"Silvain's revelations," continued Doctor Louis, "aroused within me
the keenest interest. The mysterious influences to which certain
natures are susceptible, and which in these twin brothers found
practical development, had always strongly attracted me, and it was at
this period of my life that I commenced the serious study of those
hidden forces which, now only dimly understood, will in the near
future become a recognised science. In this statement of my belief I
do not lose sight of the impostors who, trading upon credulity, creep
into the battle raging between those who have religious faith and
those who are groping in dark labyrinths. Their presence does not
lessen the importance of the subject; there always have been and there
always will be such.
"I endeavoured to draw Silvain into discussion, but he declined to
argue. He was content to accept without question the existence of the
mysterious chain of sympathy by which he and Kristel were bound, and
his theory was that unless such sympathies were born in men all
endeavours to acquire them must be futile.
"'You do not dispute,' I said, 'that there are secrets in nature
which, revealed, would throw a new light upon existence?'
"'No,' said Silvain, 'I do not dispute it.'
"'Nor that,' I continued, 'by study and research, the discovery of
these secrets is open to mankind.'
"'Undoubtedly,' he said, 'you may gain some knowledge of them; as you
may gain knowledge concerning the growth of flowers. But however
profound your application and however assiduous your pursuit, you can
never acquire a power which is intuitive in those who are born with
it. At the present time, for instance, you are attracted to the study
of animal magnetism, and you may become a master in its tricks. You
will reach no higher point. The true spiritual gift is bestowed by
nature only.'
"I need not say that my opinions were not in harmony with his, and had
there not been an entire absence of arrogance in his utterances, I
might have been nettled by the idea that he was asserting a
superiority over me. Although he declined to seriously discuss the
subject he was too amiable to refuse to converse upon it, and I
extracted from him a promise that, if it were in his power, he would
afford me the opportunity of testing and verifying any incident of
which he might become forewarned through his sympathy with Kristel. He
faithfully kept this promise, which, as you will presently learn, was
the forerunner of strange results.
"Meanwhile Silvain and I continued to travel together. I pursued my
studies assiduously, and did not allow myself to be discouraged by the
instances of charlatanism which met me at every turn. Silvain was in
the habit of relating his dreams to me, so far as he was able to
recall them, and during the first three months of our intimacy nothing
occurred to disturb him with respect to Kristel, whose letters he
always handed to me for perusal. These letters were most
affectionately written, but I gathered from them an impression that
Silvain's love was the more profound of the two. It was at the
expiration of three months that Silvain said, 'Louis, I am beginning
to dream about you.'
"'That is because we are constantly together,' I said.
"'I am dreaming also of another whom I have never seen,' said Silvain.
"'Man or woman?'I asked.
"'Woman,' he replied.
"'Young or old?'
"'Young.'
"I smiled and said, 'You also are young, Silvain.'
"'Well?' was his inquiry.
"'Love comes to the young,' I said, with the kind wisdom which youth
is fond of parading. 'It may come one day to me.'
"'Do _you_ dream,' said Silvain, 'of a young woman whom you have never
beheld?'
"'I dream of many such, no doubt,' I said, still preserving my light
tone.
"'Ah, yes, of many such--but of one who constantly appears, and whom
you can in certain particulars vividly describe? Is this among your
experiences?'
"'No,' I said, 'it certainly is not.'
"'Then,' continued Silvain, 'she seldom appears alone. My brother
Kristel is there; occasionally, also, you.'
"His earnest voice made me serious.
"'Describe this woman, Silvain, as she appears to you in your dreams.'
"'I cannot,' he said, after a momentary pause, 'describe her face
except that I know it is beautiful, nor her form except that I know it
is graceful. She has black hair, which tumbles in thick luxuriance
over her shoulders below her waist, and upon her head is a scarlet
covering, loosely tied, which flutters in the wind which is sweeping
around her. Her figure is nearly always in this position, standing
upright, with her left hand raised to her forehead, and her eyes
looking eagerly forward.'
"'As though searching for some one, Silvain?'
"'Yes, as though searching for some one. For whom? For me? It is a
question I seem to have asked of myself, I know not why. Her lips are
parted, and I see her white teeth gleaming. The wild waves are dashing
up to her feet, and surging all around her while the wind whistles and
shrieks.'
