OF THE TOMBS, OF THEIR SHADES, AND OF DEATH.
Asmodeus now said to the Student: "Before we continue our observations
on the living, we will for a few moments disturb the peaceful rest of
those who lie within this church. I will glance over all the tombs;
reveal the secrets they contain, and the feelings which have prompted
their elevation.
"The first of those which are on our right contains the sad remains of
a general officer, who, like another Agamemnon, on his return from the
wars found an Ægisthus in his house; in the second, reposes a young
cavalier of noble birth, who, desirous of displaying in the sight of
his mistress his strength and skill at a bull-fight, was gored to death
by his furious opponent; and in the third lies an old prelate who left
this world rather unceremoniously. He had made his will in the vigour
of health, and was imprudent enough to read it to his domestics, whom,
like a good master, he had not forgotten: his cook was in a hurry to
receive his legacy.
"In the fourth mausoleum rests a courtier who never rested in his
lifetime. Even at sixty years of age, he was daily seen in attendance
on the king, from the levée until his majesty retired for the night: in
recompense for all these attentions the king loaded him with favours."
"And was he, now," said Don Cleophas, "the man to use his influence
for others?" "For no one," replied the Devil: "he was liberal of his
promises of service to his friends, but he was religiously scrupulous
of never keeping them." "The scoundrel!" exclaimed Leandro. "Were we to
think of lopping off the superfluous members of society,--men that like
tumours on the body politic draw all its nourishment to themselves, it
is with courtiers like this one would begin."
"The fifth tomb," resumed Asmodeus, "encloses the mortal remains of
a signor, ever zealous for the interests of his country, and jealous
of the glory of the king his master, in whose service he spent the
best years of his life as ambassador to Rome or France, to England or
Portugal. He ruined himself so effectually by his embassies that he
did not leave behind him enough to defray the expenses of his funeral,
which the king has therefore paid out of gratitude for his services.
"Let us turn to the monuments on the other side. The first is that of
a great merchant who left enormous wealth to his children; but, lest
they should forget, in its flood, the humble source from which it,
like themselves, was derived, he directed that his name and occupation
should be graven on his tomb, to the no small annoyance of his
descendants.
"The next stone which surpasses every other in the church for its
magnificence, is regarded with much admiration by all travellers." "In
truth," said Zambullo, "it appears to me deserving of its reputation. I
am absolutely enchanted by those two kneeling figures--how exquisitely
are they chiselled? Not Phidias himself could have surpassed the
sculpture of this splendid work! But tell me, dear Asmodeus, what in
their lives were those whom these all-breathing marbles represent?"
The Cripple replied: "You behold a duke and his noble spouse: the
former was grand chamberlain to his majesty, and the duchess was
celebrated for her extreme piety. I must, however, relate to you
an anecdote of her grace, which you will think rather lively for a
devotee;--it is as follows.
"She had been for a long time in the habit of confessing her sins to
a monk of the order of Mercy, one Don Jerome d'Aguilar, a good man,
and a famous preacher, with whom she was highly satisfied, when there
suddenly appeared at Madrid a Dominican, who captivated the town by
the novelty of his style, and the comfortable doctrines on which he
insisted. This new orator was named the brother Placidus: the people
flocked to his sermons as to those of Cardinal Ximenes; and as his
reputation grew, the court, led to hear him by curiosity, became more
loud in his praises than the town.
"Our duchess at first made it a point of honour to hold out against
the renown of the new-comer, nor could even curiosity induce her to go
to hear him, that she might judge for herself of his eloquence. She
acted thus from a desire to prove to her spiritual director, that,
like a good and grateful penitent, she sympathised with him in the
chagrin which the presence of brother Placidus must have caused him.
But the Dominican made so much noise, that at last she yielded to the
temptation of seeing him, still however assured of her own fidelity:
she saw him, heard him preach, liked him, followed him; and the little
inconstant absolutely formed the project of putting herself under his
direction.
"It was, however, necessary to get rid of her old confessor, and
this was not an easy matter; a spiritual guide cannot be thrown off
like a lover; a devotee would not like to be thought a coquette, or
to lose the esteem of the director whom she abandons; so what did
the duchess? She sought Don Jerome, and with an air of sorrow which
spoke a real affliction, said to him: 'Father, I am in despair: you
see me in amazement;--in a grief,--in a perplexity of mind which
I cannot depict.' 'What ails you then, Madam?' replied d'Aguilar.
'Would you believe it?' she replied; 'my husband, who has ever had
the most perfect confidence in my virtue, after having seen me for so
long a time under your guidance, has, without appearing in the least
suspicious of myself, become suddenly jealous of you, and desires that
you may no longer be my confessor. Did you ever hear of a similar
caprice? In vain have I objected that by his suspicions he insulted not
only myself, but a man of the strictest piety, freed from the tyranny
of the passions; I only increased his jealous fears by my vindication
of your sacred honour.'
