Memoirs of a Physician (68 page)

At times, also, as if the grief of this disenchantment was too poignant, the old man raised his dall eyes to Balsamo, then from Balsamo his glance wandered to Lorenza’s corpse.

He resembled, at these moments, one of those savage animals which the huntsman finds in the morning caught in the trap by the leg, and which he stirs for a long time with his foot without making them turn their heads, but who, when he pricks them with his hunting-knife, or with the bayonet of his fowling-piece, obliquely raise their bloodshot eyes, throwing on him a look of hatred, vengeance, reproach, and surprise.

‘ ‘ Is it possible ‘ said this look, so expressive even in its agony, ” is it credible that so many misfortunes, so many shocks, should overwhelm me, caused by such an insignificant being as the man I see kneeling there a few yards from me, at the feet of such a vulgar object as that dead woman ? Is it not a reversion of nature, an overturning of science, a cataclysm of reason, that the gross student should have deceived the skilful master ? Is it not monstrous that the grain of sand should have arrested the wheel of the superb chariot, so rapid in its almost unlimited power, in its immortal flight ? “

As for Balsamo stunned, heartbroken, without voice or motion, almost without life no human thought had yet dawned amid the dark vapors oi his brain.

Lorenza ! his Lorenza ! His wife, his idol, doubly precious to him as his revealing angel and his love Lorenza, his delight and his glory, the present and the future, his

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strength and faith Lorenza, all he loved, all he wished for, all he desired in this world Lorenza was lost to him forever.

He did not weep, he did not groan, he did not even sigh.

He was scarcely surprised at the dreadful misfortune which had befallen him. He was like one of those poor wretches whom an inundation surprises in their bed, in the midst of darkness. They dream that the water gains upon them, they awake, they open their eyes and see a roaring billow breaking over their head, while they have not even time to utter a cry in their passage” from life to death.

During three hours Balsamo felt himself buried in the deepest abyss of the tomb. In his overwhelming grief, he looked upon what had happened to him as one of the dark dreams which torment the dead in the eternal silent night of the sepulcher.

For him there no longer existed Althotas, and with him all hatred and revenge had vanished. For him there no longer existed Lorenza, and with her all life, all love had fled. All was sleep, night, nothingness ! Thus the hoiws glided past, gloomily, silently, heavily, in this chamber where the blood congealed and the lifeless form grew rigid.

Suddenly amid the deathlike silence a bell sounded thrice.

Fritz, doubtless, was aware that his master was with Althotas, for the bell sounded in the room itself.

But although it sounded three times with an insolently strange noise, the sound died away in space.

Balsamo did not raise his head.

In a few moments, the same tinkling, only louder this time, sounded again ; but, like the first, it could not arouse Balsamo from his torpor.

Then at a measured interval, but not so far from the second as it had been from the first, the angry bell a third time made the room resound with multiplied echoes of its wailing and impatient sounds.

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Balsamo did not start, but slowly raised his head and interrogated the empty space before him with the cold solemnity of a corpse rising from the tomb.

The bell never ceased ringing.

At last his increasing energy awoke him to partial consciousness.

The unfortunate husband took his hand from the hand of the corpse. All the heat had left his body without passing into his lifeless bride’s.

” Some important news or some great danger ‘ muttered Balsamo to himself. ” May it prove a great danger ! “

And he rose to his feet.

” But why should I reply to this summons ? ” continued he, aloud, without heeding the gloomy sound of his words echoing beneath the somber vault of this funereal chamber ; ” can anything in this world henceforth interest or alarm me ?”

Then, as if in reply, the bell struck its iron tongue so rudely against its brazen sides, that the clapper broke and fell upon a glass retort, which flew in pieces with a metallic sound, and scattered the fragments upon the floor.

Balsamo resisted no longer ; besides, it was important that none, not even Fritz, should come to seek him where he was.

He walked, therefore, with steady step to the spring, pressed it, and placed himself upon the trap, which descended slowly and deposited him in the chamber of furs.