"'A storm is raging,' I suggested.
"'An invisible storm, of which she appears utterly regardless.'
"'And I am there?'
"'And you are there,' said Silvain, 'and Kristel, and myself and this
young girl, whose face I have never seen, but whose beauty spiritually
impresses me, is always looking forward in the position I have
described.'
"'Towards us?' I asked.
"'I cannot say,' he replied, 'but we seem to be moving in her
direction.'
"'Moving!' I exclaimed. 'How? By what means? Walking, riding, or
flying?'
"'We are on the water, it seems,' he said; 'but truly there is nothing
clear except the figure of the young girl standing in the midst of the
storm.'
"'You dream this constantly?'
"'Constantly.'
"'Has Kristel ever spoken to you of such a girl?'
"'Never.'
"'It is possible,' I suggested, 'that since you and he parted he has
met with her.'
"'Ah,' cried Silvain, with animation, 'you have hit the mark. It is
through Kristel that she comes to me in my dreams.'
"My suggestion had been lightly made, and the readiness with which he
accepted it astonished me. Thinking over it afterwards in cool blood
it appeared to me incredible that, in his dreams, Silvain should thus
become acquainted with a being whom he had never seen, and of whose
existence he had never heard. But Silvain entertained no doubt on the
matter.
"'Shall I ever see her in my waking life?' he asked, in a musing tone.
"'You believe she lives?'
"'As surely as I live. If I knew where she is to be found I would go
and seek her.'
"In other men's judgment the calm manner in which he spoke of this
mystic episode would have been accounted a species of madness; but I
knew that he was perfectly sane, and that his brain was as clear and
well balanced as my own.
"'For what reason would you seek her?' I asked.
"'I do not know,' he replied, and added, with a grave smile, 'perhaps
because she is beautiful.'
"'You have fallen in love with a shadow, Silvain.'
"'It may be,' he said; 'I cannot say how it is--only that I think of
her by day and dream of her by night. I wonder whether we shall ever
meet!'
"'Cannot you tell?'
"'No, I cannot see into the future. All that comes to me in my dreams
of and through Kristel belongs to the past and the present. There is
no foreshadowing of what is to be. The picture I have seen of this
beautiful girl is a reflex of what Kristel has seen in actual
embodiment.'
"It would have been both unkind and ungenerous to throw ridicule upon
these statements. To no man would Silvain have spoken as he spoke to
me; he had, as it were, opened his soul to my gaze, and I should have
been unworthy of friendship had I not received his confidences with
respect. Nevertheless I could not bring myself to believe as he
believed. I was soon to become a convert.
"About a month after this conversation I was aroused from sleep early
in the morning by Silvain. The sun had scarcely risen, and he was
fully dressed. I observed signs of agitation in his face.
"'Kristel is in danger,' he said.
"These simple words acted upon me as a charm. I divined instantly that
Silvain had dreamt of his brother being in peril. Here, then, to my
hand, was a means of verifying a mystery which might assist me in my
studies. I questioned Silvain, and he answered me frankly. Yes, he had
dreamt of Kristel, and it was his dream which had driven him from his
bed. I determined to be precise, and, for my own satisfaction, to
extract from Silvain all the details at his command.
"'Kristel,' he said, 'was one of a company of tourists who had set out
to traverse a difficult pass, from the summit of which a view of cloud
and water, and distant lowlands of great beauty, was to be obtained.'
"'How do you know this?' I asked.
"'Kristel reached the summit,' replied Silvain, 'shortly before
sunset, and stood enjoying the prospect.'
"'You saw him there?'
"'I saw him there, with his friends. Near the spot upon which they
were gathered was a hut, which in all likelihood was built to
accommodate large parties of tourists, such as that of which Kristel
formed one. It was spacious, with many bedrooms in it, and one large
apartment in which meals were taken. Kristel and his companions
retired to this hut after sunset. Then night set in, and my dream
ended.'
"'There is nothing very alarming in that,' I observed.