"Don Jerome, despite his shrewdness, was taken in by this story: it
is true that it was told with such demonstrations of candour as would
have deceived all the world. Although sorry to lose a penitent of
such importance, he did not fail to exhort her to obey her husband's
will; but the eyes of his Reverence were opened at last, and the trick
discovered, when he learned that the lady had chosen brother Placidus
as his successor.
"After the grand chamberlain and his cunning spouse," continued the
Devil, "comes a more modest tomb, which has only recently received the
ill-assorted remains of a president of the council of the Indies and
his young wife. This president, in his sixty-third year, married a
girl of twenty: he had by a former wife two children, whom he was about
to leave penniless, when a fit of apoplexy carried him off; and his
wife died twenty-four hours after him from vexation at his not having
lived three days longer.
"And now we have arrived at the most respectable monument this church
contains. For it every Spaniard has as much veneration, as the Romans
had for the tomb of Romulus." "Of what great personage, then, does
it contain the ashes?" asked Leandro Perez. "Of a prime minister of
Spain," replied Asmodeus; "and never did that monarchy possess his
equal. The king left, with confidence, the cares of government to
this great man; who so worthily acquitted himself of the charge,
that monarch and subjects were equally contented. Under his ministry
the state was ever flourishing, and its people happy; for his maxims
of government were founded on the sure principles of humanity and
religion. Still, although his life was blameless, he was not free from
apprehension at his death,--the responsibility of his office might
indeed make the best of mortals tremble.
"In a corner, a little beyond the tomb of this worthy minister, you may
discern a marble tablet placed against one of the columns. Say! shall
I open the sepulchre beneath it, and display before your eyes all that
remains of a lowly maiden who perished in the flower of her youth,
when her modest beauty won for her the love and admiration of all who
beheld her? It has returned to its primeval dust, that fragile form,
which in its life possessed so dangerous a beauty as to keep her fond
parent in continual alarm, lest its bright temptation should expose her
to the wiles of the seducer;--a misfortune which might have befallen
had she lived much longer, for already was she the idol of three young
cavaliers, who, inconsolable for her loss, died shortly afterwards by
their own hands. Their tragical history is engraven in letters of gold
on the stone I shewed you, with three little figures which represent
the despairing lovers in the act of self-destruction: one is draining
a glass of poison; another is falling on his sword; and the third is
tying a cord about his neck, having chosen to die by hanging."
The Demon finding that the Student laughed with all his might at
this sorrowful story, and that the idea of the three figures thus
depicted on the maiden's monument amused him, said: "Since you find
food for mirth in the artist's imagination, I am almost in the mind to
carry you this moment to the banks of the Tagus, and there shew you
a monument erected by the will of a dramatic author, in the church
of a village near Almaraz, whither he had retired, after having led
a long and joyous life at Madrid. This scribe had produced a vast
number of comedies full of ribald wit and low obscenity; but repenting
of his outrages upon decency ere he died, and desirous of expiating
the scandal they had caused, he directed that they should carve upon
his tomb a sort of pile, composed of books, bearing the names of the
various pieces he had written, and that beside it they should place the
image of Modesty, who, with lighted torch, should be about to consign
them to the flames.
"Besides the dead whose monuments I have described to you, there are
within this church an infinity of others without a stone to mark the
spot where their ashes repose. I see their shades wandering solemnly
around: they glide along, passing and repassing one after another
before us, without disturbing the profound quiet which reigns in this
holy place. They speak not; but I read in their silence all their
thoughts." "I am annoyed without measure," exclaimed Don Cleophas,
"that I cannot, like you, have the pleasure of beholding them!" "That
pleasure I can give you then," replied Asmodeus; "nothing is more
easy." The Demon just touched the Student's eyes, and by a delusion
caused him to perceive a great number of pallid spectres.
[Illustration: the sculpture of Modesty burning the books]
As he looked on these apparitions, Zambullo trembled. "What!" said the
Devil to him, "you are agitated! Is it with fear of these ghostly
visitants? Let not their ghastly apparel alarm you! Look at it well!
It will adorn your own majestic person some of these days. It is the
uniform of the shades: collect yourself, and fear nothing. Is it
possible your assurance can fail you now,--you, who have had the daring
to look on me? These gentry are harmless compared with myself."
The Student, at these words, recalling his wonted courage, looked on
the phantoms with tranquillity; which the Demon perceiving: "Bravo!"
said he. "Well! now," he continued, "regard these shadows with
attention! You will perceive that the occupant of the stately mausoleum
is confounded with the inhabitant of the unstoned grave. The ranks
by which they were distinguished in their lives died with them; and
the grand chamberlain and the prime minister are no more now than the
lowliest citizen that moulders in this church. The greatness of these
noble shades ended with their days, as that of the strutting hero of a
tragedy falls with the curtain."
