COUNT AND CARDINAL.
What took place under the princess-abbess' sight was so extraordinary
that her mind, strong and yet tender, questioned if she did not face
a true magician who disposed of sentiments and wills as he liked. But
Count Fenix was not going to leave things thus.
"As your royal highness has heard only part of the story from my wife's
lips, doubts might linger if the rest was not spoken by them. Dear
Lorenza," he said, turning again to the Italian, "after leaving your
country we went on a tour to the Alps and to the Rhine, the magnificent
Tiber of the North----"
"Yes, Lorenza has seen these sights," said the woman.
"Lured by this man--led by a power resistless of which you spoke, my
child?" suggested the princess.
"Why should your highness believe this when all you hear is to the
contrary? I have a palpable proof in the letter my wife wrote me when I
was obliged to leave her at Maintz. She sorrowed and longed for me, so
that she wrote this note, which your highness may read."
She looked at the letter which the count took out of the letter case.
"Return, Acharat; for all goes when you leave me. When shall I
have you for eternity?
LORENZA."
With the flame of choler on her brow the princess went up to the
fugitive, holding out this letter. The other allowed her to approach,
without seeming to see or hear any but the count. "I understand," said
the latter, decided to clear up matters completely. "Your highness
doubts, and wishes to be sure the writing is Lorenza's. She herself
shall enlighten you. Lorenza, answer; who wrote this note?"
On his putting the paper in her hand, she pressed it to her heart.
"It was Lorenza," she said.
"Lorenza knows what is in it?"
"Of course."
"Well, then, tell the princess what it says, that she may not believe
that I deceive her in asserting that you love me. I want you to tell
her."
Appearing to make an effort, but without looking at the note, unfolding
it or bringing it to her eyes, she read, word for word, what the
princess had seen without speaking it aloud.
"This is hard to believe," said the superior. "And I do not believe
you, from what is supernatural and inexplicable in what happens."
"It was this very letter which determined me to hurry on our wedding,"
said Count Fenix, without heeding the interruption. "I love Lorenza as
much as she loves me. In our roaming life, accidents might happen. If I
died, I wanted my property to be my dear one's; so we were united when
we reached Strasburg."
"But she told me that she was not your wife."
"Lorenza," said the count, without replying to the abbess, and turning
to the Italian, "do you remember where and when we were married?"
"Yes; in the St. John's Chapel of Strasburg Cathedral, on the third of
May."
"Did you oppose any resistance to the marriage?"
"No; I was only too happy."
"The fact is, Lorenza," continued the count, taking her hand, "the
princess thinks you were constrained to it."
"I hate you?" she said, shivering all over with delight. "Oh, no; I
love you. You are good, generous and mighty."
Seized with affright, the princess recoiled to where an ivory crucifix
gleamed on a black velvet background.
"Is this all your highness wishes to know?" asked Fenix, letting
Lorenza's hand fall.
"Keep away!" gasped the abbess; "and she, too!"
A carriage was heard to stop before the nunnery door.
"The cardinal?" exclaimed the lady superior; "we shall see how things
stand at last."
Fenix bowed, said a few words to the Italian woman, and waited with the
calmness of one who directs events.
In another instant the door opened and Cardinal Rohan was announced.
"Show him in," said the abbess, encouraged by the new addition to the
party being a churchman.
The prince had no sooner saluted the princess than he exclaimed with
surprise on seeing Balsamo:
"Are you here, my lord?"
"Are you acquaintances?" cried the princess, more and more astonished.
"Then you can tell me who this is."
"Nothing is easier; the gentleman is a magician."
"His eminence will make this clear presently, and to everybody's
satisfaction," said the count.
"Has the gentleman been telling your highness' fortune, that I see you
so affected?" questioned the cardinal.
"The marriage certificate at once!" cried the princess, to the
astonishment of the newcomer, ignorant of the allusion.
"What is this?"
"My lord, the question is, whether this paper is real and the
signature valid?" said the princess, as Balsamo held out the document.
Rohan read the paper as presented by the abbess and nodded.
"It is in proper form, and the signature is Curate Saint-Remy's, of St.
