Louis re-opened his eyes on a superb couch, in a magnificent
bed-chamber, and surrounded by the physicians who had accompanied the
suite of his father from Madrid. A few minutes more restored him the
possession of all his faculties; and looking around, he did not seek
in vain for the noble form, whose parental embrace was yet warm on his
heart. Seeing that his son was recovered, the Duke made a sign for
every person to leave the room. Louis was going to rise, but his father
checked him by a motion of his hand; and drawing near him, sat down by
his side.
They were now alone. The Duke had taken his hand.--Louis kissed it
reverentially. "Ah, my father!" cried he, "if words could utter all
that is in my soul, towards your honoured self! Revered for your own
sake,--sacred for that of my angelic mother!" Tears bathed the hand,
which he sealed again with a son's devoted lips.
"Louis," said the Duke. Louis started, and looked around, and then
turned to his father. Ripperda silently regarded the enquiring
movements of his son.
"Sir," said Louis, "did I not hear the Sieur Ignatius speak to me?"
"You heard the voice of your father," returned the Duke, and he smiled.
It was the smile which Louis had never beheld on other mouth but one!
He gazed on his father's face with searching amazement. Ripperda
still wore his plumed hat. He took it off, to submit himself the more
completely to the inspection of his son. Louis felt that the voice and
smile were those of the dark-visaged and reserved Ignatius; but the
face, on which he now looked, was refulgent with manly beauty, and the
undisguised consciousness of high desert. Though the resemblance was
so extraordinary in two respects, yet, as in every other point the
dissimilarity was as striking, Louis had no suspicion of the truth; and
concluding that the Jesuit was some illustrious Spanish branch of the
Ripperda family, he earnestly replied,--"but where is the Sieur? Your
voice, my father, is so exactly his, I guess I must revere him as a
near relation, as well as your steadfast friend! But where is he? For
many reasons, I am anxious to know that he is safe."
"He is safe," returned the Duke, "and it gives me no small satisfaction
that you have been obliged to ask that question of me."
"Oh, Sir," replied his son, "though I might not always conduct myself
in the manner the Sieur Ignatius would approve; yet, I had hoped you
could not doubt that I would eventually give him all my reverence."
"I did not refer to that," resumed the Duke, "but, as you had
suspicions respecting the real situation and authority of that man;
and did not misconceive the character of your father; when, through
all the long months in which you obeyed commands that would not suffer
an appeal; and you so often doubted that the Baron de Ripperda could
really submit his son to such uncontrolable delegated power; how did
it happen, that you never suspected the mysterious Ignatius, and your
father to be one and the same person?"
"How?" exclaimed Louis, hardly conscious that he had spoken, while, in
hesitating astonishment his eye hastily scanned the august form before
him. It was indeed like that of Ignatius, majestic in every proportion,
but with more meridian vigour, with a more gracious air of command. No
trace of age discomposed the lofty symmetry of his figure; no mark of
time was visible on his capacious brow; cleared from the darkening dye
with which he had stained his complexion and his hair, his eyes shone
bright as the heavens, which their hue resembled. On the side of his
forehead, under the hair, Louis could discern the scar which had been
inflicted under the portico of the Jesuits' College. He shuddered at
what might have been the issue of that stroke; and thought what would
have been his agony, had he known that it was his father's hand which
closed so deathfully upon his, in the dark chamber of murder. He could
not speak, but his eyes and quivering lip, told all that was passing in
his mind.
"It was necessary," resumed the Duke, "that the negotiation with
Austria should be managed with dispatch and secrecy. The Queen proposed
that I should undertake it in disguise. I left Madrid under an
ostensible rumour, that I was gone to Russia on an affair connected
with the Baltic trade. At the place of usual embarkation, I dismissed
all my attendants, excepting Castanos and Martini. They were essential
to my proceedings. In the same day, I assumed the habit of a Jesuit;
and with my credentials disposed about my person, made my way to
Vienna. Besides the persons I have named, the Empress Elizabeth alone
was privy to my disguise. Her confidence in me inspired the idea of the
negociation; and her own interest in some of its articles warranted my
faith in her secrecy;--our success, you know. But while I was effecting
these great objects for my country, I chose the opportunity to give my
son his first lesson in the science to which fate has destined him.