As he passed the sofa, he brushed against the scarf which had fallen from Lorenza’s shoulders when the pitiless old man, impassible as death itself, had carried her off in his arms.

This contact, more living seemingly than Lorenza herself, sent an icy shudder through Balsamo’s veins. He took the scarf and kissed it, using it to stifle the cries which burst from his heaving breast.

Then he proceeded to open the door of the staircase.

On the topmost step stood Fritz, all pale and breathless, holding a torch in one hand, and in the other the cord of the bell, which, in his terror and impatience, he continued

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to pull convulsively. On seeing his master, he uttered a cry of satisfaction, followed by one of surprise and fear. But Balsamo, ignorant of the cause of this double cry, replied only by a mute interrogation.

Fritz did not speak, but he ventured he, usually so respectful to take his master’s hand, and lead him to the large Venetian mirror that ornamented the mantelpiece, at the back of which was the passage into Loreuza’s apartment.

” Oh, look ! your excellency,” said he, showing him his own image in the glass.

Balsamo shuddered. Then a smile one of those deathly smiles which spring from infinite and incurable grief, flitted over his lips. He had understood the cause of Fritz’s alarm.

Balsamo had grown twenty years older in an hour. There was no more brightness in his eyes, no more color in his cheeks ; an expression of dullness and stupefaction overspread his features ; a bloody foam fringed his lips ; a large spot of blood stained the whiteness of his cambric shirt.

Balsamo looked at himself in the glass for a moment without being able to recognize himself, then he determinedly fixed his eyes upon the strange person reflected in the mirror.

” Yes, Fritz,” said he, ” you are right.”

Then remarking the anxious look of his faithful servant :

” But why did you call me ?” inquired he.

” Oh, master ! for them.”

” For them ? “

” Yes.”

” Whom do you mean by them ? “

” Excellency,” whispered Fritz, putting his mouth close to his master’s ear, “the five masters.”

Balsamo shuddered.

” All ? ” asked he.

“Yes, all.”

” And they are here ?”

” Here.”

” Alone ? “

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” No ; each has an armed servant waiting in the courtyard.”

” They came together ? “

” Yes, master, together, and they were getting impatient, that is why I rang so many times and so violently.”

Balsamo, without even concealing the spot of blood beneath the folds of his frill, without attempting to repair the disorder of his dress, began to descend the stairs, after having asked Fritz if his guests had installed themselves in the salon or in the large study.

” In the salon, excellency ‘ replied Fritz, following his master.

Then, at the foot of the stairs, venturing to stop Balsamo, he asked :

” Has your excellency no orders to give me ?”

” None, Fritz.”

” Excellency ” stammered Fritz.

” Well ? ” asked Balsamo, with infinite gentleness.

” Will your excellency go unarmed ? “

” Unarmed ? Yes.”

” Even without your sword ?”

” And why should I take my sword, Fritz ?”

” I do not know,” said the faithful servant, casting down his eyes, ” but I thought I believed I feared “

” It is well, Fritz you may go.”

Fritz moved away a few steps in obedience to the order he had received, but returned.

” Did you not hear ? ” asked Balsamo.

” Excellency, I merely wished to tell yon that your double-barreled pistols are in the ebony case upon the gilt stand.”

“Go, I tell you !” replied Balsamo.

And he entered the salon.

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CHAPTER LXV.

THE JUDGMENT.

FRITZ was quite right ; Balsamo’s guests had not entered the Eue St. Claude with a pacific display nor with a benevolent exterior.

Five horsemen escorted the traveling carriage in which the masters had come ; five men, with a haughty and somber mien, armed to the teeth, had closed the outer gate and were guarding it while appearing to await their masters’ return.

A coachman and two footmen on the carriage-seat concealed under their overcoats each a small hanger and a musket. It had much more the air of a warlike expedition than a peaceful visit, these people’s appearance in the Eue St. Claude.

