"My Novel" — Complete
TextCHAPTER VI
It was, as we have seen, without taking counsel of the faithful Jemima that the sage recluse of Norwood had yielded to his own fears and Randal’s subtle suggestions, in the concise and arbitrary letter which he had written to Violante; but at night, when churchyards give up the dead, and conjugal hearts the secrets hid by day from each other, the wise man informed his wife of the step he had taken. And Jemima then—who held English notions, very different from those which prevail in Italy, as to the right of fathers to dispose of their daughters without reference to inclination or repugnance—so sensibly yet so mildly represented to the pupil of Machiavelli that he had not gone exactly the right way to work, if he feared that the handsome count had made some impression on Violante, and if he wished her to turn with favour to the suitor he recommended,—that so abrupt a command could only chill the heart, revolt the will, and even give to the audacious Peschiera some romantic attraction which he had not before possessed,—as effectually to destroy Riccabocca’s sleep that night. And the next day he sent Giacomo to Lady Lansmere’s with a very kind letter to Violante and a note to the hostess, praying the latter to bring his daughter to Norwood for a few hours, as he much wished to converse with both. It was on Giacomo’s arrival at Knightsbridge that Violante’s absence was discovered. Lady Lansmere, ever proudly careful of the world and its gossip, kept Giacomo from betraying his excitement to her servants, and stated throughout the decorous household that the young lady had informed her she was going to visit some friends that morning, and had no doubt gone through the garden gate, since it was found open; the way was more quiet there than by the high-road, and her friends might have therefore walked to meet her by the lane. Lady Lansmere observed that her only surprise was that Violante had gone earlier than she had expected. Having said this with a composure that compelled belief, Lady Lansmere ordered the carriage, and, taking Giacomo with her, drove at once to consult her son.
Harley’s quick intellect had scarcely recovered from the shock upon his emotions before Randal Leslie was announced. “Ah,” said Lady Lansmere, “Mr. Leslie may know something. He came to her yesterday with a note from her father. Pray let him enter.”
The Austrian prince approached Harley. “I will wait in the next room,” he whispered. “You may want me if you have cause to suspect Peschiera in all this.”
Lady Lansmere was pleased with the prince’s delicacy, and, glancing at Leonard, said, “Perhaps you, too, sir, may kindly aid us, if you would retire with the prince. Mr. Leslie may be disinclined to speak of affairs like these, except to Harley and myself.”
“True, madam, but beware of Mr. Leslie.”
As the door at one end of the room closed on the prince and Leonard, Randal entered at the other, seemingly much agitated.
“I have just been to your house, Lady Lansmere. I heard you were here; pardon me if I have followed you. I have called at Knightsbridge to see Violante, learned that she had left you. I implore you to tell me how or wherefore. I have the right to ask: her father has promised me her hand.” Harley’s falcon eye had brightened tip at Randal’s entrance. It watched steadily the young man’s face. It was clouded for a moment by his knitted brows at Randal’s closing words; but he left it to Lady Lansmere to reply and explain. This the countess did briefly.
Randal clasped his hands. “And has she not gone to her father’s? Are you sure of that?”
“Her father’s servant has just come from Norwood.”
“Oh, I am to blame for this! It is my rash suit, her fear of it, her aversion! I see it all!” Randal’s voice was hollow with remorse and despair. “To save her from Peschiera, her father insisted on her immediate marriage with myself. His orders were too abrupt, my own wooing too unwelcome. I knew her high spirit; she has fled to escape from me. But whither, if not to Norwood,—oh, whither? What other friends has she, what relations?”
“You throw a new light on this mystery,” said Lady Lansmere; “perhaps she may have gone to her father’s after all, and the servant may have crossed, but missed her on the way. I will drive to Norwood at once.”
“Do so,—do; but if she be not there, be careful not to alarm Riccabocca with the news of her disappearance. Caution Giacomo not to do so. He would only suspect Peschiera, and be hurried to some act of violence.”
“Do not you, then, suspect Peschiera, Mr. Leslie?” asked Harley, suddenly.
“Ha! is it possible? Yet, no. I called on him this morning with Frank Hazeldean, who is to marry his sister. I was with him till I went on to Knightsbridge, at the very time of Violante’s disappearance. He could not then have been a party to it.”