Louis, I am fully satisfied with all you then performed. But you have
yet much to learn, and more to practise. You are now to be plunged
into the world, to stem the eddies of two contending vortices, duty and
pleasure! Mark me, and write on the tablets of your heart what I am
going to say. Use the one, to serve the other! But let me see that your
choice will be that of Hercules. You will meet many to persuade you to
the contrary; but remember, you may have a prompt guide in him who has
most interest in your welfare; therefore, Louis, I ask your fearless
confidence?"
While Ripperda continued to speak, his son thought within himself; if
my father were disguised in the sombre vestments of the Jesuit, his
spirit was even under a darker mask; I cannot recognise the harsh and
despotic Ignatius, in the mild exhortations of this gracious parent!
"Oh, my father!" exclaimed he, throwing himself on the Duke's bosom,
"you have your son's heart!--and in that, where is the thought that
can be hidden from you!"
Ripperda smiled, "Louis," said he, "these impassioned emotions may be
convincing witnesses of your southern origin!--but you must imitate
your father; and temper your Spanish blood with some of the phlegm
of the country in which you received your education. With one half
of mankind, this sort of feeling would be ridiculed, because not
understood, while those who could comprehend it, would watch it as the
betrayer of your secrets, and manage it to the establishment of their
own. The heart is man's citadel, it is only open country with feeble
woman! And perhaps, there is too much of her nature in all vehement
expressions of sensibility!"
Louis coloured, as checked in heart, he raised himself from his
father's arms. "Sir," said he, "I dared to shew these sensibilities to
my father, because I trusted he knew I was not wanting in the mental
strength to prove myself a man."
"True, Louis; but that is a character which ought not to require
occasional proofs. It should be manifest in the unvarying equability of
your conduct."
Louis looked on his father.
"One of my books is the human countenance;" resumed the Duke, "and
your's is very legible at present. I do not require you to change your
constitution, but to control its impulses. Endearments are rejected
between man and man, because they admit hypocrisy. All can affect to
caress; but the sober aspect of real fidelity is not easily assumed. In
temperate discourse you look into your companion's eyes, and read his
soul. But when the heart is shewn, by the agitation of the nerves, and
the head is thrown on the bosom; how can you then find an avenue to the
mind? Man, therefore, demands of man, the open, unreserved countenance;
and leaves to woman, that caressing enthusiasm, which may either
express tenderness, veil modesty, or mask a deceptious heart. Hence,
my son, we are oftener deceived in love than friendship; but you must
beware of both."
Louis was agitated by the concluding remark. It recalled the image of
the Countess, and the last scene wherein he beheld her, which made
him wish to forget the rest: quelling, however, every appearance of
disturbance, and only returning the kind pressure of his father's hand;
with more emphasis than he intended, he exclaimed, "in all things,
honoured Sir, I will strive to be obedient to your counsels. But do not
despise the expressions of an affection, which would not know a dearer
object than yourself!"
"I do not despise, but I restrain them; for you must be habituated
to self-command. Cherish the confidence that you now possess. Let me
be, indeed, the repository of all your thoughts; and though, in some
cases, I may disapprove, you shall never have cause to remember the
Sieur Ignatius in your father."
The smile which had so often lightened from the dark lip of the
Sieur, now beamed in sun-like radiance over the bright countenance of
Ripperda. Louis could have thrown himself again into his arms, and
pressed to his grateful bosom, the gracious heart of his father; but he
remembered the lesson he had received, and merely clasped his hand to
his lips.
Ripperda passed the remainder of the time in which he sat with his
son, in giving him instructions relative to their present situation
at Vienna. He told him, that in right of his restored rank, he was
now Marquis de Montemar; and to honour his father's services in this
momentous embassy Their Majesties of Spain had appointed him Secretary
of Legation.
"You are young for so responsible an office," continued he; "but the
Queen knows how ably you fulfilled my duties, during my wounds; and
herself suggested to the King, rewarding your zeal by so answerable an
appointment. The courts of both countries are ignorant of this reason;
therefore, you must make up in dignity of deportment, what you want in
years; and, to common eyes, in previous service. The world is governed
by appearance."
Ripperda then spoke on the causes and terms of his re-union with Spain.
