Louis received these packets from Lorenzo, at the house of a Spanish
merchant residing in the town of Gibraltar. The Spaniard was known to
Santa Cruz, and recommended by him, as a person well adapted to assist
in the accomplishment of Louis's views in visiting the rock. He found
the house in a retired part of the town, and preferred such a residence
before the military bustle of the British quarters.
Having read the letters of his Spanish friends, he put them into a
bosom that had long been accustomed so to hide the sorrows of his
heart; and, having seen, the Count de Patinos respectfully attended
to by Lorenzo, and the other captives comfortably disposed under the
care of Martini, he quitted the merchant's house, to seek his first
conference with the British Governor.
He had no occasion for other introduction to General ****, than the
announcement of his name. The gazettes of Ceuta had been daily in
the hands of the British garrison; and the tremendous bombardment of
the Spanish fortress having been seen from the heights of Calpe, its
gallant defence was read with avidity by the generous spectators. The
Marquis de Montemar filled every line in the two last reports; and
General **** rose to receive him, with that respect in his deportment,
which is the brightest meed that veteran glory can bestow on youthful
fame.
While Louis sat with the English Commander, in spite of his late
inattention to objects of trifling import, the furniture and style
of the apartment struck him as what he had not seen since he left
England;--and, he was conscious to an emotion, as if he had drawn at
once near to his home; and even felt the atmosphere of this room,
different from that in the Spanish quarter of the rock.
It was not necessary, in his conversation with the Governor, to pain
himself by any elaborate explanation of his father's rupture with
the Spanish Court, and his fatal engagement with that of Morocco.
The pillars of Hercules were too near to each other, for what
was transacted under the shadow of the one, to be unknown to the
inhabitants at the foot of the other. The Governor of Gibraltar admired
the greatness of the Duke de Ripperda, when his virtues guided the
Spanish helm; and his own virtues did not prevent him pitying the
fallen statesman, when his ill-directed resentment made him dictator to
a horde of barbarians.
Louis pleaded to himself the partial phrenzy of his father's mind,
as some extenuation of his conduct. He learnt from Martini, that the
Duke's passions had always been strong; but, until he received the
wound on his head in the porch of the Jesuits at Vienna, they were
always under his controul. From that perilous hour, his temper became
more irritable; and in every way he shewed himself more vulnerable to
the attack of circumstances. These circumstances at last overwhelmed
him; and, disappointed, insulted, and betrayed, madness contended with
reason in his brain. With just enough of the one, to shew him the
enormity of his retaliation, and of the other to precipitate him into
its commission, he became the desperate victim of revenge; a renegade,
and a slave.
Nought of this passed the lips of Louis to the English general; but
he understood it all, from the report of certain Jews from the coast
of Barbary; and, in conversing with the son of the unhappy Duke, he
delicately implied, that he knew his illustrious father had been led to
his last fatal step, by the false lights of a distempered mind.
"In his latter hours," replied Louis, "that, indeed fatal disorder was
taken away. He was restored to the upright principle of his former
character; and his penitence for the effect of his dereliction, was as
deep, as his injuries were indelible. But, in that hour of terrible
recollections, he forgave all, as he hoped to be forgiven. And I saw
him die in the faith of the church."
Louis spoke this with a steady voice; and a certain dignity elevating
the sadness of his countenance, which convinced his auditor, that the
son of Ripperda felt the honour of his name returned to him, in the
restoration of his father to the religion and pardon of his God.
General **** entered with zeal into the plans which the deceased Duke
had laid down, for the redemption of several hundred Christian slaves
in the interior of the Barbary states. And as the scheme must occupy
much time, and numerous agents, to bring it to effect; Ripperda had
fixed upon Martini, as the negociating person, on the Spanish side of
the lines of San Roque. Certain deposits of treasure for ransoms, were
to be left, both in his hands, and in those of the Governor of the
English fortress, who, from the political relations between it and the
Barbary coast, could be the most efficient agent in the great design.
General **** having heard of the probable sequestration of all the
Ripperda property in Spain, ventured to hint to the despoiled heir,
that there might be an excess of generosity, in at once relinquishing
so vast a sum as that which the munificence of the Duke had allotted to
the cause of charity.
"Had he foreseen the injustice of the Spanish government to his son,"
continued the veteran, "I doubt not he would have bequeathed his
benevolence in a more prudent measure! It therefore becomes you,
Marquis, to make the restrictions common equity suggests."
"No;" replied Louis, "my father's wealth was his own. I have no right,
had I the wish, to lay an appropriating hand on a single ingot. I
am rich, in the task of obeying his commands. And for myself, the
world does not want ways for a man, of few personal wants, to gain an
honourable subsistence."
A few days put every thing in a train for the prosecution of Ripperda's
charitable bequest. The treasure was lodged in the government-house;
and a list of all the yet unredeemed Christian slaves in Barbary, put
into the general's hands. The enfranchised captives, which Louis had
brought with him, were ready at the British lines, on the land-side of
the fortress, to pass into Spain. On taking leave of their benefactor;
he who had so religiously, and with largesses of money besides, obeyed
every tittle of the deceased Duke's will in their behalf; they fell on
their knees before him, and implored for blessings on his life.
