultering steps bore him
into the _boudoir_ where he expected to see Otteline, but instead of
her pleading or resentful form, he found himself in the august presence
of the Empress.
She advanced to meet him, all smiles; but what her first words were, he
knew not. She observed his pale looks, and the distracted wandering of
his eyes; but she would not notice either.
"Whatever was your quarrel with Otteline, in your last meeting;"
continued she, "her gentle spirit is ready to grant you forgiveness.
Shall I conduct you to her feet?"
"To her presence, Madam," replied Louis, recalling his attention; "I
shall be honoured in following Your Majesty; but not to her feet. I
cannot ask her forgiveness, for addressing her with candour."
Elizabeth looked sternly at him.
"Young man, you are not come here, to brave the Empress of Germany!
Beware, Louis de Montemar, of insulting my friend, beyond, even her
persuasions to pardon!"
"I come to speak the truth;" replied he, "to declare that I am ready to
fulfil every claim that Countess Altheim demands of my honour; but also
to throw myself on Your Majesty's justice to me, and tenderness for
her; by a frank avowal, that I shall contract this marriage against my
heart, and against my conviction, that my honour does not acknowledge
the pledge she asserts."
The Empress remained indignantly silent, while he briefly recapitulated
the cause of his repugnance to the union she was determined to
accomplish.
"It is as impossible for me to restore her to my esteem," added he,
"as to relinquish my nature. But if, under the circumstances I have
mentioned, Your Majesty deems me bound, where no engagement was made;
and when I have already told her, that our hearts are as separated
as our natures;--I am ready to submit to become her husband, with the
cold, soul-less duty, the name may enforce."
Louis stood firm, though pale and respectful, before the resentful gaze
of Elizabeth.
"Sir," said she, "you know how to insult; and you know how to attempt
to wrest from a tender woman, the rights you have given her over your
honour,--But I am her protectress; and shall hold the chain that binds
you, until death severs it. Young man, I know more of that vain heart,
than I can easily pardon.--And yet, you dare to tell me, that your
honour made no engagement with Countess Altheim, because you did not
say, in veritable words--_I offer you my heart, my hand, my fortune,
and my life!_ But, did you not weep on her hand? Did you not press it
to your breast, while you vowed you loved, adored, and lived only in
her smile? Did you not proffer her your life, to clear her aspersed
fame? Did you not pledge her your heart; were you not sensible that you
were master of hers? and what was all this, but a bond to be hers; a
pledge, that you were hers? What is _honour_, if it be only a word and
not an action? and, in this case, an interchange of soul for soul?--All
this has passed between you, and yet you talk of your honour being your
own!"
Louis stood impressed, but not confounded by the truth of this appeal.
While he felt the reproach to many of his sex, he might have said with
Hamlet:--
"Let the galled jade wince; my withers are unwrung!"
Elizabeth observed a change in his countenance, and with all the woman
in her Imperial heart, she exclaimed, "Oh, man, man!" But checking
herself from completing the apostrophe, she turned proudly away, and
walked up the room. She returned, and addressed him.
"I have condescended to argue thus with you, because you are the son
of the Duke de Ripperda. His unswerving probity disdains subterfuge;
act as becomes his son, and I may forget, what Otteline is too ready to
pardon."
Louis looked up. The noble candour in his eyes almost dazzled the
stedfast, doubting gaze of Elizabeth.
"Had I sought a subterfuge," replied he, "I should have merited the
utmost of Your Majesty's disdain; but from the first moment that I
found myself too sensible to her charms, I struggled against the
disclosure; and when circumstances extorted the confession from me,
with the declaration of my love, I also declared that I was not at my
own disposal. These reproaches, do not, then hold on me. For had she
still appeared, what I then supposed her; had my father refused his
consent, I would have proved my fidelity by never giving my hand to any
other woman."
"Your father gives his consent!" answered the Empress, "and as you
yield obedience to his commands, it is well they coincide with the
bonds of your honour. I accept your offered terms for my friend; your
hand, with the consideration due to your wife. For know, vain boy, that
Otteline has a spirit as dignified as it is tender; and will not brook
obloquy, either from her lover, the world, or her husband!"
Louis would have spoken, but she put out her hand in sign of silence.
"Follow me, Marquis," cried she, "and the consequences of the next two
hours be on your own head."
The consequences he already felt in his heart; and, without further
look of remonstrance, or attempt to utter another word, he bowed and
obeyed.
She opened a door in the farthest apartment, and discovered the
beautiful favourite, seated on a sofa awaiting them. She was luxuriant
in every charm. And perhaps the flush of a smothered indignation,
irradiated her complexion with redoubled brilliancy. But all was worse
than lost upon the senses of Louis. Every beauty appeared to him, like
the serpents on the Gorgon's head, wreathing to sting him. She rose as
the Empress entered.
"Otteline," cried Her Majesty with a proud smile; "I have brought you a
penitent. Can you pardon and receive him again to your heart?"
"Oh, Wharton!" exclaimed the inmost soul of Louis, at that moment
recollecting the rejected warning of his friend; "This _Semiramis_ and
her _subtle confidant_, have, indeed, bound me in a toil unto death!"