And with some astonishment, and more regret, Louis comprehended that
his father had also been received into the pale of its established
church. Louis ventured to express his sentiments on this communication.
"It was my original religion," returned the Duke, "the free-thinking
spirit of independence had betrayed me in youth to the cavils of
Reformation, but time and study reconciled me to the faith of my
ancestors. Two learned Jesuits at Madrid completed the work, and I
am now as good a Catholic as any in the Spanish dominions. The same
masters may convert my son; and then, Louis, I shall have no wish
ungratified."
"I was born a protestant, Sir;" replied Louis, "and I believe I shall
die one."
"Be what your conscience dictates," returned the Duke, "only remember
that your father and your king are Catholics; and you will not fail in
honour to their church."
Louis bowed his head in respectful acquiescence. The Duke soon after
withdrew to his chamber of audience. Many of the old Spanish settlers
in Austria, who had been oppressed there since the changed succession
in Spain, were in waiting, to petition the ambassador of their ancient
country, to interfere with the Imperial court in their behalf.
Titles were never points in the ambition of Louis but as they were
symbols of pre-eminence in nobler respects; he, therefore, was not
insensible to the satisfaction of having the alienated honours of
his race restored to him by the virtues of his father. Such were his
thoughts, when the subject occurred to him; but when the Duke de
Ripperda first left the room, the mind of his son was wholly absorbed
in the happiness of having at last seen, and conversed with, and been
received to the heart of such a parent. That the stern Ignatius, from
whom he had shrunk, while he revered him, and this benignant parent
were one, amazed, while it called forth all his gratitude to heaven for
the preservation of that parent through the perils of his disguise.
As he meditated on the complete change which had taken place in his
father, since he had dismissed the garb of the Jesuit; and recollected
the lessons he had received from him in both characters;--from the one,
on the policy of assuming the thing that is not; and from the other,
the recent injunction to conceal his real feelings;--he conceived a
hope that the Duke de Ripperda might not be so averse to the Duke of
Wharton, as the Sieur Ignatius had thought it expedient to represent.
In his next discourse with his father, he determined to name the Duke;
for in spite of the late reproof to his indulged sensibility, his heart
yearned to utter all its affection and gratitude to the friend, who had
rewarded his repeated apparent insulting avoidance, by twice having
been his preserver.
After the Duke de Ripperda dismissed his Spanish suppliants, he
repaired to a private council of the Austrian ministers, to discuss the
preliminaries to his public reception by Their Cæsarean Majesties.
Louis did not leave his apartments, till he heard the wheels of his
father's carriage in the court-yard. It was then near ten o'clock at
night, and the colonades and palace were lit up in every direction with
lamps and chandeliers.
He hastened towards the great saloon, and met the Duke in the
anti-room.--They entered together. Several persons were present,
who greeted Ripperda with an equal air of deference, though with
different degrees of ceremonial obeisance. Their personal ranks were
distinctly marked in each individual demeanour; and when the Duke
introduced Louis as his son, they paid him compliments, which the young
Marquis answered with little more than respectful bows. His father
immediately led the way to the supper-room; and he, with the rest of
the company, followed through a suite of superb chambers lined with
attendants. The entertainment was served in a style to which the Duke
was accustomed, but which was novel to his son. The simple elegance of
his Pastor-Uncle's table possessed every comfort; the hospitable board
at Athelstone and Bamborough groaned with the weight of the feast;
and the feudal state he had seen at the banquets of the chiefs of
Scotland, was that of plenty with barbarous festivity;--but here, all
that was elegant and hospitable, stately and grand, were united in one
assemblage of courtly magnificence.
The manners of Ripperda to his company were like his
entertainment.--None could forget that he was the first man at table;
but the condescending graces of his conversation, and a peculiar
address, to which only the individual to whom it was pointed could be
conscious, charmed all that were present, with a conviction that each
one in particular was his especial favourite. Louis's spirits were so
absorbed in attention to his father's eloquent discourse on a variety
of subjects, addressed to himself and others, that he spoke very
little; and thought the time had flown, when the Duke rose from his
chair, and the party, obeying the signal, bade him adieu for the night.
When Louis was preparing to follow, his father stopped him.