“You saw Violante yesterday. Did you speak to her of Madame di Negra?” asked Harley, suddenly recalling the questions respecting the marchesa which Violante had addressed to him.
In spite of himself, Randal felt that he changed countenance. “Of Madame di Negra? I do not think so. Yet I might. Oh, yes, I remember now. She asked me the marchesa’s address; I would not give it.”
“The address is easily found. Can she have gone to the marchesa’s house?”
“I will run there, and see,” cried Randal, starting up. “And I with you. Stay, my dear mother. Proceed, as you propose, to Norwood, and take Mr. Leslie’s advice. Spare our friend the news of his daughter’s loss—if lost she be—till she is restored to him. He can be of no use mean while. Let Giacomo rest here; I may want him.”
Harley then passed into the next room, and entreated the prince and Leonard to await his return, and allow Giacomo to stay in the same room.
He then went quickly back to Randal. Whatever might be his fears or emotions, Harley felt that he had need of all his coolness of judgment and presence of mind. The occasion made abrupt demand upon powers which had slept since boyhood, but which now woke with a vigour that would have made even Randal tremble, could he have detected the wit, the courage, the electric energies, masked under that tranquil self-possession. Lord L’Estrange and Randal soon reached the marchesa’s house, and learned that she had been out since morning in one of Count Peschiera’s carriages. Randal stole an alarmed glance at Harley’s face. Harley did not seem to notice it.
“Now, Mr. Leslie, what do you advise next?”
“I am at a loss. Ah, perhaps, afraid of her father, knowing how despotic is his belief in paternal rights, and how tenacious he is of his word once passed, as it has been to me, she may have resolved to take refuge in the country, perhaps at the Casino, or at Mrs. Dale’s, or Mrs. Hazeldean’s. I will hasten to inquire at the coach-office. Meanwhile, you—”
“Never mind me, Mr. Leslie. Do what you think best. But, if your surmises be just, you must have been a very rude wooer to the high-born lady you aspired to win.”
“Not so; but perhaps an unwelcome one. If she has indeed fled from me, need I say that my suit will be withdrawn at once? I am not a selfish lover, Lord L’Estrange.”
“Nor I a vindictive man. Yet, could I discover who has conspired against this lady, a guest under my father’s roof, I would crush him into the mire as easily as I set my foot upon this glove. Good-day to you, Mr. Leslie.”
Randal stood still for a few moments as Harley strided on; then his lip sneered as it muttered, “Insolent! But does he love her? If so, I am avenged already.”
CHAPTER VII
Harley went straight to Peschiera’s hotel. He was told that the count had walked out with Mr. Frank Hazeldean and some other gentlemen who had breakfasted with him. He had left word, in case any one called, that he had gone to Tattersall’s to look at some horses that were for sale. To Tattersall’s went Harley. The count was in the yard leaning against a pillar, and surrounded by fashionable friends. Lord L’Estrange paused, and, with an heroic effort at self-mastery, repressed his rage. “I may lose all if I show that I suspect him; and yet I must insult and fight him rather than leave his movements free. Ah, is that young Hazeldean? A thought strikes me!” Frank was standing apart from the group round the count, and looking very absent and very sad. Harley touched him on the shoulder, and drew him aside unobserved by the count.
“Mr. Hazeldean, your uncle Egerton is my dearest friend. Will you be a friend to me? I want you.”
“My Lord—”
“Follow me. Do not let Count Peschiera see us talking together.”
Harley quitted the yard, and entered St. James’s Park by the little gate close by. In a very few words he informed Frank of Violante’s disappearance and of his reasons for suspecting the count. Frank’s first sentiment was that of indignant disbelief that the brother of Beatrice could be so vile; but as he gradually called to mind the cynical and corrupt vein of the count’s familiar conversation, the hints to Peschiera’s prejudice that had been dropped by Beatrice herself, and the general character for brilliant and daring profligacy which even the admirers of the count ascribed to him, Frank was compelled to reluctant acquiescence in Harley’s suspicions; and he said, with an earnest gravity very rare to him,
“Believe me, Lord L’Estrange, if I can assist you in defeating a base and mercenary design against this poor young lady, you have but to show me how. One thing is clear, Peschicra was not personally engaged in this abduction, since I have been with him all day; and—now I think of it—I begin to hope that you wrong him; for he has invited a large party of us to make an excursion with him to Boulogne next week, in order to try his yacht, which he could scarcely do if—”
“Yacht, at this time of the year! a man who habitually resides at Vienna—a yacht!”
