Berlin and Sans-Souci Part 73

This is my only hope--my only prayer! My heart is dead, and every wish is buried--let it suffice, my brother! Do not ask the impossible!"

The king sprang from his seat, and his eyes glowed with scorn. "It is, then, all in vain!" said he, fiercely. "You will listen neither to reason nor entreaty!"

"Oh, sire, have mercy--I cannot wed the King of Denmark!"

"You cannot!" cried the king: "what does that mean?"

"That means that I have sworn never to become the wife of another than of him whom I love; that means that I have sworn to die unmarried, unless I go to the altar with my beloved!"

"This wild, mad wish can never be fulfilled!" said the king, threateningly. "You will marry--I, the king, command it!"

"Command me not, my brother!" cried Amelia, proudly, "command me not! You stand now upon the extremest boundary of your power; it will be easy now to teach you that a king is powerless against a firm, bold will!"

"Ah! you threaten me!"

"No, I pray to you--I pray wildly to your hard heart for pity! I clasp your knees--I pray to you, as the wretched, the hopeless pray to G.o.d--have mercy upon my torment, pity my unspeakable anguis.h.!.+ I am a poor, weak woman--oh, have mercy! My heart bleeds from a thousand wounds--comfort, heal it! I am alone, and oh, how lonely!-- be with me, my brother, and protect and s.h.i.+eld me! Oh, my brother!

my brother! it is my life, my youth, my future which cries out to you! Mercy! grace! Drive me not to extremity! Be merciful, as G.o.d is merciful! Force me not into rebellion against G.o.d, against Nature, against myself! Make me not an unnatural daughter, an unthankful sister, a disobedient subject! My G.o.d! My G.o.d! Oh, let your heart be touched! I cannot wed the King of Denmark--say not that I shall!"

"And if I still say it? If, by the power of my authority, as your brother and your king, I command you to obey?"

"I may perhaps die, but your command will have no other result,"

said she, rising slowly, and meeting the enraged glance of the king with a proud and calm aspect. "You have not listened to my prayers; well, then, I pray no more. But I swear to you, and G.o.d in heaven hears my oath, I will never marry! Now, my king, try how far your power reaches; what you may do and dare; how far you may prevail with a woman who struggles against the tyranny of her destiny. You can lead an army into desperate battle; you can conquer provinces, and make thrones totter to their base, but you cannot force a woman to do what she is resolved against! You cannot break my will! I repeat my oath--I swear I will never marry!"

A cry of rage burst from the lips of the king; with a hasty movement he advanced and seized the arm of the princess; then, however, as if ashamed of his impetuosity, he released her and stepped backward.

"Madame," said he, "you will wed the King of Denmark. This is my unchangeable purpose, my inexorable command! The time of mourning for his dead wife is pa.s.sed; and he has, through a special amba.s.sador, renewed his suit for your hand. I will receive the amba.s.sador to-morrow morning in solemn audience. I will say to him that I am ready to bestow the hand of my sister upon the King of Denmark. To-morrow you will be the bride and in four weeks you will be the wife of the King of Denmark!"

"And if I repeat to you, that I will never be his wife?"

"Madame, when the king commands, no one in his realm dare say 'I will not!' Farewell--to-morrow morning, then!" He bowed, left the room, and closed the door behind him.

Amelia sighed heavily, then slowly and quietly, even as she had come, she walked through the corridors, and as she pa.s.sed by her maids she greeted them with a soft smile. Ernestine wished to follow her to her boudoir, but she nodded to her to remain outside; she entered and closed the door. She was alone; a wild shriek burst from her lips; with a despairing movement she raised her arms to heaven, then sank powerless, motionless to the floor.

How long she lay there; what martyrdom, what tortures her heart endured in those hours of solitude, who can know? It was twilight when Princess Amelia opened the door and bade her friend, Fraulein von Haak, enter.

"Oh, princess, dearly-beloved princess," she said, weeping bitterly, pressing Amelia's hand to her lips, "G.o.d be thanked that I see you again!"

"Poor child!" said Amelia, gently, "poor child! You thought I would destroy myself! is it not so, Ernestine? No, no, I must live! A dark and sad foreboding tells me that a day will come when Trenck will need me; when my life, my strength, my a.s.sistance will be necessary to him. I will be strong! I will live, and await that day!"