"I have a remark to make," interrupted Leandro. "I see a lonely spirit
hovering about, and seeming to shun all contact with his fellows."
"Rather say," replied the Demon, "and you will speak the truth, that
his fellows shun all company with him: and what now think you is that
poor ghost? He was an old notary, who had the vanity to be buried in a
leaden coffin; which has so offended the self-love of the more humble
tenants of the surrounding tombs, that they resolved to black-ball him,
and will not therefore permit his shade to mix with theirs."
"I have another observation yet to make," resumed Don Cleophas. "Two
shadows, just now, on meeting, stopped for a moment to look upon each
other, and then passed each on his way." "They are, or rather were, two
intimate friends," replied the Devil; "one was a painter, and the other
a musician: they both drew their inspiration from the bottle; but
were, otherwise, honest fellows enough. It is worthy of note that they
both brushed off in the same year; and when their spirits meet, struck
by the remembrance of their former delights, they say to each other by
their sorrowful but expressive silence: 'Ah! my friend, we shall drink
no more.'"
"Grammercy!" cried the Student, "what do I see. At the other end of
the church are two spirits, who are passing along together, but badly
matched. Their forms and manners are immensely different: one is of
enormous height, and moves with corresponding gravity, while the other
is of dwarf-like stature, and passes o'er the ground like a breath."
"The giant," replied the Cripple, "was a German, who lost his life in
a debauch, by drinking three healths with tobacco mixed inadvertently
in his wine; and the little ghost is that of a Parisian, who, with
the gallantry belonging to his countrymen, was imprudent enough, on
entering this very church, to present the holy water to a young lady
who was leaving it: as a reward for his politeness, he was saluted on
the same day with the contents of a carbine, which left him here a
moral for all too attentive Frenchmen.
"For myself," continued Asmodeus, "I have been looking at three spirits
which I discerned among the crowd; and I must tell you by what means
they were separated from their earthly companions. They animated the
charming forms of as many female performers, who made as much noise
at Madrid, in their time, as did Origo, Cytheris and Arbuscula, in
theirs, at Rome; and, like their said prototypes, they possessed the
exquisite art of amusing mankind in public, and of privately ruining
the same amiable animal. But, alas! all things must have an end, and
these were the finales of those celebrated ladies: one died suddenly
of envy, at an apopletic fit of applause, from the pit, which fell upon
a lovely first-night; another found in excessive good cheer, at home,
the infallible drop which follows it; and, the third, undertaking the
dangerous character, for an actress, of a vestal, became so excited
with her part that she died of a miscarriage behind the scenes.
"But we will leave to their reposes(!) all these shades," again
continued the Demon; "we have passed them sufficiently in review.
I will now present to your sight a spectacle which, as a man, must
impress you with a deeper feeling than the sight of the dead. I am
about, by the same power which has rendered the shades of the departed
visible to your sight, to present to you the vision of Death himself.
Yes! you shall behold that insatiable enemy of the human race, who
prowls unceasingly in the haunts of man, unperceived by his victims;
who surrounds the earth, in his speed, in the twinkling of an eye; and
who strikes by his power, its most distant inhabitants at the same
moment.
"Look towards the east! He rises on your sight. A million birds of
baneful omen fly before his advent in terror, and announce his presence
with funereal cries. His tireless hand is armed with the fatal scythe
which mows successive generations as they spring from earth. But if, as
mocking at humanity, on one wing is depicted war, pestilence, famine,
shipwreck, conflagration, with other direful modes by which he sweeps
upon his prey, the other shows the priests who offer to him daily
hecatombs in sport; as youthful doctors, who receive from himself their
diplomas, after swearing, in his presence, never to practise surgery or
medicine contrary to the rules of the courts."
Although Don Cleophas suspected that all he saw was an illusion, and
that it was merely to gratify his taste for the marvellous that the
Devil raised this form of Death before his eyes, he could not look
on it without trembling. He assumed, however, all the courage he was
possessed of, and said to the Demon: "This fearful spectre will not, I
suppose, pass vainly over Madrid: he will doubtless leave some awful
traces of his flight?" "Yes! certainly," replied the Cripple; "he
comes not here for nothing; and it depends but on yourself to be the
witness of his visitation." "I take you at your word," exclaimed the
Student; "let us follow in his train; let me visit with him the unhappy
families on whom he will expend his present wrath. What tears are about
to flow!" "Beyond a doubt," replied Asmodeus; "but many which come at
convenience. Death, despite his horrors, causes at least as much joy as
grief."