“Spendquick sells it a bargain, on account of the time of year and other reasons; and the count proposes to spend next summer in cruising about the Ionian Isles. He has some property on those isles, which he has never yet visited.”
“How long is it since he bought this yacht?”
“Why, I am not sure that it is already bought,—that is, paid for. Levy was to meet Spendquick this very morning to arrange the matter. Spendquick complains that Levy screws him.”
“My dear Mr. Hazeldean, you are guiding me through the maze. Where shall I find Lord Spendquick?”
“At this hour, probably in bed. Here is his card.”
“Thanks. And where lies the vessel?”
“It was off Blackwall the other day. I went to see it, ‘The Flying Dutchman,’—a fine vessel, and carries guns.”
“Enough. Now, heed me. There can be no immediate danger to Violante, so long as Peschiera does not meet her, so long as we know his movements. You are about to marry his sister. Avail yourself of that privilege to keep close by his side. Refuse to be shaken off. Make what excuses for the present your invention suggests. I will give you an excuse. Be anxious and uneasy to know where you can find Madame di Negra.”
“Madame di Negra!” cried Frank. “What of her? Is she not in Curzon Street?”
“No; she has gone out in one of the count’s carriages. In all probability the driver of that carriage, or some servant in attendance on it, will come to the count in the course of the day; and in order to get rid of you, the count will tell you to see this servant, and ascertain yourself that his sister is safe. Pretend to believe what the man says, but make him come to your lodgings on pretence of writing there a letter for the marchesa. Once at your lodgings, and he will be safe; for I shall see that the officers of justice secure him. The moment he is there, send an express for me to my hotel.”
“But,” said Frank, a little bewildered, “if I go to my lodgings, how can I watch the count?”
“It will nor then be necessary. Only get him to accompany you to your lodgings, and part with him at the door.”
“Stop, stop! you cannot suspect Madame di Negra of connivance in a scheme so infamous. Pardon me, Lord L’Estrange; I cannot act in this matter,—cannot even hear you except as your foe, if you insinuate a word against the honour of the woman I love.”
“Brave gentleman, your hand. It is Madame di Negra I would save, as well as my friend’s young child. Think but of her, while you act as I entreat, and all will go well. I confide in you. Now, return to the count.”
Frank walked back to join Peschiera, and his brow was thoughtful, and his lips closed firmly. Harley had that gift which belongs to the genius of Action. He inspired others with the light of his own spirit and the force of his own will. Harley next hastened to Lord Spendquick, remained with that young gentleman some minutes, then repaired to his hotel, where Leonard, the prince, and Giacomo still awaited him.
“Come with me, both of you. You, too, Giacomo. I must now see the police. We may then divide upon separate missions.”
“Oh, my dear Lord,” cried Leonard, “you must have had good news. You seem cheerful and sanguine.”
“Seem! Nay, I am so! If I once paused to despond—even to doubt—I should go mad. A foe to baffle, and an angel to save! Whose spirits would not rise high, whose wits would not move quick to the warm pulse of his heart?”
CHAPTER VIII
Twilight was dark in the room to which Beatrice had conducted Violante. A great change had come over Beatrice. Humble and weeping, she knelt beside Violante, hiding her face, and imploring pardon. And Violante, striving to resist the terror for which she now saw such cause as no woman-heart can defy, still sought to soothe, and still sweetly assured forgiveness.
Beatrice had learned, after quick and fierce questions, which at last compelled the answers that cleared away every doubt, that her jealousy had been groundless, that she had no rival in Violante. From that moment the passions that had made her the tool of guilt abruptly vanished, and her conscience startled her with the magnitude of her treachery. Perhaps had Violante’s heart been wholly free, or she had been of that mere commonplace, girlish character which women like Beatrice are apt to despise, the marchesa’s affection for Peschiera, and her dread of him, might have made her try to persuade her young kinswoman at least to receive the count’s visit,—at least to suffer him to make his own excuses, and plead his own cause. But there had been a loftiness of spirit in which Violante had first defied the mareliesa’s questions, followed by such generous, exquisite sweetness, when the girl perceived how that wild heart was stung and maddened, and such purity of mournful candour when she had overcome her own virgin bashfulness sufficiently to undeceive the error she detected, and confess where her own affections were placed, that Beatrice bowed before her as mariner of old to some fair saint that had allayed the storm.
