Eventful winter passed; winter, the respite of our ills. By degrees the
sun, which with slant beams had before yielded the more extended reign
to night, lengthened his diurnal journey, and mounted his highest
throne, at once the fosterer of earth’s new beauty, and her lover. We
who, like flies that congregate upon a dry rock at the ebbing of the
tide, had played wantonly with time, allowing our passions, our hopes,
and our mad desires to rule us, now heard the approaching roar of the
ocean of destruction, and would have fled to some sheltered crevice,
before the first wave broke over us. We resolved without delay, to
commence our journey to Switzerland; we became eager to leave France.
Under the icy vaults of the glaciers, beneath the shadow of the pines,
the swinging of whose mighty branches was arrested by a load of snow;
beside the streams whose intense cold proclaimed their origin to be
from the slow-melting piles of congelated waters, amidst frequent
storms which might purify the air, we should find health, if in truth
health were not herself diseased.
We began our preparations at first with alacrity. We did not now bid
adieu to our native country, to the graves of those we loved, to the
flowers, and streams, and trees, which had lived beside us from
infancy. Small sorrow would be ours on leaving Paris. A scene of shame,
when we remembered our late contentions, and thought that we left
behind a flock of miserable, deluded victims, bending under the tyranny
of a selfish impostor. Small pangs should we feel in leaving the
gardens, woods, and halls of the palaces of the Bourbons at Versailles,
which we feared would soon be tainted by the dead, when we looked
forward to vallies lovelier than any garden, to mighty forests and
halls, built not for mortal majesty, but palaces of nature’s own, with
the Alp of marmoreal whiteness for their walls, the sky for their roof.
Yet our spirits flagged, as the day drew near which we had fixed for
our departure. Dire visions and evil auguries, if such things were,
thickened around us, so that in vain might men say—
These are their reasons, they are natural,[22]
we felt them to be ominous, and dreaded the future event enchained to
them. That the night owl should screech before the noon-day sun, that
the hard-winged bat should wheel around the bed of beauty, that
muttering thunder should in early spring startle the cloudless air,
that sudden and exterminating blight should fall on the tree and shrub,
were unaccustomed, but physical events, less horrible than the mental
creations of almighty fear. Some had sight of funeral processions, and
faces all begrimed with tears, which flitted through the long avenues
of the gardens, and drew aside the curtains of the sleepers at dead of
night. Some heard wailing and cries in the air; a mournful chaunt would
stream through the dark atmosphere, as if spirits above sang the
requiem of the human race. What was there in all this, but that fear
created other senses within our frames, making us see, hear, and feel
what was not? What was this, but the action of diseased imaginations
and childish credulity? So might it be; but what was most real, was the
existence of these very fears; the staring looks of horror, the faces
pale even to ghastliness, the voices struck dumb with harrowing dread,
of those among us who saw and heard these things. Of this number was
Adrian, who knew the delusion, yet could not cast off the clinging
terror. Even ignorant infancy appeared with timorous shrieks and
convulsions to acknowledge the presence of unseen powers. We must go:
in change of scene, in occupation, and such security as we still hoped
to find, we should discover a cure for these gathering horrors.
On mustering our company, we found them to consist of fourteen hundred
souls, men, women, and children. Until now therefore, we were
undiminished in numbers, except by the desertion of those who had
attached themselves to the impostor-prophet, and remained behind in
Paris. About fifty French joined us. Our order of march was easily
arranged; the ill success which had attended our division, determined
Adrian to keep all in one body. I, with an hundred men, went forward
first as purveyor, taking the road of the Côte d’Or, through Auxerre,
Dijon, Dole, over the Jura to Geneva. I was to make arrangements, at
every ten miles, for the accommodation of such numbers as I found the
town or village would receive, leaving behind a messenger with a
written order, signifying how many were to be quartered there. The
remainder of our tribe was then divided into bands of fifty each, every
division containing eighteen men, and the remainder, consisting of
women and children. Each of these was headed by an officer, who carried
the roll of names, by which they were each day to be mustered. If the
numbers were divided at night, in the morning those in the van waited
for those in the rear. At each of the large towns before mentioned, we
were all to assemble; and a conclave of the principal officers would
hold council for the general weal. I went first, as I said; Adrian
last. His mother, with Clara and Evelyn under her protection, remained
also with him. Thus our order being determined, I departed. My plan was
to go at first no further than Fontainebleau, where in a few days I
should be joined by Adrian, before I took flight again further
eastward.