John's, Strasburg, one of my appointees. But what does this matter to
your highness?"
"Considerable; but----"
"The signature might have been extorted."
"True, that is possible," said the princess.
"How about Lorenza's consent, then?" said the count, sarcastically.
"By what means could a priest have been induced----"
"By the magic in the gentleman's powers."
"Your eminence is jesting."
"Not at all, and the proof is that I want to have a serious explanation
from this gentleman. Do not forget, my lord, that I shall do all the
questioning," added the cardinal, with haughtiness.
"And remember that I was quite willing to answer aloud, even before her
royal highness--if your eminence desired so; but I am certain you will
not desire it."
The cardinal had to smile.
"My lord," said he, "it is hard to play the wizard nowadays. I have
seen you perform, and with great success; but everybody has not the
patience, and still less the generosity, of the dauphiness."
"The dauphiness?" queried Princess Louise.
"Yes, your highness, I had the honor of presentation to her," said the
count.
"But how did you repay the honor? Answer that, my lord."
"Alas, with more evil than I liked," said Fenix, "for I have no
personal hate to men, and less to women. My misfortune was that I was
compelled to tell your august niece the truth she craved."
"A piece of truthfulness which caused her to faint."
"Is it fault of mine," retorted the mesmerist, in that voice which he
could sometimes make thunderous, "that truth is so awful as to produce
such effects? Did I seek out the princess, and beg to be presented to
her? No, I was avoiding her, when they almost dragged me before her,
and she ordered me to answer her interrogation."
"But what was the dreadful truth you told her, my lord?" inquired the
princess.
"She saw it in the gap which I tore in the veil over the future,"
rejoined the mysterious man. "That future which has appeared so awful
to your royal highness that you have fled into a cloister to wrestle
against it at the altar with tears and prayers. Is it fault of mine,
I say, if this future, revealed to you as a holy woman, should be
shown to me as a precursor; and if the dauphiness, alarmed at the fate
personally threatening her, swooned when it loomed upon her?"
"Do you hear this?" said the cardinal.
"Woe is me!" moaned the Carmelite superior.
"For her reign is doomed as the most fatal and unfortunate of the
entire monarchy," continued the count.
"My lord!" cried the abbess.
"Perchance your prayers will earn your grace," proceeded the prophet,
"but then you will see nothing of what comes to pass, as you will rest
in the arms of the angels. Pray, lady; continue to pray!"
Overcome by this prophetic voice, which harmonized so well with the
terrors in her soul, the princess dropped kneeling before the crucifix
and began indeed to pray, and with fervor.
"Now, our turn, cardinal," said the count turning to the prince, and
leading him into a window recess. "Speak as to your want of me."
"I want to know what you are?"
"You do know--you say that I am a magician."
"I mean that you are called Joseph Balsamo in the south; and here,
Count Fenix."
"That merely proves that I change my name."
"Yes; but I would have you know that such changes on the part of such a
man will set Chief of Police Sartines to thinking."
"This is petty warfare for a Rohan," said the other, smiling.
"Your eminence stoops to wrangle over words. _Verba et voces_, says the
Latin. Is there nothing worse to fling at me?"
"You are railing, my lord."
"Always; it is my style."
"Then I shall make you change your note; which will help me in the good
graces of the dauphiness, whom you have offended."
"Do so, as it will not be a useless act, considering the delicate
ground on which you stand as regards her," returned Balsamo
phlegmatically.
"What will you say if I have you arrested straightway, my lord the
horoscopist?"
"You would do yourself injury, my lord cardinal."
"Really! How do you make that out?" demanded the proud peer with
crushing scorn.
"You would unmake yourself."
"At least, we shall know who really is Baron Joseph Balsamo, _alias_
Count Fenix, a sprig of a family tree of which I have never seen the
picture in any heraldic work in Europe."
"You should have asked to see it in the portfolio of the Duke of
Breteuil, your friend----"
"His grace is no friend of mine."
"He was, and an intimate one, or your eminence would never have written
him that letter--but draw closer, my lord, lest we are overheard in
what may compromise you!--that letter written from Vienna to Paris to
dissuade the dauphin from making his marriage."
