CHAP. IX.
I could hardly defend myself from falling in love with the charming widow, and our intercourse had already grown so intimately familiar, that without offending her modesty, I had been permitted to ravish several fond kisses from her blooming cheeks.
One evening she thus related her story:
"My family is one of the most ancient in the kingdom. Five years ago, I married the man who was the choice of my heart. Fond of rural seclusion I retired to live with him in this castle. Wholly occupied with our loves, we promised each other in the happiest hours of sweet dalliance, never to cease our intercouse, even if death should part us. Soon after he died, and regularly returns hither every night."
—"I am astonished, Madonna, at what you tell me. Was there no third person present when you exchanged this vow?"
—"No. We received no visits in this retreat, My husband kept the youth whom you saw the other night at supper, to superintend and manage the concerns of our estates, and the young man was just absent at that time for several weeks."
—"Wonderful!—And does he come every night?"
—"He never misses."
—"And what does hefty to your in those visits?"
—"He never speaks, and only fits down at the foot of my bed."
—"Did you never venture to touch him?"
—"Never."
—"Have you never tried to discover, whether the whole is not a mere cheat?"
—"I have tried every thing, Sennor: My room is lockt and bolted; and there is no secret entrance."
—"Incomprehensible!—But hear me, Madonna, I am a man of spirit and! resolution. Let me but once try my own means to make a discovery!"
—"No, Sennor; I value your life too much, to expose it to such danger."
—"I don t mind my own life, but yours Sennora! Pray permit me to make one attempt."
She used every persuasive to make me desist from the enterprize. After many expostulations I ultimately prevailed on her to comply with my request. Having previously agreed on the deepest silence during the transaction, and made her promise to admit me a little before midnight to her bed-chamber, the next night was chosen for the execution of my design. I made every preparation for my safety, for which I deemed a strong cuiras, which I had worn ever since my projected flight with Elmira, and a sharp dagger to be quite sufficient.
The appointed night came. Having supped together, and endeavoured to keep off fear by wit and pleasantry, we parted laughing and joking about eleven o'clock, and I withdrew to my bed-room, where to save appearances from the servant who slept in a chamber not far from mine, I feigned to go to bed, blew out the candles, drew the curtains, and began to snore.
At last the castle-bell struck half past eleven, when I gently stole from my bed, and tript on my toes to the widow's apartment, the door of which was on the jar. On my entrance, she was in the highest agitation, and I could scarce keep her from swooning in my arms. I made use of all the eloquence I was master of, to animate her to courage. It was a strange conflict between curiosity and fear, feminine softness and enthusiasm, shame and expectation. She seemed both to dread for and be afraid of me.
It could not be denied, that her situation was then rather critical, and had she at first felt the whole extent of its danger, I doubt whether I should have been able to persuade her to such a measure. A stormy night which even familiarizes the bodies of two sympathetic souls; the opportunity, which deprived her from every assistance, the negligence and derangement of her dress, equal danger and equal apprehensions, might well have shaken the virtue of more solid characters than ours. For my own part, I do not hesitate to confess, that scarce one half of all this, would have been enough to stimulate my senses, had they not already been too much roused by the danger I was in.
The dreary hour of midnight now drew very near. The widow, according to agreement, took her feat in a corner of the chamber, and I occupied her place in bed, attentively watching the least motion or stirring around me.
Twelve o clock strikes. The drops of a heavy shower beat loudly against the windows; the very air of the room seems agitated, and the bedstead and all the woodwork begins to crack. In a few minutes the moon darting in her silver beams, enables me to distinguish better every object around me. Of a sudden the curtains of the bed are drawn open, and a muffled figure, slowly advances and takes place at the foot of the bed. It waved one hand, as if it wanted to speak, but did not utter a single word; and having waited about a minute in expectation of hearing something, I rose upright in the bed.
At this movement which was rather attended with a kind of impetuosity, the figure quickly startled and drew back, and by the cast of the moon-light I could plainly descry its face to be that of a man. This circumstance made me somewhat bolder, for I thought it was impossible to take a ghost by surprise. When the apparition found me get out of bed, it suddenly attempted to make its retreat, and even uttered an ejaculation, which I thought I knew by the found, and fancying it rather strange in the mouth of a spirit, I rushed at the being, and was convinced in this very moment, that it was a man I had to do with. He drew a dagger and attempted to thrust it through my heart, but the cuiras rendered me invulnerable. I seized my spectre by the waist and we both fell wrestling to the ground; the conflict continued a long while, during which the apparition made several unsuccessful passes at me with his dagger, but finding my self in danger of being overcome at daft, transported with rage, I drew my own poniard to save my life, and two stabs put an end to the combat. My antagonist uttered a long groan and immediately expired.
The widow now fetched a lighted taper, we unmuffled the remains of the vanquished spirit, and looked into his face. What was our astonishment!—We recognized him to be the same handsome young man, in whose company I supped, the first night of my sojourning at the castle.
The moment my surprize would permit it, I fixed my eyes on my fair hostess. A crowd of various passions alternately, pictured her countenance with the strongest features of unexpected sensations; there was surprise, curiosity, fear, love, grief, and indignation, which ultimately prevailed. Every minute my sanguine expectation of receiving her best thanks for having so generously put my life at stake, was wound up higher, till it evaporated in utter disappointment. Having for some time held the candle in a kind of mute torpor over the dead body, she set it on the floor, fell on her knees, and tenderly embraced the remains of her adventurous Adonis.
So far from being pleased with the sight of this spectacle, I retired from it to the window. At last she rose, and staring at me with a look of melancholy coldness, exclaimed: "There's another scene of blood!" and left the chamber without deigning to speak another word to me, her deliverer.
Confounded I went back to my apartment, dubious of the issue of this affair. I waited the morning, with unspeakable uneasiness.
At breakfast-time, I repaired to the Lady's drawing room, but it was shut against me. Soon after, one of her women brought me word, that her mistress could not speak to me that morning. My breakfast was then brought me, with the following letter sealed:
"You have undesignedly deprived me of all my happiness. This may be enough for you, but never will I see you again. Pardon me, the request of dispensing henceforth with your presence; it comes from a distressed woman who ought to be the object of your pity, and whom you ought to forget for ever."
The first emotion I felt was indignation, and I wrote these lines on the back of the Letter:
"You must know the designs I could have, in exposing myself to danger, to deliver you from your own. You know the affection and attachment I felt for your person, but you also should know the pride that guides my actions. If chance does not bring us together, you shall never see me again. I hope you will forget the unfortunate man, whom you unjustly load with vexatious reproaches."
This reply I forwarded immediately by her waiting woman, in whose hands I also pressed some pieces of gold, and having got my horse saddled, left the castle, without casting a single look of regret behind me.