My friend accompanied me a few miles from Versailles. He was sad; and,
in a tone of unaccustomed despondency, uttered a prayer for our speedy
arrival among the Alps, accompanied with an expression of vain regret
that we were not already there. “In that case,” I observed, “we can
quicken our march; why adhere to a plan whose dilatory proceeding you
already disapprove?”
“Nay,” replied he, “it is too late now. A month ago, and we were
masters of ourselves; now,—” he turned his face from me; though
gathering twilight had already veiled its expression, he turned it yet
more away, as he added —“a man died of the plague last night!”
He spoke in a smothered voice, then suddenly clasping his hands, he
exclaimed, “Swiftly, most swiftly advances the last hour for us all; as
the stars vanish before the sun, so will his near approach destroy us.
I have done my best; with grasping hands and impotent strength, I have
hung on the wheel of the chariot of plague; but she drags me along with
it, while, like Juggernaut, she proceeds crushing out the being of all
who strew the high road of life. Would that it were over—would that her
procession achieved, we had all entered the tomb together!”
Tears streamed from his eyes. “Again and again,” he continued, “will
the tragedy be acted; again I must hear the groans of the dying, the
wailing of the survivors; again witness the pangs, which, consummating
all, envelope an eternity in their evanescent existence. Why am I
reserved for this? Why the tainted wether of the flock, am I not struck
to earth among the first? It is hard, very hard, for one of woman born
to endure all that I endure!”
Hitherto, with an undaunted spirit, and an high feeling of duty and
worth, Adrian had fulfilled his self-imposed task. I had contemplated
him with reverence, and a fruitless desire of imitation. I now offered
a few words of encouragement and sympathy. He hid his face in his
hands, and while he strove to calm himself, he ejaculated, “For a few
months, yet for a few months more, let not, O God, my heart fail, or my
courage be bowed down; let not sights of intolerable misery madden this
half-crazed brain, or cause this frail heart to beat against its
prison-bound, so that it burst. I have believed it to be my destiny to
guide and rule the last of the race of man, till death extinguish my
government; and to this destiny I submit.
“Pardon me, Verney, I pain you, but I will no longer complain. Now I am
myself again, or rather I am better than myself. You have known how
from my childhood aspiring thoughts and high desires have warred with
inherent disease and overstrained sensitiveness, till the latter became
victors. You know how I placed this wasted feeble hand on the abandoned
helm of human government. I have been visited at times by intervals of
fluctuation; yet, until now, I have felt as if a superior and
indefatigable spirit had taken up its abode within me or rather
incorporated itself with my weaker being. The holy visitant has for a
time slept, perhaps to show me how powerless I am without its
inspiration. Yet, stay for a while, O Power of goodness and strength;
disdain not yet this rent shrine of fleshly mortality, O immortal
Capability! While one fellow creature remains to whom aid can be
afforded, stay by and prop your shattered, falling engine!”
His vehemence, and voice broken by irrepressible sighs, sunk to my
heart; his eyes gleamed in the gloom of night like two earthly stars;
and, his form dilating, his countenance beaming, truly it almost seemed
as if at his eloquent appeal a more than mortal spirit entered his
frame, exalting him above humanity. He turned quickly towards me, and
held out his hand. “Farewell, Verney,” he cried, “brother of my love,
farewell; no other weak expression must cross these lips, I am alive
again: to our tasks, to our combats with our unvanquishable foe, for to
the last I will struggle against her.”
He grasped my hand, and bent a look on me, more fervent and animated
than any smile; then turning his horse’s head, he touched the animal
with the spur, and was out of sight in a moment.