It was for this reason that the nocturnal invasion of these terrible men, the forcible taking possession of the hotel, had inspired the German with an unspeakable terror. He had at first attempted to refuse entrance to the whole party when he had seen the escort through the wicket, and had suspected them to be armed ; but the all-powerful signals they had used that irresistible testimony of the right of the newcomers had left him no option. Scarcely were they master of the place, than the strangers, like skilful generals, posted themselves at each outlet of the house, taking no pains to dissemble their hostile intentions.

The pretended valets in the courtyard and in the passages, the pretended masters in the saloon, seemed to Fritz to bode no good ; therefore he had broken the bell.

Balsamo, without displaying any astonishment, without making any preparation, entered the room, which Fritz had lighted up in honor of these, as it was his duty to do toward all guests who visited the house.

Jlis five visitors were seated upon chairs around the room, but not one rose when he appeared.

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He, as master of the house, having looked at them, bowed politely ; then only did they rise and gravely return his salute.

Balsamo took a chair in front of them, without noticing or seeming to notice the strange order of their position. In fact, the five armchairs formed a semicircle like to those of the ancient tribunals, with a president supported by two assessors, and with Balsamo’s chair placed in front of that of the president, and occupying the place accorded to the accused in a council or pretorium.

Balsamo did not speak first, as in other circumstances he would have done ; he looked around without seeing any object clearly still affected by a kind of painful drowsi-ness, which had remained after the shock.

“It seems, brother, that you have understood our errand ‘ said the president, or rather he who occupied the center seat ; “yet you delayed to come, and we were already deliberating if we should send to see you.”

“I do not understand your errand,” said Balsamo, calmly.

” I should not have imagined so, from seeing you take the position and attitude of an accused before us.”

” An accused ? ” stammered Balsamo, vacantly, shrugging his shoulders. ” I do not understand you.”

” We will soon make you understand us. Not a difficult task, if I may believe your pale cheeks, your vacant eyes, and trembling voice. One would think you did not hear.”

” Oh, yes, I hear,” replied Balsamo, shaking his head, as if to banish the thoughts which oppressed it.

“Do you remember, brother,” continued the president, “that in its last communication, the superior committee warned you against a treasonable attempt meditated by one of the great ones of the order ? “

” Perhaps so yes I do not deny it.”

” You reply as a disordered and troubled conscience might be expected to do ; but rouse yourself be not cast down reply with that clearness and precision which your terrible position requires. Reply to my questions with the certainty that we are open to conviction, for we have neither

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prejudice nor hatred in this matter. We are the law ; it does not pronounce a verdict until the evidence is heard.”

Balsamo made no reply.

“1 repeat it, Balsamo, and my warning once given, let it be to you like the warning which combatants give to each other before commencing their struggle. I will attack you with just but powerful weapons ; defend yourself ! “

The assistants, seeing Balsamo’s indifference and imper-turbable demeanor, looked at one another with astonishment, and then again turned their eyes upon the president.

” You have heard me, Balsamo, have you not ? ” repeated the latter.

Balsamo made a sign of the head in the affirmative.

” Like a well-meaning and loyal brother, I have warned yon, and given you a hint of the aim of my questionings. You are warned, guard yourself ; I am about to commence again.

“After this announcement,” continued the president, “the association appointed five of its members to watch in Paris the proceedings of a man who was pointed out to us as a traitor. Now, our revelations are not subject to error. “We gather them, as you yourself know, either from devoted agents, from the aspect of events, or from infallible symptoms and signs among the mysterious combinations which nature has as yet revealed to us alone. Now one of us had a vision respecting you ; we know that he has never been deceived ; we were upon our guard, and watched you.”

Balsamo listened without giving the least sign of impatience or even of intelligence. The president continued :

“It was not an easy task to watch a man such as you. You enter everywhere ; your mission is to have a footing wherever your enemies have a residence or any power whatever. You have at your disposal all your natural resources which are immense and which the association intrusts to you to make its cause triumphant. For a long time we hovered in a sea of doubt when we saw enemies visit you, such as Richelieu, a Dubarry, a Rohan. Moreover, at the last assembly in the Rue Plastriere you made along speech