Albano could not spend a night in a region where the single columns and
arches of the ruined sun-temple of his youth lay scattered round; but
he betook himself, in a mournfully dreamy mood, toward the city. On the
road he found the Provincial Director Wehrfritz on horseback, who was
in quest of him. "Respected son," said he, "there have come to my hands
the weightest things from thy intimate friend Mr. Schoppe, which I, in
turn, have to deliver only into thine own, which I accordingly hereby
make haste to do; for, by Heaven, I have little spare time. The Prince
has dropped off this evening, from fright, because somebody said his
old father, who had promised to appear to him a second time as a sign
of his death, was to be seen in the mirror-room, which, however, I
hear, turned out to be only something of wax. The articles which
I have to deliver up are, first, a perspective-glass, wherewith thou
wilt see thy mother and sister painted (I use carefully Mr. Schoppe's
own expressions); secondly, a written packet addressed to 'Albano,
foster-son of Wehrfritz,' half of which is still enclosed in a black,
broken marble slab; and, thirdly, thy portrait." The portrait resembled
Albano at his present age, it was discovered,--so far as the stars
permitted one to see,--though, in fact, he had never let himself be
painted. The black marble slab and the perspective-glass brought before
his soul his father's prophecy on Isola Bella,[143]--that a female form
would step toward him out of the wall of a picture-gallery, and
describe to him a place where he was to find the black slab, having
previously shown him one where he should find the telescope, of which
the eye-glass would make for him, out of the old image of his sister, a
young recognizable one, and the object-glass, out of the young image of
his mother, an old recognizable one.
Albano put anxious questions about Schoppe and the history of the
finding of the rare freight. "With Herr Schoppe it fares well enough,"
said Wehrfritz; "he must be somewhere in the neighborhood with a
strange gentleman." Albano inquired after his dress; this, to his
astonishment, had grown out of a green into a red again. Hardly had
Wehrfritz begun giving the wonderful history how Schoppe came by those
wonderful things, when Albano, who gathered therefrom the solution of
the paternal prophecy, in the eagerness of his expectation interrupted
the intelligence with the request that he would accompany him to the
neighboring Chapel of the Cross, around which several lanterns stood.
He had both medallions always with him, and was now so curious to see
the face of his mother through the object-glass, as well as to read the
paper.
At the outermost lantern they stopped. Albano took out the medallion of
the decrepit form, under which was inscribed, "_Nous nous verrons un
jour, mon frère_"; he surveyed it through the eye-glass; behold, the
old face was the young one of his Julienne. Confidently he held the
age-imparting glass to the young image, under which was inscribed,
"_Nous ne nous verrons jamais, mon fils_"; there appeared a friendly
old face, smiling across out of a long life, whose original lay, as
having been seen by him, in a deep, dark memory, but nameless; of
Linda's mother it had, however, no feature.
All at once he heard a familiar voice: "_Ecco, ecco!_[144] my
nephew, sir!" It was Albano's uncle, who seemed to drag along the
black-dressed, wailing Schoppe, and weepingly addressed his nephew:
"Ah, _neveu!_ O, I speak the truth, only truth _pour jamais_." He looked
laughing, and thought he wept. The black coat stepped nearer, become a
green coat, and said, "Sir Count, don't let yourself be deceived a
minute; our acquaintance begins with a mutual loss." "My Schoppe," said
Albano, agitated, "knowest thou me no more?" "O that I were he now! My
name is Siebenkäs," replied the green coat, and threw up his hands into
the air in token of lamentation. "He lies there, however, in the
chapel," said the Spaniard; "I will relate all so truly that it is
beautiful." Albano cast a glance into the chapel, and, with a cry of
pain, fell headlong.