A man last night had died of the plague. The quiver was not emptied,
nor the bow unstrung. We stood as marks, while Parthian Pestilence
aimed and shot, insatiated by conquest, unobstructed by the heaps of
slain. A sickness of the soul, contagious even to my physical
mechanism, came over me. My knees knocked together, my teeth chattered,
the current of my blood, clotted by sudden cold, painfully forced its
way from my heavy heart. I did not fear for myself, but it was misery
to think that we could not even save this remnant. That those I loved
might in a few days be as clay-cold as Idris in her antique tomb; nor
could strength of body or energy of mind ward off the blow. A sense of
degradation came over me. Did God create man, merely in the end to
become dead earth in the midst of healthful vegetating nature? Was he
of no more account to his Maker, than a field of corn blighted in the
ear? Were our proud dreams thus to fade? Our name was written “a little
lower than the angels;” and, behold, we were no better than ephemera.
We had called ourselves the “paragon of animals,” and, lo! we were a
“quint-essence of dust.” We repined that the pyramids had outlasted the
embalmed body of their builder. Alas! the mere shepherd’s hut of straw
we passed on the road, contained in its structure the principle of
greater longevity than the whole race of man. How reconcile this sad
change to our past aspirations, to our apparent powers!
Sudden an internal voice, articulate and clear, seemed to say:—Thus
from eternity, it was decreed: the steeds that bear Time onwards had
this hour and this fulfilment enchained to them, since the void brought
forth its burthen. Would you read backwards the unchangeable laws of
Necessity?
Mother of the world! Servant of the Omnipotent! eternal, changeless
Necessity! who with busy fingers sittest ever weaving the indissoluble
chain of events!—I will not murmur at thy acts. If my human mind cannot
acknowledge that all that is, is right; yet since what is, must be, I
will sit amidst the ruins and smile. Truly we were not born to enjoy,
but to submit, and to hope.
Will not the reader tire, if I should minutely describe our long-drawn
journey from Paris to Geneva? If, day by day, I should record, in the
form of a journal, the thronging miseries of our lot, could my hand
write, or language afford words to express, the variety of our woe; the
hustling and crowding of one deplorable event upon another? Patience,
oh reader! whoever thou art, wherever thou dwellest, whether of race
spiritual, or, sprung from some surviving pair, thy nature will be
human, thy habitation the earth; thou wilt here read of the acts of the
extinct race, and wilt ask wonderingly, if they, who suffered what thou
findest recorded, were of frail flesh and soft organization like
thyself. Most true, they were— weep therefore; for surely, solitary
being, thou wilt be of gentle disposition; shed compassionate tears;
but the while lend thy attention to the tale, and learn the deeds and
sufferings of thy predecessors.
Yet the last events that marked our progress through France were so
full of strange horror and gloomy misery, that I dare not pause too
long in the narration. If I were to dissect each incident, every small
fragment of a second would contain an harrowing tale, whose minutest
word would curdle the blood in thy young veins. It is right that I
should erect for thy instruction this monument of the foregone race;
but not that I should drag thee through the wards of an hospital, nor
the secret chambers of the charnel-house. This tale, therefore, shall
be rapidly unfolded. Images of destruction, pictures of despair, the
procession of the last triumph of death, shall be drawn before thee,
swift as the rack driven by the north wind along the blotted splendour
of the sky.
Weed-grown fields, desolate towns, the wild approach of riderless
horses had now become habitual to my eyes; nay, sights far worse, of
the unburied dead, and human forms which were strewed on the road side,
and on the steps of once frequented habitations, where,
Through the flesh that wastes away
Beneath the parching sun, the whitening bones
Start forth, and moulder in the sable dust.[23]
Sights like these had become—ah, woe the while! so familiar, that we
had ceased to shudder, or spur our stung horses to sudden speed, as we
passed them. France in its best days, at least that part of France
through which we travelled, had been a cultivated desert, and the
absence of enclosures, of cottages, and even of peasantry, was
saddening to a traveller from sunny Italy, or busy England. Yet the
towns were frequent and lively, and the cordial politeness and ready
smile of the wooden-shoed peasant restored good humour to the
splenetic. Now, the old woman sat no more at the door with her
distaff—the lank beggar no longer asked charity in courtier-like
phrase; nor on holidays did the peasantry thread with slow grace the
mazes of the dance. Silence, melancholy bride of death, went in
procession with him from town to town through the spacious region.
