difficult it is to prescribe bounds to the growth of absurdity! I did
not imagine Mr. Valmont would extend his absurdities so much on the
sudden, nor do I know how far you will be inclined to follow his
example, when I tell you that Sibella is so really a prisoner even my
letters are denied access to her.
Yesterday I was honoured with a packet from Mr. Valmont containing my
two last letters to Sibella, one written in answer to her's previous to
the receipt of your's and the other written in consequence of the
information you gave me of her confinement. Mr. Valmont, in his way,
treats me with unusual respect; and I can only account for it, by
supposing he was pleased with the freedom I used when at Valmont castle
in speaking to him of his very improper seclusion of Sibella. My letters
were returned unopened; and with them the following
Madam,
As long as my niece deserved the indulgence of your correspondence
I, though against the principle upon which I formed her education
continued to allow it. I herewith return your last letters. I would
not open them, because I believe you to be incapable of abetting
Sibella in the atrocity of her conduct, but I shall hold myself
justified therein if you send any more letters after you receive
this interdiction.
Truly sorry am I to say that Miss Valmont proves herself unworthy
of the long illustrious line from whom she claims her name, and of
whom she is almost the only surviving descendant. Unfortunate that
house whose dignity is left to be supported by a female! Whether
in solitude or society, I find the female mind still a mere
compound of folly and mischief: greatly do I now regret I ever
undertook its guardianship.
I have the honour to be, madam
Your humble servant,
G. VALMONT
Mr. Valmont scorns to flatter. Would you have been so candid with
respect to the female mind? though once, perhaps, you enrolled yourself
among those who endeavour strictly to check the growth of every seed
therein except mischief and folly. My patience exhausts itself when I
see men of even tolerable talents aiding to sink lower than the brute in
value the fairest of God's creatures.--A horse!--Oh, a laborious horse
deserves to be canonized in preference to the woman whose sole industry
consists in the active destruction of her understanding, who smiles,
moves, and speaks, as it were only to prove herself unlike every
production of wisdom and nature.
The principle which moves this mischief is the error males and females
partake concerning softness.--Bid them form a woman of an enlightened
understanding, and with the learning of a scholar they never fail to
associate the manners of a porter.--Talk of one, who scorns to sink in
apprehensions, who would rather protect herself than sacrifice herself,
who can stand unpropped in the creation, they expect a giant in step and
a monster in form.--If reason and coarseness were thus inseparable, it
were better to take both than to abandon both. But it is the reverse.
Wherever coarseness exists with talent, it is because the talent is
contracted; let it expand, and the dignified grace and softness of
active virtue takes its place.--More of this hereafter. I wish rather to
reason than declaim; and I have, at present, a heat of feeling that
effectually precludes investigation, for the ebulitions of resentment.
Doubtless you have already exclaimed against my seeming unconcern for
Sibella's situation.--You, who cannot detach yourself a moment from the
concerns of your heart, can you forgive such a lapse in another. Of what
avail, in our present darkness, to canvass it for an age? I must do
something more. To-morrow morning, I set out for Valmont castle; and if
at my desire you keep your station, you may depend on the speediest
information from, Your sincere friend
CAROLINE ASHBURN
LETTER XVII
FROM LORD FILMAR
TO
SIR WALTER BOYER
A pleasant journey be thine, Walter; but if this sudden trip be meant to
evade the consequences of my wrath it was unnecessary. Truly I forgave
you on the spot, in consequence of the very ridiculous situation you
were in, turning with beseeching looks to me for pardon and stammering
contradiction after contradiction to Montgomery, which served only to
confirm the suspicions in his mind your foolish audible whisper had
occasioned.
How guarded have I always been when Montgomery spoke of the Valmonts;
and little did I suppose, though I knew your talent, when I urged him to
show you the picture you could forget your caution. Your shrug, your
leer, your whisper struck Montgomery dumb; and to my explanation he
appeared no less deaf. Yesterday he did not keep his appointment with
me.--We accidentally met in the evening (where it had been better we had
neither been) but he was distant and embarrassed.
Scarcely had Griffiths begun the honours of my head this morning, than
Montgomery was announced and condescended to amuse himself with Rosetta
and Ponto in the drawing-room till the business of my sitting was at an
end.