"'I do not think I awoke,' continued Silvain, 'and I cannot say
whether the interval between this dream and the dream that followed
was one of hours or minutes. Kristel and a companion are exploring a
cavern, the opening into which is on the summit of the mountain. They
bear torches. The walls and roof of the cavern are of glittering spar
and crystal, and the light from the torches is a thousand-fold
reflected. They emerge from the cavern through a fissure in the rocks
some hundreds of feet below the summit. There is an overhanging ledge
of stone, by springing upon which readier access to the hut is gained.
Kristel's companion makes the spring, and reaches the ledge in safety.
Kristel follows, fails in the attempt, and falls back, bleeding. His
companion, standing far above him, cannot reach him by bending over,
and, being without ropes, is powerless to assist Kristel, who lies
there, badly hurt.'
"'Nothing further, Silvain?'
"'Nothing further.'
"'Do you know from evidence in your dream where this occurred?"
"'No; but Kristel is in Bavaria. I know that by his letters, and by
the scheme of travel mapped out by my father.'
"'What do you intend to do?'
"'To go to Kristel. To go to Bavaria.'
"'But by the time you arrive there, he may be gone.'
"'You forget that I told you he is badly hurt. It will be some days,
perhaps some weeks, before he is able to resume his travels. I shall
arrive in time.'
"'Is it your intention to start to-day?'
"'Yes, I shall start immediately. I must not lose an hour. I am sorry
to part from you, Louis, but you see it cannot be helped. I shall miss
you sadly.'
"'And I you, Silvain. But, after all, why should we part? My time is
my own; I have no arbitrary plan of travel mapped out. I will
accompany you to Bavaria, and gain another friend in Kristel.'
"Silvain was delighted at the proposal, and eagerly accepted it. For
my own part, although I did not confess it to Silvain, I was not
entirely ingenuous in my offer. It was not prompted solely by
friendship; an insatiable curiosity possessed me to ascertain the real
facts of the case, and, as I have already said, to verify them in
detail.
"'Kristel lives?' I said to Silvain.
"'As nearly,' he replied, 'as a man can be convinced of anything, the
knowledge of which is acquired by spiritual means, so am I convinced
that Kristel lives.'
"'And will recover?'
"'That is beyond me,' said Silvain gravely. 'I hope so--I pray so. You
inspire strange thoughts, Louis. Though parted from Kristel by great
distances, I hold communion with him while he lives. Were he to die,
should I still hold communion with him?'
"The question startled me, holding out, but it did, an illimitable
prospect of mysterious knowledge stretching as far as the portals of
immortality."
Here Dr. Louis broke off in his narrative, and said, addressing
himself immediately to me,
"In recalling these incidents of my youthful days, and of my
connection with Silvain and Kristel, I am drawn insensibly into a
fairly faithful depiction of the visionary ideas and speculations
which sprang within me from time to time, and which afforded me food
for thought. During a brief space I foolishly believed that the very
question and truth of the immortality of the soul were involved in my
studies of animal magnetism. Had I accepted this, had I allowed it to
root itself firmly in my mind, I should have been profoundly unhappy.
I can imagine no such grounds for misery to the intellectual man as
lack of faith in a future state. I care not what shape or form it
takes, so long as it is there. And this faith must of necessity be a
blind faith. I have already expressed to you my conviction that a
recognised science will arise out of the better knowledge which will
be gained by certain hidden forces, but there are immortal secrets
which will never be revealed to mankind. It appears to me to be
necessary to make this clear to you, in order that you may not suppose
that I am still wedded to the wild chimeras of youth."
I knew why Doctor Louis made this statement to me. The reminiscences
he was recalling had rendered him for a little while oblivious of the
present. His youth rose before him, in which his daughter Lauretta had
no share. Suddenly he had remembered that I loved Lauretta, and the
Father's heart spoke to the man whose most earnest desire it was to
wed the cherished child.
"I understand you, sir," I said, humbly; the confidences which he was
imparting to me, had drawn us closer together, and this fact seemed to
be an assurance of my happiness. In the light of this prospect my
spirit was humbly grateful. "I understand you," I repeated. "Perhaps
also to me will come the wisdom in which the most perfect human and
divine comfort is to be found."
He pressed my hand, and regarded me with glistening eyes.
"It is a wisdom," he said, "which not only comforts, but purifies."
Then he resumed his story.