"The past has been a vale of sorrows!" sighed he to himself, as he
cheerfully bid them adieu, and gave them blessing for blessing.
Martini was to lead these happy captives to their native land; and
to take up his own residence at the castle of de Montemar, until the
execution of the expected decree against its lord should drive him out
into some humbler abode; where he would still exercise the benevolent
agency, which alone could have persuaded him to separate himself from
the immediate presence of the beloved son of his ever-honoured master.
He wept at parting with Louis, and his brother Lorenzo.
"I am but your servant, my Lord!" said he, "but these are times when
the heart knows no distinctions, but those of attachment. Your noble
father is gone; and you may cut me piece-meal, before I feel his son
otherwise, than _bone of my bone_, and yet my honoured Lord."
Louis pressed the faithful creature to his heart; and could he have
wept, his tears would have mingled with those of Martini, which bathed
his cheek.
The Count de Patinos was to accompany the returning column. He too was
to take leave of his generous protector. It was beneath his rank to bow
the knee; it was adverse to his nature, to call a benediction on his
head: but he embraced Louis with the ceremonial of his country, while
the extension of his arms was as cold and repelling, as if the mutual
touch transformed benefits to injuries.
As the Count turned away, "Thus," said Louis to himself, "does Spain
and all its interests depart from me!"
Some other thoughts, in which Spain had a share, traversed his mind,
as he slowly took his way through the devious path-ways in the rock,
towards the dwelling of his Spanish host. As he entered it, he felt it
was possible to regret never respiring the atmosphere of Spain again.
The Governor had informed him, that a British frigate would sail for
Portsmouth next day. A passage was eagerly offered to him by the
captain; and after dining with his new friends in the garrison, and
bidding them farewell, on the evening previous to the night he was to
embark, he ascended the summit of the mountain to look round, and to
breathe his last adieu to lands he should never see again.
He was alone, and so distant from the garrison, not a sound came to his
ear, as he pensively mounted steep after steep, till he reached the
old signal-house; at this time, a lone deserted tower on the highest
point of the rock. All was calm within him, in this moment of final
separation from all that had once possessed his whole heart, and been
the utmost bounds of his far-stretching ambition.
The extended and magnificent scenery, which derived a kind of visionary
beauty from the pure and luminous atmosphere in which it was displayed,
seemed to refine the faculties by which it was contemplated, and to
dilate his soul with a tranquil and devotional delight.
"Is it," thought he, "that as man draws near the region of celestial
spirits, he begins to partake their ethereal nature?"
Still some earthly remembrances clung to the spot that horizon
bounded. He looked from side to side. The vast Atlantic, rolling into
the Straits, and ploughed by many a proud frigate, did not hold his
attention long. He turned towards the east, where the Mediterranean
took its milder course, flowing far away, between the hostile shores
of Spain and Africa; till lost in distant Italy, and farther Greece.
The Moorish coast was boldly distinguished by prominent headlands
and towering cliffs. They seemed to stretch to an infinite extent.
And, on the opposite shore, and to the same unlimited horizon, rose
the mountainous regions of Spain, the snow-clad Grenadines, and the
empurpled heights of Antequera. The plains were diversified with towns
and castles; and, immediately beneath him, lay the lines of San Roque.
He gazed on that Spain he was to leave for ever; that Spain, which
held the Marquis Santa Cruz; and her, whose voice he was to hear no
more. But the sounds were still echoing in his heart; in his troubled
dreams, or waking musings, he often heard the same. "I cannot dissuade
the Marquis de Montemar from that, for which I honour him!" He often
heard her say; "Look up, and cherish life; for heaven knows how to
bless, when all the world has failed!" His melancholy eyes ranged over
the abundant vales of Andalusia. That very province of Spain, on which
he was now looking down for the last time, was his own inheritance!
But that was little. He turned to the red line of light which now
tracked the darkening coast of Africa. There stood the rugged cliffs
of Abyla, frowning in mist over the towers he had so lately defended
with his blood. Beyond, lay a dearer spot! The green sod that covered
his father's grave.--There, the dews of night fell; and the wailing of
the blast in the lonely turrets around, were all which hereafter would
supply the place of a son's tears and groans!
"Oh, my father!" cried he, "Thou sleepest alone! Far from thy wife and
child! Far from the country of thy birth, or thy adoption--betrayed,
forgotten, stigmatized!"
While this bitter remembrance envenomed the before resigned state of
his mind, his upward eye was struck with the appearance of an eagle,
as if emerging from the ether; so high was its elevation, as it floated
over him, on vigorous and steady wing. It moved towards the coast of
Barbary. It seemed to hover over the heights of Tetuan:--it descended
for a while; remained stationary in mid air; and then, soaring aloft
like a dart of light, was lost in the heavens.
Louis saw no more. That bird was the crest of his family. Imagination
and grief were busy in his heart. He burst into tears, and slowly
descended the mountain.