'Oh! by heaven,' he cried, as I entered the room, 'you would at this
moment be irresistible!--Health, vigour, proportion, and the face of an
Apollo! Luckless be ever the youth who shall presume to rival you'--I'll
give you ten guineas for Rosetta, Filmar. Will you sell her?'
'No, I will not, Montgomery; though you seem so well to understand our
mutual value.'
He drew from his pocket the very miniature in the shagreen case: your
stumbling-block, Walter.
'Do me the honour, Filmar, to accept this from me.'
'Miss Valmont's picture!--and of your painting!--You are delirious,
Montgomery!'
'Faith, not I!--never more rational in my life, as this very action
evinces. Exquisitely divinely charming as she is, who would stand a
competition against your person, rank, and happy influence with Mr.
Valmont.'
'Influence with Mr. Valmont!'
'Inimitable!' cried he.--'You overwhelm me with your perfections this
morning. How natural that start? nor do you forget the grace of the
attitude, I perceive. It is too late, Filmar. Be candid. We will not
quarrel; for, as you have so much the start of me in her uncle's
approbation, I must resign with a good grace. Can I do more than even
yield to my rival that resemblance of her enchanting face? All I ask in
return is to oblige me in kind offices with Mr. Valmont.--'Tis a curst
strange business to be sure, but, on my soul, Mr. Valmont sent me to
town to study!--I have no time to spare, as yet.--Mum! you know, as to
my employments.--I shall reform ere long.'
'Send you to London to study!--Ha! ha! ha!'
'Yes by heaven he did!--To this emporium of delight!--A strange being!'
'And so are you; for, Montgomery, if I understand your meaning
concerning Mr. and Miss Valmont, may I--.'
'S'death, my Lord, Sir Walter's strange speech and your confusion kept
me awake two hours! Upon my soul, you have seen her! I know you have;
and I am sure Mr. Valmont wouldn't suffer any man in the kingdom to look
at her, except the one whom he designs for her husband. Everything
corroborates the fact. You told me the Earl knew Mr. Valmont; but did
you ever hint, in the most remote way, that you had been in the castle,
till Sir Walter's question obliged you to have recourse to that portrait
in the drawing room, to excuse the implication?--Ah, Filmar!--A divinity
is destined for your arms, whilst I must sigh in secret over the
remembrance of past hopes!'
'You won't sigh alone, Montgomery. You don't profess anchorism. There
are other divinities.'
He smiled one of those enchanting smiles which will probably reduce many
such divinities into frail mortals. And then he enumerated, in the way
of exclamation, a number of his favourite beauties.
'No wonder you want to give up Miss Valmont,' said I, 'you that are the
favoured of so many.'
'Want to give up Miss Valmont! Lord God, how can you talk so
ridiculously, Filmar? Want to give up an angel, with whom it were life
to die, to live from whom is death! Is she not torn from my arms? Am I
not interdicted, and another elected? By heavens! my Lord, your secresy
was unkind, but this triumph is insulting!'
And thus, Walter, we passed away the morning:--he, affirming; I denying.
I fairly overshot my mark in leading him to talk so often of Sibella;
for he has tacked together such a number of scraps and ends, that, with
the aid of his colouring, make proofs as strong as _proofs of holy
writ_.--Well, and if he does speak of me in this way to Mr. Valmont? The
man suspected me before, and all he can now do is to clap another
padlock on his caution.
There is something unmanly in Montgomery's conduct. With studied
vehemence of lamentation he recanted his many many former insinuations
of his constant security in Miss Valmont's favour; and, unless it was a
preconcerted plan between them, (which I do not think possible) his
voluntary resignation of her picture stamps him a contemptible----. My
fingers had a kind of tremulous impulse towards the picture; yet I
positively refused to accept it; a double dose of prudence this morning
made some amends for its total absence last evening. 'Tis too true,
Walter; I left the club again without a penny. The Earl will not be in
town till next week; and till I am in cash I cannot invent or contrive a
probable means of saving my friend Montgomery the disgrace of being
mistaken.
This youth makes a rapid progress in the sciences. He was as completely
inducted last night as your humble servant. His tutor, Janetta Laundy,
also is most admirably chosen; and if Valmont deems that to be a dupe
with a beggared purse, and shattered constitution, is the antidote
against society, Montgomery is going the high road to answer all his
wishes.