With calm indifference she now began to speak of trifling things, and listened kindly to all Ernestine related. There was, however, a certain solemnity in her movements, in her smile, in every word she uttered; her eyes turned from time to time with an indescribable expression to heaven, and anxious, alarmed sighs fell trembling from her lips.

At last the long and dreary hours of the evening were over. It was night. Amelia could dismiss her maids and be once more alone. They brought the spirit-lamp, upon which stood the vessel containing the steaming mixture for her eyes; she directed them to place it near, and go quietly to sleep. She would undress herself and read a while before she went to bed. She embraced Fraulein von Haak, and charged her to sleep peacefully.

"You have promised," whispered Ernestine, lightly, "you will live!"

"I will live, for Trenck will one day need me. Goodnight!"

She kissed Ernestine upon the brow and smiled upon her till the door closed--then pressed the bolt forward hastily, and rushed forward to the large mirror, which reflected her image clearly and distinctly.

With a curious expression she contemplated her still lovely, youthful, and charming image, and her lips lightly whispered, "Farewell, thou whom Trenck loved! Farewell, farewell!" she greeted her image with a weary smile, then stepped firmly to the table, where the mixture hissed and bubbled, and the dangerous steam ascended.

The next morning loud shrieks and groans were heard in the bedroom of the princess. Amelia's maids had come to arrange her toilet, and found her stretched upon her couch, with disfigured face, with b.l.o.o.d.y eyes, which, swollen and rigid, appeared almost torn from their sockets! They ran for the physician, for the queen, for the king; all was confusion, excitement, anguish.

Ernestine knelt weeping by the bed of the princess, and implored her to say what frightful accident had so disfigured her. Princess Amelia was incapable of reply! Her lips were convulsively pressed together; she could only stammer out a few inarticulate sounds.

At last Heckel arrived, and when he saw the inflamed, swollen face, the eyeb.a.l.l.s starting from their sockets, and then the vessel containing the powerful mixture upon the table, he was filled with horror.

"Ah, the unhappy!" murmured he; "she did not regard my warning. She drew too near the noxious vapor, and it has entered not only her eyes but her windpipe; she will suffer much, and never be wholly restored!"

Amelia understood these words, which were addressed to Fraulein von Haak, and a horrible wild laugh burst from her b.l.o.o.d.y, skinless lips.

"Will she recover?" asked Fraulein von Haak.

"She will recover, but her eyes will be always deformed and her voice is destroyed. I will hasten to the apothecary's and prepare soothing ointments."

He withdrew, and now another door opened, and the king entered. With hasty steps, and greatly excited, he drew near the bed of the princess. As he looked upon her deformed countenance, her bleeding, rigid eyes, he uttered a cry of horror, and bowed down over his sister.

She gazed up at him steadily; tried to open her lips; tried to speak, but only a dull, hollow sound was heard. Now she slightly raised herself up with a powerful effort of strength, and moved her hand slowly over the white wall near her bed.

"She wishes to write," said the king; "perhaps she will tell the cause of her sufferings. Give her something quickly! there--a coal from the chimney!"

Fraulein von Haak brought the coal, and Amelia wrote, with trembling hand, in great, irregular letters, these words upon the wall:

"Now I will not wed the King of Denmark!--now I shall never marry!"

then fell back on her pillow with a hollow laugh, which deformed her swollen and convulsed features in a frightful manner.

The king sank on a chair near the bed, and, clasping his hands over his face, he abandoned himself to despair. He saw, he comprehended all! He knew that she had intentionally disfigured herself; that she had offered up her beauty to her love! For this reason she had so piteously pleaded with him!--for this reason had she clamored for pity!--pity for her youth, her future, her life's happiness! Love and faith she had offered up! Greater, braver than Juliet, she had not given herself up to death, but to deformity! She had destroyed her body, in order to treasure love and constancy in her heart for her beloved! All this the king knew, and a profound and boundless sorrow for this young woman, so strong in her love, came over him.