“I have deceived you!” she cried, through her sobs; “but I will now save you at any cost. Had you been as I deemed,—the rival who had despoiled all the hopes of my future life,—I could without remorse have been the accomplice I am pledged to be. But now you—Oh, you, so good and so noble—you can never, be the bride of Peschiera. Nay, start not; he shall renounce his designs forever, or I will go myself to our emperor, and expose the dark secrets of his life. Return with me quick to the home from which I ensnared you.”
Beatrice’s hand was on the door while she spoke. Suddenly her face fell, her lips grew white; the door was locked from without. She called,—no one answered; the bell-pull in the room gave no sound; the windows were high and barred,—they did not look on the river, nor the street, but on a close, gloomy, silent yard, high blank walls all round it; no one to hear the cry of distress, rang it ever so loud and sharp.
Beatrice divined that she herself had been no less ensnared than her companion; that Peschiera, distrustful of her firmness in evil, had precluded her from the power of reparation. She was in a house only tenanted by his hirelings. Not a hope to save Violante from a fate that now appalled her seemed to remain. Thus, in incoherent self-reproaches and frenzied tears, Beatrice knelt beside her victim, communicating more and more the terrors that she felt, as the hours rolled on, and the room darkened, till it was only by the dull lamp which gleamed through the grimy windows from the yard without, that each saw the face of the other.
Night came on; they heard a clock from some distant church strike the hours. The dim fire had long since burned out, and the air became intensely cold. No one broke upon their solitude,—not a voice was heard in the house. They felt neither cold nor hunger,—they felt but the solitude, and the silence, and the dread of something that was to come.
At length, about midnight, a bell rang at the street door; then there was the quick sound of steps, of sullen bolts withdrawn, of low, murmured voices. Light streamed through the chinks of the door to the apartment, the door itself opened. Two Italians bearing tapers entered, and the Count di Peschiera followed.
Beatrice sprang up, and rushed towards her brother. He laid his hand gently on her lips, and motioned to the Italians to withdraw. They placed the lights on the table, and vanished without a word.
Peschiera then, putting aside his sister, approached Violante.
“Fair kinswoman,” said he, with an air of easy but resolute assurance, “there are things which no man can excuse, and no woman can pardon, unless that love, which is beyond all laws, suggests excuse for the one, and obtains pardon for the other. In a word, I have sworn to win you, and I have had no opportunities to woo. Fear not; the worst that can befall you is to be my bride! Stand aside, my sister, stand aside.”
“Giulio Franzini, I stand between you and her; you shall strike me to the earth before you can touch even the hem of her robe!”
“What, my sister! you turn against me?”
“And unless you instantly retire and leave her free, I will unmask you to the emperor.”
“Too late, mon enfant! You will sail with us. The effects you may need for the voyage are already on board. You will be witness to our marriage, and by a holy son of the Church. Then tell the emperor what you will.”
With a light and sudden exertion of his strength, the count put away Beatrice, and fell on his knee before Violante, who, drawn to her full height, death-like pale, but untrembling, regarded him with unutterable disdain.
“You scorn me now,” said he, throwing into his features an expression of humility and admiration, “and I cannot wonder at it. But, believe me, that until the scorn yield to a kinder sentiment, I will take no advantage of the power I have gained over your fate.”
“Power!” said Violante, haughtily. “You have ensnared me into this house, you have gained the power of a day; but the power over my fate,—no!”
“You mean that your friends have discovered your disappearance, and are on your track. Fair one, I provide against your friends, and I defy all the laws and police of England. The vessel that will bear you from these shores waits in the river hard by. Beatrice, I warn you,—be still, unhand me. In that vessel will be a priest who shall join our hands, but not before you will recognize the truth, that she who flies with Giulio Peschiera must become his wife or quit him as the disgrace of her House, and the scorn of her sex.”
“O villain! villain!” cried Beatrice.