Your hint, dear knight, respecting Mrs. Ashburn, was not lost upon me;
but, though I would not marry for aught but money, I should like to have
a wife thrown into the bargain whom I could love now and then. I
acknowledge the widow is as young as any woman (of her years) I ever saw
in my life; and in wealth I should be an emperor. But indeed, Walter, I
could ruin myself as effectually, I feel I could, I have all the
laudable inclinations necessary thereto, with a large fortune as with a
moderate one; and then age will come, and gout, and bile, and ill
tempers, and no sweet remembrances of smiles, of dimpling cheeks, of
melting eyes, to cheer me!--Were the widow once turned of eighty, the
charms of youth and beauty should not tempt me from her.--As it is, I
could like her daughter better.--Ah, but Miss Ashburn's is a searching
eye! She would enquire for thy passport of virtue and morality, Filmar!
You perceive plainly, don't you, Walter, that I have no alternative but
taking Sibella Valmont with her 7,000l. per annum? You have now seen her
picture, tell me, is she not unequalled? And may I not sometimes,
without any violent effort of self-denial, condescend to toy away an
hour or two with (though my own wife) a creature so perfect? Walter!
Walter! Could I drench in oblivion that youth with the flowing beard, I
should be proud to acknowledge how often I dream of this little
seducer!--As it certainly was not Montgomery, who could it be?--and why
came he there? This interrogation is constantly served up with my
breakfast, it even attends my undressing, and has been, not
unfrequently, my bedfellow--The very quintessence of politeness,
however, it never intrudes further than the door of the tavern or
gaming-house. For the former, I now leave it and thee. Thine,
FILMAR
LETTER XVIII
FROM CAROLINE ASHBURN
TO
ARTHUR MURDEN
Can you, will you, my dear friend, undertake to rescue Sibella from the
tyranny at present exercised over her? If you will, write me instantly
three lines to London, where I am now returning. From that place I will
relate the particulars of my visit to Valmont, which will also include
my reasons for this request.--Now, I only write while I change horses at
B----.
CAROLINE ASHBURN
LETTER XIX
FROM ARTHUR MURDEN
TO
CAROLINE ASHBURN
Madam,
When you bid me live, and live for Sibella, I shut my ears against the
voice of the syren.--Name the possibility of my rescuing Sibella, and
the light and sun again becomes of value to me!
ARTHUR MURDEN
LETTER XX
FROM CAROLINE ASHBURN
TO
ARTHUR MURDEN
Inexorable as you would persuade me you are, still I hope to conquer
you. Yet, it must be a future work. Sibella's release is our present
employment; and, though I am not surprised at your readiness to
undertake it, I am truly grateful. In this case, I know your heart and
your benevolence are separated; for, determined as you are to live and
die without hope, every step that carries you toward her increases your
anguish.--The sacrifice is great. I wish you would trust me, that in the
end it may find a reward.
The inclosed letter you must yourself give to Sibella. Mr. Valmont may
lock up the doors of his castle; but your cell and pannel is not under
his dominion. Your hermit's cap and gown secure your own escape. Be sure
you do not escape alone. Read the inclosed, and you will find I mean to
join you on the road. You will there find also my reason for not being
of your party, through the subterraneous passage and into the castle.
To yourself I leave the conduct of the business. Your brain is fertile
in project; and on your faith and delicacy in execution I would rely as
on my own soul.
When I reached Valmont park, Mr. Valmont sent an excuse for not
admitting me. Message after message flew from the moat to the castle;
and I was compelled to stipulate for not seeing any one but himself, ere
the word of command was given for me to pass.
He received me with a demeanour cold, formal, and haughty. I assured him
that a motive equal to the pleasure I had promised myself of seeing
Sibella, had induced me to take the journey.
'I perfectly understand you, madam,' said he; 'but once for all, to save
you the trouble of useless discussion, I will not relax an atom of my
severity, till Miss Valmont has in some measure expiated her fault.'
'What is her fault, Sir?'
'Her fault!' repeated he, starting. 'I perceive madam, you are a
stranger to the cursed business; and may you remain so, for your own,
for her's, and her family's sake.'
'Is Clement Montgomery concerned?'
He bit his lip, arose from his seat, stifled anger contracting his brow.
'I see he is,' said I--'and----.'
'Madam' said Mr. Valmont sternly, 'your understanding should inform you,
that affairs which concern the honour of a family are only to be
canvassed by the individuals immediately belonging to it.'