We arrived at Fontainebleau, and speedily prepared for the reception of
our friends. On mustering our numbers for the night, three were found
missing. When I enquired for them, the man to whom I spoke, uttered the
word “plague,” and fell at my feet in convulsions; he also was
infected. There were hard faces around me; for among my troop were
sailors who had crossed the line times unnumbered, soldiers who, in
Russia and far America, had suffered famine, cold and danger, and men
still sterner-featured, once nightly depredators in our over-grown
metropolis; men bred from their cradle to see the whole machine of
society at work for their destruction. I looked round, and saw upon the
faces of all horror and despair written in glaring characters.
We passed four days at Fontainebleau. Several sickened and died, and in
the mean time neither Adrian nor any of our friends appeared. My own
troop was in commotion; to reach Switzerland, to plunge into rivers of
snow, and to dwell in caves of ice, became the mad desire of all. Yet
we had promised to wait for the Earl; and he came not. My people
demanded to be led forward— rebellion, if so we might call what was the
mere casting away of straw-formed shackles, appeared manifestly among
them. They would away on the word without a leader. The only chance of
safety, the only hope of preservation from every form of indescribable
suffering, was our keeping together. I told them this; while the most
determined among them answered with sullenness, that they could take
care of themselves, and replied to my entreaties with scoffs and
menaces.
At length, on the fifth day, a messenger arrived from Adrian, bearing
letters, which directed us to proceed to Auxerre, and there await his
arrival, which would only be deferred for a few days. Such was the
tenor of his public letters. Those privately delivered to me, detailed
at length the difficulties of his situation, and left the arrangement
of my future plans to my own discretion. His account of the state of
affairs at Versailles was brief, but the oral communications of his
messenger filled up his omissions, and shewed me that perils of the
most frightful nature were gathering around him. At first the
re-awakening of the plague had been concealed; but the number of deaths
encreasing, the secret was divulged, and the destruction already
achieved, was exaggerated by the fears of the survivors. Some
emissaries of the enemy of mankind, the accursed Impostors, were among
them instilling their doctrine that safety and life could only be
ensured by submission to their chief; and they succeeded so well, that
soon, instead of desiring to proceed to Switzerland, the major part of
the multitude, weak-minded women, and dastardly men, desired to return
to Paris, and, by ranging themselves under the banners of the so called
prophet, and by a cowardly worship of the principle of evil, to
purchase respite, as they hoped, from impending death. The discord and
tumult induced by these conflicting fears and passions, detained
Adrian. It required all his ardour in pursuit of an object, and his
patience under difficulties, to calm and animate such a number of his
followers, as might counterbalance the panic of the rest, and lead them
back to the means from which alone safety could be derived. He had
hoped immediately to follow me; but, being defeated in this intention,
he sent his messenger urging me to secure my own troop at such a
distance from Versailles, as to prevent the contagion of rebellion from
reaching them; promising, at the same time, to join me the moment a
favourable occasion should occur, by means of which he could withdraw
the main body of the emigrants from the evil influence at present
exercised over them.
I was thrown into a most painful state of uncertainty by these
communications. My first impulse was that we should all return to
Versailles, there to assist in extricating our chief from his perils. I
accordingly assembled my troop, and proposed to them this retrograde
movement, instead of the continuation of our journey to Auxerre. With
one voice they refused to comply. The notion circulated among them was,
that the ravages of the plague alone detained the Protector; they
opposed his order to my request; they came to a resolve to proceed
without me, should I refuse to accompany them. Argument and adjuration
were lost on these dastards. The continual diminution of their own
numbers, effected by pestilence, added a sting to their dislike of
delay; and my opposition only served to bring their resolution to a
crisis. That same evening they departed towards Auxerre. Oaths, as from
soldiers to their general, had been taken by them: these they broke. I
also had engaged myself not to desert them; it appeared to me inhuman
to ground any infraction of my word on theirs. The same spirit that
caused them to rebel against me, would impel them to desert each other;
and the most dreadful sufferings would be the consequence of their
journey in their present unordered and chiefless array. These feelings
for a time were paramount; and, in obedience to them, I accompanied the
rest towards Auxerre. We arrived the same night at
Villeneuve-la-Guiard, a town at the distance of four posts from
Fontainebleau. When my companions had retired to rest, and I was left
alone to revolve and ruminate upon the intelligence I received of
Adrian’s situation, another view of the subject presented itself to me.
What was I doing, and what was the object of my present movements?