“Peste, my sister, gentler words. You, too, would marry. I tell no tales of you. Signorina, I grieve to threaten force. Give me your hand; we must be gone.”
Violante eluded the clasp that would have profaned her, and darting across the room, opened the door, and closed it hastily behind her. Beatrice clung firmly to the count to detain him from pursuit. But just without the door, close, as if listening to what passed within, stood a man wrapped from head to foot in a large boat cloak. The ray of the lamp that beamed on the man glittered on the barrel of a pistol which he held in his right hand.
“Hist!” whispered the man in English, and passing his arm round her; “in this house you are in that ruffian’s power; out of it, safe. Ah, I am by your side,—I, Violante!”
The voice thrilled to Violante’s heart. She started, looked up, but nothing was seen of the man’s face, what with the hat and cloak, save a mass of raven curls, and a beard of the same hue.
The count now threw open the door, dragging after him his sister, who still clung round him.
“Ha, that is well!” he cried to the man, in Italian. “Bear the lady after me, gently; but if she attempt to cry out, why, force enough to silence her, not more. As for you, Beatrice, traitress that you are, I could strike you to the earth, but—No, this suffices.” He caught his sister in his arms as he spoke, and regardless of her cries and struggles, sprang down the stairs.
The hall was crowded with fierce, swarthy men. The count turned to one of them, and whispered; in an instant the marchesa was seized and gagged. The count cast a look over his shoulder; Violante was close behind, supported by the man to whom Peschiera had consigned her, and who was pointing to Beatrice, and appeared warning Violante against resistance.
Violante was silent, and seemed resigned. Peschiera smiled cynically, and, preceded by some of his hirelings, who held torches, descended a few steps that led to an abrupt landing-place between the hall and the basement story. There a small door stood open, and the river flowed close by. A boat was moored on the bank, round which grouped four men, who had the air of foreign sailors. At the appearance of Peschiera, three of these men sprang into the boat, and got ready their oars. The fourth carefully re-adjusted a plank thrown from the boat to the wharf, and offered his arm obsequiously to Peschiera. The count was the first to enter, and, humming a gay opera air, took his place by the helm. The two females were next lifted in, and Violante felt her hand pressed almost convulsively by the man who stood by the plank. The rest followed, and in another minute the boat bounded swiftly over the waves towards a vessel that lay several furlongs adown the river, and apart from all the meaner craft that crowded the stream. The stars struggled pale through the foggy atmosphere; not a word was heard within the boat,—no sound save the regular splash of the oars. The count paused from his lively tune, and gathering round him the ample fold of his fur pelisse, seemed absorbed in thought. Even by the imperfect light of the stars, Peschiera’s face wore an air of sovereign triumph. The result had justified that careless and insolent confidence in himself and in fortune, which was the most prominent feature in the character of the man, who, both bravo and gamester, had played against the world with his rapier in one hand and cogged dice in the other. Violante, once in a vessel filled by his own men, was irretrievably in his power. Even her father must feel grateful to learn that the captive of Peschiera had saved name and repute in becoming Peschiera’s wife. Even the pride of sex in Violante herself must induce her to confirm what Peschiera, of course, intended to state,—namely, that she was a willing partner in a bridegroom’s schemes of flight towards the altar rather than the poor victim of a betrayer, and receiving his hand but from his mercy. He saw his fortune secured, his success envied, his very character rehabilitated by his splendid nuptials. Ambition began to mingle with his dreams of pleasure and pomp. What post in the Court or the State too high for the aspirations of one who had evinced the most incontestable talent for active life,—the talent to succeed in all that the will had undertaken? Thus mused the count, half-forgetful of the present, and absorbed in the golden future, till he was aroused by a loud hail from the vessel and the bustle on board the boat, as the sailors caught at the rope flung forth to them.
He then rose and moved towards Violante. But the man who was still in charge of her passed the count lightly, half-leading, half-carrying his passive prisoner. “Pardon, Excellency,” said the man, in Italian, “but the boat is crowded, and rocks so much that your aid would but disturb our footing.” Before Peschiera could reply, Violante was already on the steps of the vessel, and the count paused till, with elated smile, he saw her safely standing on the deck. Beatrice followed, and then Peschiera himself; but when the Italians in his train also thronged towards the sides of the boat, two of the sailors got before them, and let go the rope, while the other two plied their oars vigorously, and pulled back towards shore. The Italians burst into an amazed and indignant volley of execrations. “Silence,” said the sailor who had stood by the plank, “we obey orders. If you are not quiet, we shall upset the boat. We can swim; Heaven and Monsignore San Giacomo pity you if you cannot!”