As he approached, the Countess made some answer, which he rather heard
in its tones than its words; for almost instantly, Elizabeth had put
the hand of Otteline into his. He held it, but it was without pressure;
without recognizance of the delight with which he once grasped it.
"Now," continued the Empress, "I am happy since I see the son of my
earliest counsellor, thus affiance himself to the cherished friend of
my youth!"
As she spoke, she pressed their hands together, while a mortal coldness
shot through the heart of Louis, at this consummation of his fate; and
stupified, he neither saw nor heard for a few moments. In this interval
the Empress disappeared. Otteline sunk, weeping into a chair. He turned
his eyes upon her; but no sympathy was in their beams; no belief in the
semblance of her tears. She looked up and met his rigid observation.
Her beautiful eyes swam, like sapphire gems in the summer dew. A soft
attraction was in their lucid rays. A melancholy smile, gave utterance
to her faultering accents; and holding out the hand he had dropped, she
gently, timidly, and tenderly articulated,
"De Montemar! Is it a mutual forgiveness? The hand that is now yours,
is a feeble pledge of the reconciliation of my heart!"
Louis did not approach her. He felt there was poison in that honeyed
tongue; and though he came to commit himself to her for ever, he shrunk
from being cozened again, by her charms or her art, to become a willing
sacrifice. Could he now unite himself to her from any other impulse
than hard, extorting duty, he felt how deep would be his degradation in
his own thoughts; and he looked down to shut all these witcheries from
his eyes.
After a minute's pause, while he stood painfully silent, she resumed in
great emotion.
"What is it I have done, to deserve this harsh contempt? Oh, de
Montemar, I have only proved myself, a fond, a feeble woman? For your
sake, I gave way to the suggestions of a zeal, that would have carried
me, as surely on the points of your enemies' daggers, as to violate
the letter which gave notice of your danger.--And thus am I repaid!"
With a suffocating gasp, she fell back into the chair on which she sat,
and covered her face with her hands. Her whole frame was shook, as if
life were indeed passing in agonizing throes from her body. The heart
of man could not bear this. Could these mortal struggles be indeed
dissimulation?--Whatever they might be, he could not look on them
unmoved. He hastily approached her, and touched her hand. It was cold
as death, but the plastic fingers closed on his agitated pressure. He
trembled fearfully as he drew it away from her pale face, and beheld
those matchless features convulsed with mental agony. Again her eyes
opened upon him, as he hung over her. They fixed themselves on his
face, with a languid, but pleading sorrow.
"Countess!" said he in a voice of anguish. "Oh, call me Otteline--your
Otteline!" cried she, impetuously grasping his arm, and hiding her face
on it; "or, repeat that word, and release me, by killing me! But, I
have survived your esteem, and why should I longer wish to live?"
His heart was subdued; and with tears starting from his own eyes, he
exclaimed. "And is it possible that you do really love me?"
In that moment she was on her knees beside him. She clasped her
hands; and looked up with such beaming beauty in every feature,
such effulgence in her dewy eyes; that his were rivetted on her, as
they would have been on a kneeling angel. Her lips appeared vainly
to attempt sounds, that were too big for utterance; and, finding it
impracticable, she turned towards him, and meeting the relenting
expression of his anguished countenance, she smiled like heaven, and
threw herself upon his breast. Louis's heart heaved, and panted under
the beautiful burden it sustained, as her sighs breathed on his cheek,
and her tender tears bathed it; but, even in that moment of female
victory, the excess of his emotion smote on that betrayed heart: and
sensible to all the shame of his defeat, the rapid current in his
veins, chilled to its former ice; and, with a tremor, far from ecstacy,
he replaced her in her chair, and, almost unconsciously knelt down by
her side.--But the attitude was dictated by his humbled sense of his
own weakness, not, indeed, addressed to her; though he now believed she
loved him; and while he looked on her agitated frame, he thought to
himself:--
"If I cannot be happy myself, in the degradation to which I am doomed;
at least, I do not leave you miserable! I will cherish, and protect;
and, perhaps, recall that fond heart, to respect the principles of her
husband!" As he thus thought, he raised her hand to his lips; and, by
that action, sealed to himself, the compact to be hers.
"My de Montemar!" murmured the Countess, feeling the import of this
mute symbol. At this crisis, she heard a light step in the room.
She looked round, and beheld the young Arch-duchess, standing pale,
and fixed in the middle of the floor, with her eyes rivetted on the
kneeling figure of Louis.
"The Princess!" exclaimed Otteline, in a voice of surprise, to Louis.
He started from his knee, and in the confusion of his feelings,
retreated a few paces back. The gentle Maria Theresa smiled mournfully,
but did not speak. Taking her hand, the Countess enquired her commands.
The Princess still kept her eyes fixed on Louis, while, in a suppressed
and unsteady voice, she answered her governess.
"My mother wishes to speak with you. But, perhaps, had she known the
Marquis was here, she would not desire you to leave him. God bless you,
Marquis!" cried he, addressing him with agitated earnestness; "Be kind
to my Otteline; for, when you are married, I shall never see her
more."
With the last words, she tore her eyes from his face, and threw herself
into the bosom of the Countess.--Otteline looked her adieu to her
lover, as in a tumult of undescribable disorder he hurried out of the
room.