Fearfully did morning dawn on the eyes of the murderer. He had regained
his chamber unobserved, and there he crouched in its most gloomy nook.
His frenzy had passed away, and left the freezing coldness of despair.
The darkness was terrible to him, and yet when the light of morning came,
he shrank from it in horror, and buried his face in his garments to shut
out the fearful glare. All day he remained motionless. Margareta’s loud
weeping came to him from within. From her brother’s bolted door, she
thought he had departed on one of his usual rambles, and Basil heard his
name repeated often, mingled with Isilda’s,——whom all supposed to have
perished in the flames.
Basil heard his sister’s sobs; but they fell idly on his stony ears. Many
sounds rose from the street,——the widow’s cry, the orphan’s moan, and the
despairing lament of the houseless and homeless,——but all were nothing to
him. He kept the same immovable attitude until daylight waned, and then
he rose and lit the fire on his hearth.
Brighter and brighter grew the blaze, and wilder gleamed the eyes of the
student. He swayed his body to and fro with a low murmuring, and then he
passionately invoked the Salamandrine.
“The sacrifice is complete——I have no bond to earth——my desire is free.
Why delayest thou, O spirit? Come, teach me; let me know the past. Give
me wisdom,——I thirst!——I thirst! Let me become as a god in knowledge!”
But the vision came not; there was no voice.
“Spirit of Fire! art thou deaf to me still? I have done all,——I have
broken every human tie,——I have become what men would loathe. Hear
me,——answer me, or I die!”
Wreaths of dusky vapor overshadowed the fire, and from them proceeded a
melancholy voice:——
“O mortal, sin has entered thine heart; blood is on thy hand, and the
polluted can have no fellowship with the pure. Thine eyes may behold us
no more forever!”
A fearful shudder passed through the student’s frame.
“It is false! Cursed spirits, ye have deceived me!”
“It is not we who have deceived thee, but thine own soul,” answered
the Salamandrine. “We are not evil; unseen, we would have watched over
thee thy whole life through. It was thou who didst long after what
is permitted but to few,——to hold commune with the invisible. To do
this with safety, man must keep a heart pure as fearless, and such was
not thine. Thou didst seek us,——we allured not thee. Blame not us,
therefore, but thy own weakness. Thou hast sinned, and henceforth we are
invisible to thee!”
“Woe! woe!” cried Basil, in agony; “have I then lost all? Adorable
spirit, guide of my life, have mercy!——forsake me not!”
“I do not forsake thee, O poor mortal!” answered the voice, sadly. “I
am here, beautiful and tender as before; but thou art no longer able
to behold me. Sin has darkened thine eyes, and thou wilt see me no
more——forever.”
“No more?” echoed the student in tones of thrilling misery.
“No more,” replied the mournful accents of the Salamandrine; and a faint
chorus, like the sighing of the wind, echoed plaintively,——
“No more, O, poor mortal, no more!”
The vapor swept away from the fire, and the student was left to his
despair.