"That letter!" gasped the prince, starting with fright.
"I know it by heart."
"Breteuil has betrayed? because he said it was--burned when I asked it
back, when the marriage was settled."
"He did not like to admit that he had lost it. A lost letter may be
found; and, indeed, I found it in the Marble Court at Versailles. I
took good care not to restore it to the duke, for I knew your eminence
was ill-disposed toward me. If you were going through the woods and
expected highwaymen to attack you, and you found a loaded pistol, would
you not pick it up to use it? A man would be an idiot not to do so."
The cardinal felt giddy and leaned on the window-sill. After
hesitation, during which the count watched the play of his features, he
said:
"Granted thus. But it shall never be said that a prince of my line
yielded to the threats of a mountebank. Though this letter may have
been lost, and found, and will be shown to the dauphiness herself,
and may ruin me as a politician, I will stand to it that I am still a
loyal subject and a faithful ambassador. I will speak the truth--that I
thought the alliance injurious to the interests of my country, and let
it defend me or blame me."
"But what will be the answer of this faithful subject and loyal envoy
if somebody asserts that this gallant young beau of an ambassador,
never doubting his winning all before him with his title of prince and
name of Rohan, did not say this from any opinion that the alliance
would be hurtful to his country, but because--being graciously welcomed
by Marie Antoinette--this coxcomb of an envoy had the vanity to think
the feast was fitter for Jack than his master?"
"He would deny; for of this feeling which you pretend to have existed,
no proof can be exhibited."
"You are wrong; the token is in the dauphiness' coldness toward you."
The cardinal wavered.
"Believe me, prince," went on the count, "instead of quarreling, as we
should have done, only for my having more prudence than you, we had
better be friends--good ones, for such do one another service."
"Have I ever asked aught of your lordship?"
"Just there you are wrong; for you might have called on me during the
two days you spent in town. You cannot conceal from a sorcerer what you
have been about. You left the Austrian princess at Soissons, whence
you rushed posthaste to Paris, where you dunned your friends for help,
which they all refused you. This left you desperate."
"What kind of help could I expect from you, had I applied?" asked the
Rohan, confounded.
"Such as a man gives who can make gold. And you ought to want gold when
you have to pay five hundred thousand francs in forty-eight hours. You
want to know what good a man is who makes gold? Why, he is the very one
where you will find the cash demanded. You could easily tell my house
in Saint Claude Street in the swamp, as the knocker is a brass griffin."
"When could I call?"
"Six, to-morrow afternoon, please your eminence, and whenever after
you like. But we have finished our chat in time, for the princess has
concluded her devotions."
The cardinal was conquered.
"Your highness," he said, "I am forced to acknowledge that Count Fenix
is quite right; the document he produces is most reliable, and the
explanations he has furnished have completely satisfied me."
"Your highness' orders?" asked the count, bowing.
"Let me put one last question to this young lady."
Again the count bowed in assent.
"Is it of your own free will that you quit the abbey of St. Denis,
where you came to seek refuge?"
"Her highness," repeated Fenix, quickly, "asks you whether you are
leaving this place of your own free will. Speak out Lorenza."
"I go of my own free will," replied the Italian.
"In order to accompany Count Fenix, your husband?" prompted the
magician.
"To accompany my husband."
"In this case I retain neither of you," said the princess, "for it
would be running counter to my feelings. But, if there be anything in
all this out of the natural order of things, may the divine punishment
fall on whomsoever disturbs the harmony of nature for his profit or
interests. Go, my Lord Count Fenix; and you, Lorenza Feliciani--I
detain you no more. But take back your jewels."
"They are for the poor," replied Balsamo; "distributed by your hands,
the alms will be doubly agreeable to God. All I ask is to have my horse
Djerid."
"Take him as you go forth. Begone!"
Bowing to the speaker, the count presented his arm to Lorenza, who
leaned upon it and walked out without a word.
"Alas, my lord cardinal," sighed the abbess, sadly shaking her head,
"in the very air we breathe are fatal and incomprehensible things!"