Zanoni Part 40

Fallen One!--I see before thee Evil and Death and Woe! Thou to have relinquished Adon-Ai for the nameless Terror,--the heavenly stars for those fearful eyes! Thou, at the last to be the victim of the Larva of the dreary Threshold, that, in thy first novitiate, fled, withered and shrivelled, from thy kingly brow! When, at the primary grades of initiation, the pupil I took from thee on the sh.o.r.es of the changed Parthenope, fell senseless and cowering before that Phantom-Darkness, I knew that his spirit was not formed to front the worlds beyond; for FEAR is the attraction of man to earthiest earth, and while he fears, he cannot soar. But THOU, seest thou not that to love is but to fear; seest thou not that the power of which thou boastest over the malignant one is already gone? It awes, it masters thee; it will mock thee and betray.

Lose not a moment; come to me. If there can yet be sufficient sympathy between us, through MY eyes shalt thou see, and perhaps guard against the perils that, shapeless yet, and looming through the shadow, marshal themselves around thee and those whom thy very love has doomed. Come from all the ties of thy fond humanity; they will but obscure thy vision! Come forth from thy fears and hopes, thy desires and pa.s.sions.

Come, as alone Mind can be the monarch and the seer, s.h.i.+ning through the home it tenants,--a pure, impressionless, sublime intelligence!

CHAPTER 6.IV.

Plus que vous ne pensez ce moment est terrible.

La Harpe, "Le Comte de Warwick," Act 3, sc. 5.

(The moment is more terrible than you think.)

For the first time since their union, Zanoni and Viola were separated,--Zanoni went to Rome on important business. "It was," he said, "but for a few days;" and he went so suddenly that there was little time either for surprise or sorrow. But first parting is always more melancholy than it need be: it seems an interruption to the existence which Love shares with Love; it makes the heart feel what a void life will be when the last parting shall succeed, as succeed it must, the first. But Viola had a new companion; she was enjoying that most delicious novelty which ever renews the youth and dazzles the eyes of woman. As the mistress--the wife--she leans on another; from another are reflected her happiness, her being,--as an orb that takes light from its sun. But now, in turn, as the mother, she is raised from dependence into power; it is another that leans on her,--a star has sprung into s.p.a.ce, to which she herself has become the sun!

A few days,--but they will be sweet through the sorrow! A few days,--every hour of which seems an era to the infant, over whom bend watchful the eyes and the heart. From its waking to its sleep, from its sleep to its waking, is a revolution in Time. Every gesture to be noted,--every smile to seem a new progress into the world it has come to bless! Zanoni has gone,--the last dash of the oar is lost, the last speck of the gondola has vanished from the ocean-streets of Venice! Her infant is sleeping in the cradle at the mother's feet; and she thinks through her tears what tales of the fairy-land, that spreads far and wide, with a thousand wonders, in that narrow bed, she shall have to tell the father! Smile on, weep on, young mother! Already the fairest leaf in the wild volume is closed for thee, and the invisible finger turns the page!

By the bridge of the Rialto stood two Venetians--ardent Republicans and Democrats--looking to the Revolution of France as the earthquake which must shatter their own expiring and vicious const.i.tution, and give equality of ranks and rights to Venice.

"Yes, Cottalto," said one; "my correspondent of Paris has promised to elude all obstacles, and baffle all danger. He will arrange with us the hour of revolt, when the legions of France shall be within hearing of our guns. One day in this week, at this hour, he is to meet me here.

This is but the fourth day."

He had scarce said these words before a man, wrapped in his roquelaire, emerging from one of the narrow streets to the left, halted opposite the pair, and eying them for a few moments with an earnest scrutiny, whispered, "Salut!"

"Et fraternite," answered the speaker.

"You, then, are the brave Dandolo with whom the Comite deputed me to correspond? And this citizen--"

"Is Cottalto, whom my letters have so often mentioned." (I know not if the author of the original MSS. designs, under these names, to introduce the real Cottalto and the true Dandolo, who, in 1797, distinguished themselves by their sympathy with the French, and their democratic ardor.--Ed.)

"Health and brotherhood to him! I have much to impart to you both. I will meet you at night, Dandolo. But in the streets we may be observed."

"And I dare not appoint my own house; tyranny makes spies of our very walls. But the place herein designated is secure;" and he slipped an address into the hand of his correspondent.