Apparently I was to lead this troop of selfish and lawless men towards
Switzerland, leaving behind my family and my selected friend, which,
subject as they were hourly to the death that threatened to all, I
might never see again. Was it not my first duty to assist the
Protector, setting an example of attachment and duty? At a crisis, such
as the one I had reached, it is very difficult to balance nicely
opposing interests, and that towards which our inclinations lead us,
obstinately assumes the appearance of selfishness, even when we
meditate a sacrifice. We are easily led at such times to make a
compromise of the question; and this was my present resource. I
resolved that very night to ride to Versailles; if I found affairs less
desperate than I now deemed them, I would return without delay to my
troop; I had a vague idea that my arrival at that town, would occasion
some sensation more or less strong, of which we might profit, for the
purpose of leading forward the vacillating multitude—at least no time
was to be lost—I visited the stables, I saddled my favourite horse, and
vaulting on his back, without giving myself time for further reflection
or hesitation, quitted Villeneuve-la-Guiard on my return to Versailles.
I was glad to escape from my rebellious troop, and to lose sight for a
time, of the strife of evil with good, where the former for ever
remained triumphant. I was stung almost to madness by my uncertainty
concerning the fate of Adrian, and grew reckless of any event, except
what might lose or preserve my unequalled friend. With an heavy heart,
that sought relief in the rapidity of my course, I rode through the
night to Versailles. I spurred my horse, who addressed his free limbs
to speed, and tossed his gallant head in pride. The constellations
reeled swiftly by, swiftly each tree and stone and landmark fled past
my onward career. I bared my head to the rushing wind, which bathed my
brow in delightful coolness. As I lost sight of Villeneuve-la-Guiard, I
forgot the sad drama of human misery; methought it was happiness enough
to live, sensitive the while of the beauty of the verdure-clad earth,
the star-bespangled sky, and the tameless wind that lent animation to
the whole. My horse grew tired—and I, forgetful of his fatigue, still
as he lagged, cheered him with my voice, and urged him with the spur.
He was a gallant animal, and I did not wish to exchange him for any
chance beast I might light on, leaving him never to be refound. All
night we went forward; in the morning he became sensible that we
approached Versailles, to reach which as his home, he mustered his
flagging strength. The distance we had come was not less than fifty
miles, yet he shot down the long Boulevards swift as an arrow; poor
fellow, as I dismounted at the gate of the castle, he sunk on his
knees, his eyes were covered with a film, he fell on his side, a few
gasps inflated his noble chest, and he died. I saw him expire with an
anguish, unaccountable even to myself, the spasm was as the wrenching
of some limb in agonizing torture, but it was brief as it was
intolerable. I forgot him, as I swiftly darted through the open portal,
and up the majestic stairs of this castle of victories—heard Adrian’s
voice—O fool! O woman nurtured, effeminate and contemptible being—I
heard his voice, and answered it with convulsive shrieks; I rushed into
the Hall of Hercules, where he stood surrounded by a crowd, whose eyes,
turned in wonder on me, reminded me that on the stage of the world, a
man must repress such girlish extacies. I would have given worlds to
have embraced him; I dared not—Half in exhaustion, half voluntarily, I
threw myself at my length on the ground— dare I disclose the truth to
the gentle offspring of solitude? I did so, that I might kiss the dear
and sacred earth he trod.
I found everything in a state of tumult. An emissary of the leader of
the elect, had been so worked up by his chief, and by his own fanatical
creed, as to make an attempt on the life of the Protector and preserver
of lost mankind. His hand was arrested while in the act of poignarding
the Earl; this circumstance had caused the clamour I heard on my
arrival at the castle, and the confused assembly of persons that I
found assembled in the Salle d’Hercule. Although superstition and
demoniac fury had crept among the emigrants, yet several adhered with
fidelity to their noble chieftain; and many, whose faith and love had
been unhinged by fear, felt all their latent affection rekindled by
this detestable attempt. A phalanx of faithful breasts closed round
him; the wretch, who, although a prisoner and in bonds, vaunted his
design, and madly claimed the crown of martyrdom, would have been torn
to pieces, had not his intended victim interposed. Adrian, springing
forward, shielded him with his own person, and commanded with energy
the submission of his infuriate friends—at this moment I had entered.
