(_Concluded from page 46_.)
That evening, Father Dominick, our excellent priest, and my tutor in the
classics, was closeted for a length of time with my afflicted nominal
parents; and two days afterwards taking me with him to his monastery, he
introduced me to the superior, as an orphan, the child of dear and
particular friends, confided by them to his charge for education upon
their death-bed, and with a distinct understanding that I was not bound to
take upon myself monastic vows, the superior allowed me to remain with him
as a boarder. Serventius and Artemisia I never more beheld, and every
inquiry respecting them which I ventured to make of Father Dominick, was
checked with a strange, sad look, and an admonition to mention them no
more. Seven long and peaceful years, I spent in the monastery; and at the
expiration of that period, was placed by my guardian in the house of the
celebrated Doctor Sanazio of Padua, as a student of medicine. Here, novel
and delightful studies, speculations, and scenes, opened upon my
inquisitive, ardent mind, and amused my enthusiastic imagination. Sanazio
was regarded in learned Padua, as little less than a demi-god; at certain
hours he visited his patients, amongst whom might generally be numbered
three-fourths of the population of Padua; at certain hours, his own
mansion was crowded like the audience-hall of some mighty potentate, with
supplicants for food and physic; three evenings in the week were devoted
by him to intense study in his own secret, solitary chamber; and upon the
alternate three, he received the visits of those who desired to consult
him upon abstruse points, only properly to be solved by an acquaintance
with the occult sciences. In brief, my honoured master, I soon discovered,
was reckoned a very fair conjuror; he consulted the stars, drew horoscopes,
cast nativities, was learned in the expositions of dreams and omens,
undertook to give information respecting lost property, and matrimonial
prospects; composed, and dispensed charms and philtres, and proved himself,
as I have hinted, a capital astrologer, and something more. How Sanazio,
who certainly was a very extraordinary man, acquired his multifarious
information, unless really by supernatural agency, I am at a loss to
discover. Ignatius Druso, my fellow student, was of opinion that he only
dexterously availed himself in the evening of the news which he had
gathered from his patients in the morning; and that his familiars were no
more than a few active emissaries, for whose espionage and additional
gleanings of town news, it answered to him well, to pay. Ever partial to
romance, I did not readily fall in with Druso's sober view of this subject,
and the longer I lived with Doctor Sanazio, the more occasion had I to
doubt the correctness of his opinion, because some things occurred of
which my master obtained immediate and accurate knowledge, whilst I am
perfectly certain that no human tongue had divulged them to him; take the
following incident as an example:--Druso and myself were accustomed, on
those evenings which Sanazio spent in his sanctum, to visit patients in
his stead, to range over the town, to go to places of public amusement, or
to conclude our meritorious labours at a tavern. Being one night at this
latter place, an old woman entered, and inquiring whether I were Master
Serventius, Doctor Sanazio's pupil, slipped a billet and a piece of gold
into my hand and desired me to follow her. I did so, without hesitation,
and whilst behind my guide, contrived to peruse the note by moon-light,
which contained these words:
"I am sick,--of the heart's mortal sickness;--relieve it, and great shall
be thy recompense."
Perplexed, yet amused, by what promised an adventure, I followed my
ancient guide into a house whose exterior was sufficiently humble; but,
having ascended a steep flight of stairs, she threw open the door of a
chamber in which they terminated, and I found myself not only in a
richly-furnished apartment, but in the presence of a lady, young as
immortal Hebe, and fair as day. I saw at a glance that her ills were those
of the mind only, and ere she had opened her lips to detail them and
engage me in her cause, I had vowed, heart and soul, to be her champion.
Having complimented me upon the high character she had heard of my prowess,
understanding, and principles, she informed me, with little circumlocution,
that various unhappy family circumstances had rendered it necessary for
her to seek friends amongst strangers; that she was a novice of the
Convent of St. Anne, but on the eve of profession, and that having long
been under an engagement of marriage with a young gentleman of family,
respecting whom her relations had used her very deceitfully and cruelly,
she had fixed upon me as a person little likely to be subjected to
suspicion on her account, to aid Signor Fernandez in the difficult and
hazardous enterprise, which she said must be a work of time and prudence,
of carrying her off from the convent. Having obtained my promise to this
effect, she detailed her plans, and furnished me with the means of
continual communication with her lover and herself. I returned home,
highly elated at the trust reposed in me, at the importance which I had
acquired in my own eyes, and at the prospect of a handsome remuneration
for my services, from the lovely object of them. Sanazio, with lamp in
hand, and arrayed in his night attire, to my great terror and surprise,
opened the door to me himself; it was very late, Druso had long since
returned without me, and in order to allay the storm which I saw gathering
upon mine ancient master's brow, I slipped the gold given to me by the
confidante of beautiful Antonia, into his unreluctant hand.
"Unhappy youth!" exclaimed Sanazio, "beware of aiding the nun, lest thou
bring upon her and upon thyself the fate of Artemisia and Serventius."