"To-night, then, at nine! Meanwhile I have other business." The man paused, his colour changed, and it was with an eager and pa.s.sionate voice that he resumed,--

"Your last letter mentioned this wealthy and mysterious visitor,--this Zanoni. He is still at Venice?"

"I heard that he had left this morning; but his wife is still here."

"His wife!--that is well!"

"What know you of him? Think you that he would join us? His wealth would be--"

"His house, his address,--quick!" interrupted the man.

"The Palazzo di --, on the Grand Ca.n.a.l."

"I thank you,--at nine we meet."

The man hurried on through the street from which he had emerged; and, pa.s.sing by the house in which he had taken up his lodging (he had arrived at Venice the night before), a woman who stood by the door caught his arm.

"Monsieur," she said in French, "I have been watching for your return.

Do you understand me? I will brave all, risk all, to go back with you to France,--to stand, through life or in death, by my husband's side!"

"Citoyenne, I promised your husband that, if such your choice, I would hazard my own safety to aid it. But think again! Your husband is one of the faction which Robespierre's eyes have already marked; he cannot fly. All France is become a prison to the 'suspect.' You do not endanger yourself by return. Frankly, citoyenne, the fate you would share may be the guillotine. I speak (as you know by his letter) as your husband bade me."

"Monsieur, I will return with you," said the woman, with a smile upon her pale face.

"And yet you deserted your husband in the fair suns.h.i.+ne of the Revolution, to return to him amidst its storms and thunder," said the man, in a tone half of wonder, half rebuke.

"Because my father's days were doomed; because he had no safety but in flight to a foreign land; because he was old and penniless, and had none but me to work for him; because my husband was not then in danger, and my father was! HE is dead--dead! My husband is in danger now. The daughter's duties are no more,--the wife's return!"

"Be it so, citoyenne; on the third night I depart. Before then you may retract your choice."

"Never!"

A dark smile pa.s.sed over the man's face.

"O guillotine!" he said, "how many virtues hast thou brought to light!

Well may they call thee 'A Holy Mother!' O gory guillotine!"

He pa.s.sed on muttering to himself, hailed a gondola, and was soon amidst the crowded waters of the Grand Ca.n.a.l.

CHAPTER 6.V.

Ce que j'ignore Est plus triste peut-etre et plus affreux encore.

La Harpe, "Le Comte de Warwick," Act 5, sc. 1.

(That which I know not is, perhaps, more sad and fearful still.)

The cas.e.m.e.nt stood open, and Viola was seated by it. Beneath sparkled the broad waters in the cold but cloudless sunlight; and to that fair form, that half-averted face, turned the eyes of many a gallant cavalier, as their gondolas glided by.

But at last, in the centre of the ca.n.a.l, one of these dark vessels halted motionless, as a man fixed his gaze from its lattice upon that stately palace. He gave the word to the rowers,--the vessel approached the marge. The stranger quitted the gondola; he pa.s.sed up the broad stairs; he entered the palace. Weep on, smile no more, young mother!--the last page is turned!

An attendant entered the room, and gave to Viola a card, with these words in English, "Viola, I must see you! Clarence Glyndon."

Oh, yes, how gladly Viola would see him; how gladly speak to him of her happiness, of Zanoni!--how gladly show to him her child! Poor Clarence!

she had forgotten him till now, as she had all the fever of her earlier life,--its dreams, its vanities, its poor excitement, the lamps of the gaudy theatre, the applause of the noisy crowd.

He entered. She started to behold him, so changed were his gloomy brow, his resolute, careworn features, from the graceful form and careless countenance of the artist-lover. His dress, though not mean, was rude, neglected, and disordered. A wild, desperate, half-savage air had supplanted that ingenuous mien, diffident in its grace, earnest in its diffidence, which had once characterised the young wors.h.i.+pper of Art, the dreaming aspirant after some starrier lore.

"Is it you?" she said at last. "Poor Clarence, how changed!"

"Changed!" he said abruptly, as he placed himself by her side. "And whom am I to thank, but the fiends--the sorcerers--who have seized upon thy existence, as upon mine? Viola, hear me. A few weeks since the news reached me that you were in Venice. Under other pretences, and through innumerable dangers, I have come hither, risking liberty, perhaps life, if my name and career are known in Venice, to warn and save you.