The siege of Ceuta was now not merely raised, but the accumulating
army which had so long held it in blockade, and then beleaguered it
with such enterprizing determination, was disappeared as if it had
never been. Victors and vanquished were mingled in one common grave.
The steed with its rider, and he who slew, by the side of him that was
slain. The Spaniards performed these frightful obsequies; and he who
held the mattock and the spade had often to contend with birds of prey,
and ravenous dogs, howling amongst the mangled remains.
A flag of truce arrived from Adelmelek. It offered preliminaries of
peace in the name of the Emperor; while the vindictive Hadge accused
the defeated Aben Humeya of all the reciprocal outrages committed
during the present campaign.
Santa Cruz inquired the fate of the late Basha.
"He fled from the field of battle," replied the Moor, "and has not yet
been heard of."
"Your information is false," returned the Marquis; "I myself saw him
streaming with wounds and insensible, borne out of his consuming camp
by a party of your own countrymen."
"I speak on the word of my commander," replied the Moor.
"You must bring me better evidence of his truth," rejoined the
Marquis, "before I trust him. Return this day week to Ceuta; and, as
he dissembles or fairly represents the last act of his fallen rival,
I shall shape the terms my Sovereign may empower me to make to your
Emperor."
Santa Cruz was not long in receiving ample credentials from the court
at Seville for all he might wish to do in re-establishing the Spanish
interest in Barbary. At Seville, as in Ceuta, it was believed that the
Duke de Ripperda had expiated his crimes with his life; and, in answer
to the evidence which Santa Cruz transmitted, of the inextinguishable
loyalty of the Marquis de Montemar, the King issued a new edict,
granting him the restitution of all his late father's hereditary
honours and possessions. But there was a clause in this munificent
investiture. The future Duke de Ripperda must avow himself of the Roman
Catholic communion.
The re-opened wounds of Louis were just cicatrized; and he was leaning
over the table on which he was writing to his friends in England, when
the Marquis entered with the official letter from the King. He read
it aloud. At the end of the catalogue of the Ripperda territories and
titles, before he opened on the clause, Santa Cruz paused.
"De Montemar," said he, with solemnity, "hard trial has separated the
gold from the dross in your heart; and you will not esteem the last
title with which your King would invest you, the least honourable,--a
true Christian!"
He then read the condition: "That all these restitutions should be
ratified by the royal seal, on the day that the Cardinal-resident at
Madrid should witness the baptism of Louis, Duke of Ripperda, into the
bosom of the Church of Rome."
"I am sensible to the gracious intent of my Sovereign," replied Louis;
"but that name I once idolized, I would now hear no more. It shall
never be borne by me! And for the rest,--I am a Protestant, and I will
die one."
Santa Cruz urged him by religious arguments and persuasions, drawn from
the reasonableness of maintaining the rights of his ancestors. He spoke
of the justice he owed to himself in restoring the illustrious name of
his family to its pristine lustre; and, at any rate, it was his duty,
when so offered, to transmit it, and the inheritance that was its
appendage, unimpaired to his posterity.
"I shall have no posterity," replied Louis. "My father died an Infidel,
and his name and his race are no more."
"What do you mean, De Montemar?" demanded the Marquis, regarding with
alarm the countenance of his young friend.
"Nothing rash; nothing that this venerable man would not approve," said
he, laying his hand on the letter he was writing to Mr. Athelstone.
"But Marquis!" cried he, "Is there not matter enough to break a son's
heart?"
Santa Cruz replied, by turning the subject to Louis's own great
endowments of mind and figure; and tried to awaken his ambition, by
dwelling on the impression his high principled conduct at Vienna had
made upon his Sovereigns. It could only be equalled, he said, by their
admiration of his late intrepid defence of Ceuta. On these grounds, the
Marquis added, he had only to chuse, and the first stations in the
state, or in the army, must in process of time be at his command.
Louis shook his head.
"I was not born for a statesman," replied he. "I acknowledge no
morality but one; and I have known enough of the ethics of cabinets to
loathe their chicanery. I have seen that in the adjustment of their
respective interests, the principles of common honesty may not only be
dispensed with, but that no subterfuge is too mean for adoption, when
expedient to disguise truth or over-reach a rival party. Where every
man is supposed a deceiver by profession, no man can really trust in
each other; and I will never be one of a set of men, where all are
suspected of dishonour. As to the army!--I have had enough of that
also." He shuddered as he spoke, and covered his face with his hand.
Santa Cruz did not require that shudder to be explained; but he
affected to consider this wide rejection, as derogatory to his
loyalty, and to the general manliness of his character.
"Not in my mind," added he; "but in the opinion of the world. You
must recover what your father's dereliction has lost; and the public
suffrage is only to be retained by a succession of distinguished
services. You are especially called upon to make manifest in all ways
what you are,--a true subject of Spain, and one whose piety is worthy
the adoption of our Church."
"I _am_ called upon," replied Louis, "to appear what I am! I served
the King of Spain at the expence of many a sacrifice. I need not turn
your eyes to the last. My faith is not in my power to exchange at will;
but ill would he serve his Prince who could so desert himself: the
example before us ought to set that at rest for ever. If, by remaining
a Protestant, I must be no more a Spaniard, the forfeiture must proceed
against me. I have still the country of my mother. It will judge me
with candour; and there, I trust, I shall do my duty in whatever state
of life it may please Heaven to number out my days."
As Louis uttered this, his countenance was calm though sorrowful;
and Santa Cruz, struck with such awful resignation in one so young
and powerfully endowed, grasped his hand with as much reverence as
affection, and soon after left the room.