"I am pleased with your general deportment this evening," said he. "The
dignified respect with which you treated those persons, (who, though
holding subordinate situations to yourself in the embassy, are your
seniors in years, and all of them men of family;) while it maintains
your own superiority, will conciliate their good-will; and propitiate
the envy that might busy itself in search of your faults."
"Sir," said Louis, blushing at the implied arrogance, "I had no idea
of shewing any thing to those gentlemen, but simple respect. And I am
sorry that what I had no thought of should have appeared in my manner,
to lessen the expression of that sentiment."
Ripperda shook his head, but not with gravity.
"I know you are a man of nice distinctions; and, that on the meaning of
some terms, you and I have yet to agree. But I will trust your humility
in some respects, to your haughtiness in others."
"My father?" exclaimed Louis. The Duke smiled.
"Ignatius might help us on this subject!" said he; "but I wish to
speak with you about another order of persons. To-morrow you will be
introduced to young men of the highest rank in Spain, the sons of
Spanish Grandees of the first order. Wishing to see Vienna, they are
nominally attached to this embassy; and though residing where they
please, have places every day at my table. These you must treat with
the suavity of equality and confidence; but beware of really giving
them your friendship, or your trust. They are your future rivals with
your sovereign. At present, their pursuit is pleasure. And, while
you steadily keep your eye upon the one aim of your life--honourable
distinction! to these young men you must appear as inclined to folly as
themselves."
Louis's bright eye turned on his father.
"It is even so!" continued the Duke, "you must lull the circumventing
watchfulness of their ambitious fathers, by seeming to share the
dissipation of their sons. Me, they know, they dare not touch. But
were you to appear all that I trust you are or will be, their roused
jealousy would seize the accessible point; and through you, they would
seek to undermine the new superstructure I am raising to the glory of
the house of Ripperda. Seem, therefore, careless of advancement, and
eager for pleasure; and they may quietly submit to the growth of your
early honours, when they are made to believe that your encreasing folly
will render them the last. Use this caution now, and a time is not far
distant, when you may shew yourself in these respects, according to the
sentiments which direct your present questioning looks; if, indeed,
such sentiments will then be yours. They are going through an ordeal.
You must prepare yourself for trials of a different nature from those
you found so galling at the Chateau de Phaffenberg. There, you had
only to endure; here, you are called upon to endure and to resist:--to
endure, nay to court temptation; and to resist, and overcome it. You
must be in the midst of every pleasure that can seduce or intoxicate
the senses of man; and you must see, and taste all, without allowing
yourself to feel it enjoyment. To derive enjoyment, is to yield
independence; and you must be independent of all, but the resources
within yourself."
Ripperda's voice sounded to his son like that of a trumpet. He loved to
feel his strength; to struggle, and to conquer; though the war might
only be in his own bosom. He listened, and longed for an opportunity of
proving to his father, that whatever might be his sensibilities, he had
no effeminacy in his soul. The Duke continued.--
"Your father does all that to which he exhorts you. He draws every
one to his purpose, without permitting any thing to fix a link on
him. From the age of twenty-one, I have been master of myself; and,
from that circumstance, master of every human being, on whom I turned
my eye, to do me service. From being the son of a banished man; and
alienated from the land and honours of my race; I became a soldier, a
statesman, a counsellor of nations! The country which had exiled my
father, solicited the return of his son! And now, the progress of my
undeviating career, has brought me to the restoration of all the rights
of my name; and raised it to a reputation, that is only bounded by the
limits of the civilized world! Louis what I am, you must be."
During this speech, Louis, more than once saw the proud and lightning
glance of the Sieur Ignatius. He felt an answering triumph; for
the throes of an eager emulation were busy in his youthful heart.
Unconsciously, his countenance reflected all his father's; for then,
perhaps, there was not a sentiment within him, that was not absorbed
in the single blaze of ambition. The Duke rose, speaking his last
sentence; and with so undefinable an air of even fearful grandeur,
that, for a moment, he seemed transformed a third time before his son.
But the next instant, turning from the door to which he had advanced,
the awful splendours of his countenance were softened into the
agreeable light of general complacency; and, in his usual tone, he bade
Louis retire to his chamber; and be ready, at a certain hour on the
morrow, to accompany his official presentation to the Emperor.