[Illustration: Death flies over the poor man's bed]
Our two spectators took their flight, and followed the grim monarch
in his progress. He entered first a modest house, whose owner lay in
helpless sickness on his bed; the autocrat but touched the poor man
with his scythe, and he expired in the midst of his weeping relations,
who instantly commenced an affecting concert of cries and lamentions.
"There is no mockery here," said the Demon: "the wife and children
of this worthy citizen loved him with real affection: besides, they
depended on him for their bread; and the belly is rarely a hypocrite.
"Not so, however, is it in the next house, in which you perceive his
grisly majesty now occupied in releasing a bed-ridden old gentleman
from his pains. He is an aged counsellor who, having always lived a
bachelor of law, has passed his life as badly as he could, that he
might leave behind him a good round sum for the benefit of his three
nephews, who have flocked round his bed on hearing that he is about to
quit it, at last. They of course displayed an extreme affliction, and
very well they did it; but are now, you see, letting fall the mask,
and are preparing to do their duties as heirs, after having performed
their parts as relations. How they will rummage the old gentleman's
effects! What heaps of gold and silver will they discover! 'How
delightful!' said one of these heart-broken descendants to another,
this moment,--'how delightful is it for nephews to be blessed with
avaricious old uncles, who renounce the pleasures of life for their
sakes!'" "A superb funeral oration," said Leandro Perez. "Oh! as to
that," replied the Devil, "the majority of wealthy parents, who live to
a good old age, ought not to expect a better from their own children.
"While these heritors are joyfully seeking the treasures of the
deceased, Death is directing his flight to a large house, in which
resides a young nobleman who has the small-pox. This noble, one of the
brightest ornaments of the court, is about to perish, just as his star
is rising, despite the famed physician who attends him,--or rather
because he is attended by this learned doctor.
[Illustration: Death approaches the pious monk]
"But see! with what rapidity does the fatal scythe perform its
operations. Already has it completed the destiny of the youthful lord,
and its unblunted edge is turned elsewhere. It hovers over yonder
convent; it darts into its deepest cell, sweeps over a pious monk, and
cuts the thread of the penitent and mortifying life that he has led
during forty years. Death, all-fearful as he is, had no terrors for
this holy man; so, in revenge, he seeks a mansion where his presence
will be unwelcome indeed. He flies towards a licentiate of importance,
who has only recently been appointed to the bishopric of Albarazin.
This prelate is busily occupied with preparations for repairing to his
diocese with all the pomp which in our day accompanies the princes of
the church. Nevertheless, he is about to take his departure for the
other world, where he will arrive with as few followers as the poor
monk; and I am not sure that he will be quite as favourably received."
"Oh heavens!" cried Zambullo; "Death stoops upon the palace of the
king. Alas! one stroke of his fatal scythe, and ail Spain will be
plunged in dreadful consternation." "Well may you tremble," said
the Cripple; "for the barbarian has no more respect for kings than
for their meanest slaves. But be not alarmed," he added, a moment
afterwards, "he aims not at the monarch yet; his business now is with
a courtier only, one of those noble lords whose only occupation is to
swell his master's train: such ministers as these are not exactly those
the state can least afford to lose."
"But it would seem," replied the Student, "that the spectre king is
not contented with so mean a prize as the parasite you speak of.
See! he hovers still about the royal house; and, this time, near the
chamber of the Queen." "Just so," replied the Devil, "and he might be
worse employed: he is about to cut the windpipe of an amiable dame who
delights to sow divisions in her sovereign's court; and who is now
mortally chagrined, because two ladies whom she had cleverly set by the
ears, have been unreasonable enough to become sincerely reconciled with
each other.
[Illustration: the grieving wife tears her hair]
"And now, my master, you will hear cries of real affliction," continued
the Demon. "Death enters that splendid mansion to the left; and a scene
as touching as the world's stage offers is about to be acted there.
Look, if you can, on the heart-rending tragedy." "In truth," said Don
Cleophas, "I perceive a lady struggling in the arms of her attendants,
and tearing her hair with signs of deepest grief. Tell me its cause!"
"Look in the room adjoining, and you will see cause enough," replied
the Devil. "You observe the man stretched on that stately couch: it is
her dying husband,--to her a loss indeed! Their story is affecting, and
deserves to be written:--I have a great mind to relate it to you."
"You will give me great pleasure in so doing," interrupted Leandro:
"the sorrows of this world do not move less than its vices and follies
amuse me." "It is rather long," resumed Asmodeus, "but it is too
interesting to annoy you on that account. Besides, I will confess to
you, that, all Demon as I am, I am sick of following the track of
Death: let us leave him in his search of newer victims." "With all my
heart," replied Zambullo: "I am more curious to hear your promised
narrative Of suffering humanity, than to see my fellow-mortals, one
after another, hurried into eternity." The Cripple then commenced as
follows, after having transported the Student on to the roof of one of
the highest houses in the Strada d'Alcala.