These words so alarmed me that I nearly fainted; for how, in the name of
all things holy and gracious, came Sanazio to know in whose society I had
passed the last hour, and what was the subject of our conversation? His
terrible allusion too, to those lost loved ones, of whose untimely fate I
was still so ignorant, strangely troubled my conscious breast. Let me be
brief, the hours of my ill-fated existence are fast wearing away, and I
have yet more to relate. To Ignatius Druso I was obliged to confide my
secret, because his assistance, in the furtherance of plans which were
always requiring, from little immaterial circumstances, some slight
alterations, was found necessary; and it must here suffice those to know,
who shall, after my destruction do me the melancholy favour of perusing
this retrospective record, that some months after Antonia had taken the
veil, I succeeded in restoring her to the arms of her lover, witnessed
their private nuptials, visited them in their new residence, a villa in a
secluded spot far from Padua, and received my promised recompense. "Young
man! you've ruined yourself; and your fatal destiny is sealed!" were the
remarkable words of Sanazio, on the morning after the completion of my
enterprise, but long ere the elopement of the new devotee became publicly
known. However, he never reverted to the subject, not even upon his
death-bed; and after the learned doctor's decease, when I came into the
whole of his practice, and no small portion of his fame, I was easy, for
the memory of that sacrilege had passed away.
Ignatius Druso, like myself, resided in Padua, but soon quitted the
medical profession, disgusted, I fancy, at finding that I had become a
second Sanazio, whilst he commanded little or no attention: still we were
friends, nor did I suspect that the germs of envy and malice were sown in
his bosom, and that I had trusted him with one secret, or more, too much.
"Serventius, my son," had said the venerable Sanazio to me upon his
death-bed, "your ardent desire of knowledge and discreet use of it,
encourage me ere I quit this world, to entrust you with the grand arcanum
of our art; as yet, you know not the secret of my success, but take then
this hint and improve upon it. Can he repair a piece of mechanism, who is
ignorant of its make, its parts, and how they act upon, and affect one
another? Behold this key; it is that of my laboratory, and may it indeed
open the door of knowledge to you."
After Sanazio's decease, curiosity quickly led me to his study: I was
alone, and the shades of evening were stealing over the earth: conceive
then my utter dismay and superstitious horror upon suddenly entering, what
I could but suppose to be a charnel-house! Its effluvium was intolerable,
and well accounted for by (loathsome spectacle!) a disorderly collection
of human fragments in various stages of preservation and decay! A dozen
grisly skeletons grinned upon me from pedestals round the room, and in the
centre of it, the half dissected body of a man, stretched upon a large
lava slab, supported by tressels, was more horrible and odious than all. I
now comprehended the full meaning of Sanazio's dying words and secret; but
received at the same time, a shock which to this day I have not recovered;
I found myself compelled to make Druso my confidant in this matter, and my
companion in some of my first attempts at following the hideous occupation
recommended by my deceased friend. By degrees I grew accustomed to the
horrors of the room and of my employment. Druso, who found himself better
engaged in courting the living than in cutting up the dead, was no longer
necessary to me in the prosecution of my hateful studies, and kept aloof,
but I soon discovered the value of them, in my increase of knowledge,
employment, and reputation. At last an epidemic raged in Padua, proving
very fatal; Ignatius, alarmed for the safety of his Phaedera, who was
attacked, applied to me, and I cured her. Some time afterwards, the
ungrateful wretch rushed into my laboratory, claiming the body upon which
I was operating, as that of a young man, cousin to Phaedera, which had
miraculously disappeared just previous to the day intended for its
interment. The features of the poor wretch were too much disfigured to
render possible his recognition by them, but Druso swore to its being the
body of Marcus, from a scar on the left leg, which had been wounded
severely by a quoit. Of course I refused to resign, that, for which I had
paid a handsome price, and to reveal the names of those from whom I
purchased it. So Druso dragged me before the Supreme Council, impeached me
of sacrilege in the affair of the nun, of theft, and of violating the
sanctity of the tomb, of barbarously mutilating the dead, and of applying
their lacerated remains to the unholy purposes of sorcery! and on these
counts have I been indicted, found guilty, and sentenced to be burnt as a
sacrilegious heretic, an unnatural robber, and a formidable wizard!
Antonia, the mother of seven children, is to be--like the unchaste
vestal--immured! Oh Heaven! whilst Druso the Informer, receiving at the
same time the portion of a prince for his venal treachery, will celebrate
his union with Phaedera, amidst the shrieks and groans of his expiring
victims!
I cannot now proceed: ere I am bound to the fatal stake, methinks I shall
die of shame, grief, and terror. And did the friends of my infancy, my
parents, suffer as I shall suffer? Then, welcome death! welcome, hated
dawn of my last day, for innocence and truth are banished from the earth!
Hark! the key turning in the lock of my cell! Hark! those boding and
pitying voices without! Father Dominick! Servilius! Andrea! kindest! best!
--I die--but I die innocent, the victim only-----Hah! to burn--burn--burn!
Gracious Heaven! pardon the strife of nature! My brain whirls!--my eyes
cloud!--my black, dry, swollen lips,--throat--bosom--heart--O mother of
God!--O! Saviour--Redeemer--pardon, pardon!--Father of Mercies,---receive
me!
_Great Marlow, Bucks._
* * * * *