'You forget, Sir,' replied I, 'that I am a female; and, according to
your creed, cannot possess understanding.--Is it owing to this
deficiency that I am of opinion, the honour of a family, as generally
understood, is a matter quite opposite to the virtue of a family.--In
the present case, I think you clasp your honour and turn your virtue and
justice out of doors.--If, when you use such terms, in speaking of
Sibella, you allude to her contract with Clement, I acknowledge her in
the wrong. To ratify that contract, Sir, would be a worse error: for he
is undeserving of her. But all that, and the worst of errors she can
commit, may ascribe their origin to yourself.'
'Madam, you are obliging; but you have not yet convinced me I am under
any necessity of explaining myself to you.--Whatever offences Clement
has committed against me, he shall not fail of his proper
punishment--trust me, he shall not.--I--I--Will you take any
refreshment, madam?'--rising--'I regret Mrs. Valmont is too much
indisposed to receive you.--Pardon me, our conference must end.--You
will excuse me, but I cannot suffer you to see Miss Valmont.--It is
indeed impossible.'
I declined the refreshment, lamented for Mrs. Valmont, and objected to
putting an end to the conference. And this last produced an altercation
too diffuse and passionate to be related minutely. I mentioned Sibella's
fortune. He almost started with surprise. He said I could not have heard
it from her, for he had refused her permission to write to me.--'No,' I
replied, 'I believe my informant was her's.' He called some Earl a lying
scoundrel; and added, after a moment's pause, that now it was useless to
keep it longer secret, that Miss Valmont was her father's heiress, since
the object of its being concealed was utterly destroyed. He had planned
the concealment for her benefit; and carried it into execution only to
perfect her happiness. She had indeed a noble fortune, he said, ill
bestowed. None of his should go the same way. And, as to the pragmatical
puppy who took the pains to tell her of it, his scheme, by the
disclosure, was effectually annihilated.
As you, Murden, have no striking characteristics of the puppy, I took
the liberty of asking Mr. Valmont, if he knew the person to whom he
alluded.
'Very well,' he replied, 'too well.' It was the son of Sibella's other
guardian who wanted her wealth to amend his poverty.
'I believe not,' said I.
'Madam, I am assured of it. He bribed some of the fools of my family to
admit him.'
'Did they confess the charge?'
'Not absolutely; but they prevaricated and talked backwards and forwards
in such a way as confirmed their guilt.'
'Talking backwards and forwards, Sir,' said I, 'sometimes proceeds from
confusion and awe. I am very much inclined to believe your servants
innocent in this affair, Mr. Valmont.'
'Miss Ashburn is extremely inclined to construe all I say or do in the
way that best pleases her. But Sibella herself saw this person and
herself gave me the information.'
'That I know too. And----.'
'I know what you are going to advance, Madam. She might tell you as she
did me, of his feigned name. He called himself some Mr. Murden; a friend
of Clement's he persuaded her to believe him to be.'
'I, Sir, have a friend called Murden; and so had Clement Montgomery.
Might it not be him?'
'No, Madam; it might not;' replied Mr. Valmont; 'for no person but her
two guardians ever knew a whisper of Sibella's fortune. I tell you the
Earl disclosed it to his son, because he wanted his son to marry her.--I
refused their offer; and their residence lately in this neighbourhood
confirms the rest.'
'Once more, you are mistaken, Mr. Valmont. Hear me out, Sir,' for his
fiery impatience was again blazing forth. 'How the secret was first
unfolded I know not; but, in the immediate agency of conveying this
intelligence to Sibella, the guardian you speak of had no concern
whatever. I am much better informed than you perhaps may imagine Mr.
Valmont. You discharged your servants from passion not from conviction.
I pledge myself to prove the truth of my affection, if you will let us
make a compromise. Liberate Sibella. Give her to my care one month, and
I will tell you who the person was; and, for your future security, how
he gained admission into your park.'
'Cobwebs to catch eagles! I grant, madam, you are amazingly
condescending; but as the days of enchantment are passed, I am as well
instructed on the latter point as I wish to be. For my _future
security_, I am also provided. The suspicious part of my household are
gone; and I think I have secured the fidelity of the rest. Your request
concerning Miss Valmont's passing from my care to your's madam, is not
worthy of an answer.'