Discipline and peace were at length restored in the castle; and then
Adrian went from house to house, from troop to troop, to soothe the
disturbed minds of his followers, and recall them to their ancient
obedience. But the fear of immediate death was still rife amongst these
survivors of a world’s destruction; the horror occasioned by the
attempted assassination, past away; each eye turned towards Paris. Men
love a prop so well, that they will lean on a pointed poisoned spear;
and such was he, the impostor, who, with fear of hell for his scourge,
most ravenous wolf, played the driver to a credulous flock.
It was a moment of suspense, that shook even the resolution of the
unyielding friend of man. Adrian for one moment was about to give in,
to cease the struggle, and quit, with a few adherents, the deluded
crowd, leaving them a miserable prey to their passions, and to the
worse tyrant who excited them. But again, after a brief fluctuation of
purpose, he resumed his courage and resolves, sustained by the
singleness of his purpose, and the untried spirit of benevolence which
animated him. At this moment, as an omen of excellent import, his
wretched enemy pulled destruction on his head, destroying with his own
hands the dominion he had erected.
His grand hold upon the minds of men, took its rise from the doctrine
inculcated by him, that those who believed in, and followed him, were
the remnant to be saved, while all the rest of mankind were marked out
for death. Now, at the time of the Flood, the omnipotent repented him
that he had created man, and as then with water, now with the arrows of
pestilence, was about to annihilate all, except those who obeyed his
decrees, promulgated by the _ipse dixit_ prophet. It is impossible to
say on what foundations this man built his hopes of being able to carry
on such an imposture. It is likely that he was fully aware of the lie
which murderous nature might give to his assertions, and believed it to
be the cast of a die, whether he should in future ages be reverenced as
an inspired delegate from heaven, or be recognized as an impostor by
the present dying generation. At any rate he resolved to keep up the
drama to the last act. When, on the first approach of summer, the fatal
disease again made its ravages among the followers of Adrian, the
impostor exultingly proclaimed the exemption of his own congregation
from the universal calamity. He was believed; his followers, hitherto
shut up in Paris, now came to Versailles. Mingling with the coward band
there assembled, they reviled their admirable leader, and asserted
their own superiority and exemption. At length the plague, slow-footed,
but sure in her noiseless advance, destroyed the illusion, invading the
congregation of the elect, and showering promiscuous death among them.
Their leader endeavoured to conceal this event; he had a few followers,
who, admitted into the arcana of his wickedness, could help him in the
execution of his nefarious designs. Those who sickened were immediately
and quietly withdrawn, the cord and a midnight-grave disposed of them
for ever; while some plausible excuse was given for their absence. At
last a female, whose maternal vigilance subdued even the effects of the
narcotics administered to her, became a witness of their murderous
designs on her only child. Mad with horror, she would have burst among
her deluded fellow-victims, and, wildly shrieking, have awaked the dull
ear of night with the history of the fiend-like crime; when the
Impostor, in his last act of rage and desperation, plunged a poignard
in her bosom. Thus wounded to death, her garments dripping with her own
life-blood, bearing her strangled infant in her arms, beautiful and
young as she was, Juliet, (for it was she) denounced to the host of
deceived believers, the wickedness of their leader. He saw the aghast
looks of her auditors, changing from horror to fury—the names of those
already sacrificed were echoed by their relatives, now assured of their
loss. The wretch with that energy of purpose, which had borne him thus
far in his guilty career, saw his danger, and resolved to evade the
worst forms of it—he rushed on one of the foremost, seized a pistol
from his girdle, and his loud laugh of derision mingled with the report
of the weapon with which he destroyed himself.
They left his miserable remains even where they lay; they placed the
corpse of poor Juliet and her babe upon a bier, and all, with hearts
subdued to saddest regret, in long procession walked towards
Versailles. They met troops of those who had quitted the kindly
protection of Adrian, and were journeying to join the fanatics. The
tale of horror was recounted—all turned back; and thus at last,
accompanied by the undiminished numbers of surviving humanity, and
preceded by the mournful emblem of their recovered reason, they
appeared before Adrian, and again and for ever vowed obedience to his
commands, and fidelity to his cause.
[22] Shakespeare—Julius Cæsar.
[23] Elton’s Translation of Hesiod’s “Shield of Hercules.”