He bowed his head and wept bitterly. [Footnote: La partie de l'histoire de la Princesse Amelie qui a ete la moins connue. et sur laquelle le public a flotte entre des opinions plus diverses et moins admissibles, c'est la cause de sea infirmites. Heureus.e.m.e.nt const.i.tuee sans etre grande, elle n'aurait pas du savoir a les craindre, meme dans un age tres-avance; et elle en a ete atteinte bien avant lage, qui pout les faire craindre. Encore, ne les a-t- elle pas eucs partiellement, elle en a ete spoutanement accablee. Il n'est pas douteux qu'elle ne les ait cherchees. J'en donnerai pour preuve un fait qui est certain. A une epoque ou elle avait les yeux inflammes en tenant ce liquide aux moins a sept ou huit pouces de distance; et lui recommenda bien de ne pas l'approeher davantage; et, cependant des qu'elle eut cette composition, elle s'empressa de s'en frotter les yeux, ce qui produisit un si funeste effet, qu'elle courut le plus grand danger de devenir aveugle; et que depuis elle a toujours do les yeux a moitic sortis de leurs...o...b..tes, et aussi hideux qu'ils avaient ete beaux jusque la. Frederic, a qui on n'osa pas dire combien la princesse avait de part a cette accident, n'a jamais eu depuis qu'une aversion tres-marquee et un vrai mepris pour M. Meckel, que la princesse fut obligee de quitter, et qui n'en etait pas moins un des meilleurs medecina de Berlin, et un des plus celebres anatomistes de l'Europe.

Une autre infirmite plus ctonnante, encore, o'est que cette princesse perdit presque totalementc la voix; aussi de sa fautc a ce qui l'on a pretendu il lui etait difficile de parlor, et tres- penible aux autres de l'entendre. Sa voix n'etait plus qu'un son vague, sourd et sepulcral, semblable a celui que forme une personne qui fait effort pour dire comme a voix ba.s.se qu'elle etrangle.

Je ne parlerai pas de sa tete chaneelante et se soutenant a peine de ses jambes, pour lesquelles son corps appauvri etait un poids si lourd de ses bras; et de ses mains plus d'a moitie paralyse; mais quels puissants motifs out pu amener cette belle et aimable princesse a se faire elle-meme un sort si triste? Quelle philosophie a pu lui donner a.s.sez de force pour le supporter, et ne pas s'en plaindre? quelle energie tous cea faits ne prouvent-ils pas?-- Thiebault, ii., 287-289.]

CHAPTER XI.

BARBARINA.

The visit which the proud wife of the High-Chancellor Cocceji had made to the still prouder dancer, had brought the trembling and irresolute heart of Barbarina to a conclusion. This heart, which had not been influenced by her own wishes or the eloquent prayers of her young lover, was wounded by the insane pride of Madame Cocceji, and forced to a final resolve. The visit was unfortunate, and its results exactly the opposite of her hopes.

She had come to prove to Barbarina that she should not even dare to think of becoming the wife of her son. By her wild pa.s.sion and abusive words she had so exasperated her, that she determined to do that for revenge which she had firmly refused to love. In flas.h.i.+ng scorn she had sworn this to the proud wife of the high chancellor; and her honor and her pride demanded the fulfilment of her oath.

And now a fierce contest commenced between them--carried on by both parties with bitterness and energy. The high chancellor threatened his son with his curse. He solemnly declared he would disinherit him. Cocceji only loved the Barbarina the more glowingly; and, as his mother spoke to him of the dancer, and uttered pa.s.sionate and abusive words, he replied respectfully but decisively that he would not listen to such accusations against the woman who was to be his wife, and must forbid them positively. Madame Cocceji was beside herself with rage; by her prayers and persuasions, she induced her husband to take refuge in the last and most violent resource that remained--in the power of arrest which the king had granted him. He resolved to confine his son in the castle of Mt. Landsberg, and thus break the magical bands of Ariadne.

One day, the Councillor Cocceji did not appear in the halls of justice, and no one knew what had become of him. The servants stated that a carriage stopped at his dwelling in the middle of the night; that General Haak with two soldiers entered Cocceji's room, and remained with him some time. They had then all entered the general's carriage, and driven away.

Cocceji had, however, found a secret opportunity to slip a piece of paper into the servant's hand, and to whisper, "Quick, to the signora!"