Somewhat indignantly I reminded him, that an abuse of power might be the
forfeiture of power; and that the law, useless as it is for the relief
of general oppression, might reach this particular instance.
'I despise your threats, madam,' said Mr. Valmont, 'as I do your
intreaties. The will of the Hon. Honorius Valmont delegated to me the
care of her person till the age of twenty-one. Then, whoever aspires to
the protection of a disgraced dishonoured woman may claim it; but till
then, madam, I swear that, in the solitude and confinement of this
castle, she shall weep for her errors. Depend upon it, madam, whilst you
favour us with your abode in any part of this country, the rigour of her
imprisonment shall be tenfold.' And, so saying, he rang the bell
furiously; and would have departed.
'Hold, Sir, one moment,' cried I--and then, after a pause, I promised to
quit the country instantly if he would suffer me to converse one quarter
of an hour with Mrs. Valmont.
'O! pray show this lady to your mistress's dressing room,' said he,
sneeringly, to the servant that appeared. 'It would be well in your
wisdom, madam, to make Mrs. Valmont's influence of consequence before
you attempt to gain Mrs. Valmont's influence.'
Mrs. Valmont, having worn out the variety of fancied indispositions, is
now fairly dying of inanity. She was neither surprised at my visit, nor
at all interested by that which she herself called the lamentable state
of her niece.
Mrs. Valmont was attended by her confidential servant, whom I requested
to remain in the apartment, for I judged I should from her gain more
information than from her lady. And I judged rightly. She was not only
willing, but eager, to tell me all she knew.
It seems Mr. Valmont has had two interviews with his niece. The first
was on her leaving you in the Ruin, when Mr. Valmont was irritated, by
her persisting to declare herself married, to strike her. She did throw
herself into the moat, but she received no injury. From that time, he
ordered her to be confined. In the second interview, a painful
circumstance, relating to Sibella, transpired, in consequence of which
her uncle abruptly commanded her from his presence. The discovery he had
made wounded him almost to madness; and his first transports of rage
have subsided into a constant gloomy moroseness. At times he has been
seen to weep. The circumstance I speak of has been whispered from one to
another throughout the family; and in this way alone travelled to Mrs.
Valmont--for mortified pride would choak Mr. Valmont's attempt, were he
inclined to give the secret utterance. I can trace the operations of his
pride, but I am lost with respect to his tears; for Sibella never
possessed any of his affection.
My tears flowed without restraint when I learned this distressing
circumstance, and heard also that our Sibella droops under her uncle's
cruelty. She eats little, sighs deeply, but weeps seldom. 'Twas
unnecessary to enjoin silence to her domestics, for she never attempts
to speak to them. They frequently hear her talk of some letter which she
holds up between her clasped hands, as she traverses her apartment in
extreme agitation; and then she exclaims--_He never never wrote it!_
Once a day she is conducted to the terrace; but her wood and all her
beloved haunts are forbidden.
You, Murden, could not have borne the apathy with which these and other
particulars were repeated; nor could Mrs. Valmont with all my reasoning
be prevailed on to suppose that she who had been so long governed should
now infringe on her obedience, and endeavour to give aid and comfort to
her ill treated niece.
I had quitted Mr. Valmont in anger. I quitted Mrs. Valmont in sorrow. As
I crossed the square court in front of the building, I stopped and
looked up with an eye of tears to Sibella's windows. No pale melancholy
form appeared to my salute. 'Does Miss Valmont,' said I to the servant
attending me, 'inhabit the same apartments as formerly?' The man looked
round every way, and replied in the affirmative.
Scarcely was I reseated in the carriage, when I began to accuse myself
as wanting friendship and humanity when I foolishly promised Mr. Valmont
to quit the country; Murden would not have done this, thought I; then
Murden is the fittest person to repair the error; and before I arrived
at B----, I had resolved to engage you to take her from this proud this
cruel uncle.
I have only now to tell you why I hastened on to London--to procure her
an asylum. The very term proves to you that Mrs. Ashburn's house is out
of the question. If you know Mrs. Beville, the sister of Davenport, you
know a very amiable woman, who will open her arms and heart for the
reception of Sibella. It is not my design to make either her retreat or
the means used in her escape a secret; but, if it is possible to prevent
Clement Montgomery's seeing her, that I will do. To shield her from Mr.
Valmont, we must oppose authority. It was a strange over-sight in me not
to learn the name of her other guardian.