Meanwhile, as Peschiera leaped upon deck, a flood of light poured upon him from lifted torches. That light streamed full on the face and form of a man of commanding stature, whose arm was around Violante, and whose dark eyes flashed upon the count more luminously than the torches. On one side this man stood the Austrian prince; on the other side (a cloak, and a profusion of false dark locks, at his feet) stood Lord L’Estrange, his arms folded, and his lips curved by a smile in which the ironical humour native to the man was tempered with a calm and supreme disdain. The count strove to speak, but his voice faltered.
All around him looked ominous and hostile. He saw many Italian faces, but they scowled at him with vindictive hate; in the rear were English mariners, peering curiously over the shoulders of the foreigners, and with a broad grin on their open countenances. Suddenly, as the count thus stood perplexed, cowering, stupefied, there burst from all the Italians present a hoot of unutterable scorn, “Il traditore! il traditore!” (the traitor! the traitor!)
The count was brave, and at the cry he lifted his head with a certain majesty.
At that moment Harley, raising his hand as if to silence the hoot, came forth from the group by which he had been hitherto standing, and towards him the count advanced with a bold stride.
“What trick is this?” he said, in French, fiercely. “I divine that it is you whom I can single out for explanation and atonement.”
“Pardieu, Monsieur le Comte,” answered Harley, in the same language, which lends itself so well to polished sarcasm and high-bred enmity, “let us distinguish. Explanation should come from me, I allow; but atonement I have the honour to resign to yourself. This vessel—”
“Is mine!” cried the count. “Those men, who insult me, should be in my pay.”
“The men in your pay, Monsieur le Comte, are on shore, drinking success to your voyage. But, anxious still to procure you the gratification of being amongst your own countrymen, those whom I have taken into my pay are still better Italians than the pirates whose place they supply; perhaps not such good sailors; but then I have taken the liberty to add to the equipment of a vessel which cost me too much to risk lightly, some stout English seamen, who are mariners more practised than even your pirates. Your grand mistake, Monsieur le Comte, is in thinking that the ‘Flying Dutchman’ is yours. With many apologies for interfering with your intention to purchase it, I beg to inform you that Lord Spendquick has kindly sold it to me. Nevertheless, Monsieur le Comte, for the next few weeks I place it—men and all—at your service.”
Peschiera smiled scornfully.
“I thank your Lordship; but since I presume that I shall no longer have the travelling companion who alone could make the voyage attractive, I shall return to shore, and will simply request you to inform me at what hour you can receive the friend whom I shall depute to discuss that part of the question yet untouched, and to arrange that the atonement, whether it be due from me or yourself, may be rendered as satisfactory as you have condescended to make the explanation.”
“Let not that vex you, Monsieur le Comte; the atonement is, in much, made already; so anxious have I been to forestall all that your nice sense of honour would induce so complete a gentleman to desire. You have ensnared a young heiress, it is true; but you see that it was only to restore her to the arms of her father. You have juggled an illustrious kinsman out of his heritage; but you have voluntarily come on board this vessel, first, to enable his Highness the Prince Von ———, of whose rank at the Austrian Court you are fully aware, to state to your emperor that he himself has been witness of the manner in which you interpreted his Imperial Majesty’s assent to your nuptials with a child of one of the first subjects in his Italian realm; and, next, to commence by an excursion to the seas of the Baltic the sentence of banishment which I have no doubt will accompany the same act that restores to the chief of your House his lands and his honours.”
The count started.
“That restoration,” said the Austrian prince, who had advanced to Harley’s side, “I already guarantee. Disgrace that you are, Giulio Franzini, to the nobles of the Empire, I will not leave my royal master till his hand strike your name from the roll. I have here your own letters, to prove that your kinsman was duped by yourself into the revolt which you would have headed as a Catiline, if it had not better suited your nature to betray it as a Judas. In ten days from this time, these letters will be laid before the emperor and his Council.”