CHAPTER XVIL

Que donne le monde aux siens plus souvent.
Echo Fen I. Que dois-je vaincre ici^ sans jamais relacher.
Echo la chair. Qui fit le cause des maux, qui me sent surveuus^
Echo Venufi. Que faut dire apres d'une telle infidelle.
Echo Fi d'elle. Magdaleniade, % Father Pierre de St Juouis.
1 HiiEE years had elapsed since the part- ing of Immalee and the stranger, when one evening the attention of some Spanisii gentlemen, who were walking in a public place in Madrid, was arrested by a figure that passed them, habited in. the dress of
K 2
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the country, (only without a sword), and walking very slowly. They stopt by a kind of simultaneous movement, and seem- ed to ask each other, with silent looks, what had been the cause of the impression this person's appearance had made on them. There was nothing remarkable in his fi- gure,— his demeanour was quiet; it was the singular expression of his countenance which had struck them with a sensation they could neither define or account for. ^ " As they paused, the person returned alone, and walking slowly — and they again encountered that singular expression of the features, (the eyes particularly), which no human glance could meet unappalled. Accustomed to look on and converse with all things revolting to nature and to man, — for ever exploring the mad-house, the jail, or the Inquisition, — the den of famine, the dungeon of crime, or the death-bed of despair, — his eyes had acquired a light and a language of their own — a light that none
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could gaze on, and a language that few dare understand.
" As he passed slowly by them, they observed two others whose attention was apparently fixed on the same singular ob- ject, for they stood pointing after him, and speaking to each other with gestures of strong and obvious emotion. The cu- riosity of the groupe for once overcame the restraint of Spanish reserve, and ap- proaching the two cavaliers, they inquired if the singular personage who had passed was not the subject of their conversation, and the cause of the emotion which ap- peared to accompany it. The others re- plied in the affirmative, and hinted at their knowledge of circumstances in the charac- ter and history of that extraordinary being that might justify even stronger marks of emotion at his presence. This hint opera- ted still more strongly on their curiosity — the circle of listeners began to deepen. Some of them, it appeared, had, or pre- tended to have, some information relative
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to this extraordinary subject. And that kind of desultory conversation commenced, whose principal ingredients are a plentiful proportion of ignorance, curiosity, and fear, mingled with some small allowance of information and truth ; — that conversa- tion, vague, unsatisfactory, but not uninter- esting, to which every speaker is welcome to contribute his share of baseless report, — wild conjecture, — anecdote the more incre- dible the better credited, — and conclusion the more falsely drawn the more likely to carry home conviction.
^' The conversation passed very much in language incoherent as this : — '* But why, if he be whaf he is described, what he is known to be, — why is he not seized by order of government ? — why is he not immured in the Inquisition ?" — " He has been often in the prison of the holy office — oftener, perhaps, than the holy fathers wished," said another. " But it is a well- known fact, that whatever transpired on his examination, he was liberated almost
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hnmediately." Another added, " That the stranger had been in almost every prison in Europe, but had always contrived either to defeat or defy the power in whose grasp he appeared to be inclosed, — and to be active in his purposes of mischief in the remotest parts of Europe at the moment he was supposed to be expiating them in others." Another demanded, " If it was known to what country he belonged r" and was an- swered, " He is said to be a native of Ire- land— (a country that no one knows, and which the natives are particularly reluc- tant to dwell in from various causes) — and his name is Melmoth." The Spaniard had great difficulty in expressing the thetay unpronounceable by continental lips. " Another, who had an appearance of more intelligence than the rest, added the ex- traordinary fact of the stranger's being seen in various and distant parts of the earth within a time in which no power merely human could be supposed to tra- verse them-— that his marked and fearful
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habit was every where to seek out the most wretched, or the most profligate, of the community among which he flung himself— what was his object in seeking them was unknown." — " It is well known," said a deep-toned voice, falling on the ears of the startled listeners like the toll of a strongbut muffled bell, — " it is well known both to him and them."
" It was now twilight, but the eyes of all could distinguish the figure of the stranger as he passed ; and some even a- verred they could see the ominous lustre of those eyes which never rose on human destiny but as planets of woe. The groupe paused for some time to watch the retreat of the figure that had produced on them the effect of the torpedo. It departed slowly, — no one offered it molestation.
" I have heard," said one of the com- pany, " that a delicious music precedes the approach of this person when his des- tined victim, — the being whom he is per- mitted to tempt or to torture, — is about to
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appear or to approach him. I have heard a strange tale of such music being heard ; and — Holy Mary be our guide ! did you ever hear such sounds?" — " Where — what ? — " and the astonished listeners took off their hats, unclasped their mantles, " opened their lips, and drew in their breath," in delicious ecstasy at the sounds that floated round them. - " No wonder," said a young gallant of the party, " no wonder that such sounds harbinger the approach of a being so heavenly. She deals with the good spirits ; and the bless- ed saints alone could send such music from above to welcome her. As he spoke, all eyes were turned to a figure, which, though moving among a groupe of brilliant and attractive females, appeared the only one among them on whom the eye could rest with pure and undivided light and love. She did not catch observation — ob- servation caught her, and was proud of its prize.
At the approach of a large party of fe-
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males, there was all that anxious and flat- tering preparation among the cavaliers, — all that eager arrangement of capas, and hats, and plumes, — that characterized the manners of a nation still half- feudal, and always gallant and chivalrous. These pre- liminary movements were answered by corresponding ones on the part of the fair and fatal host approaching. The creaking of their large fans — the tremulous and purposely-delayed adjustment of their float- ing veils, whose partial concealment flat- tered the imagination beyond the most fiill and ostentatious disclosure of the charms they seemed jealous of — the folds of the mantilla, of whose graceful falls, and complicated manoeuvres, and coquet- tish undulations, the Spanish women know how to avail themselves so well — all these announced an attack, which the cavaliers, according to the modes of gal- lantry in that day (1683), were well pre- pared to meet and parry.
" But, amid the bright host that advan-
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ced against them, there was one whose arins were not artificial, and the effect of whose singular and simple attractions made a strong contrast to the studied ar- rangements of her associates. If her fan moved, it was only to collect air — if she arranged her veil, it w^as only to hide her face — if she adjusted her mantilla, it was but to hide that form, whose exquisite symmetry defied the voluminous drapery of even that day to conceal it. Men of the loosest gallantry fell back as she ap- proached, with involuntary awe — the li- bertine who looked on her was half-con- verted—the susceptible beheld her as one who realized that vision of imagination that must never be embodied here — and the unfortunate as one whose sight alone was consolation — the old, as they gazed on her, dreamt of their youth—and the young for the first time dreamt of love— the only love which deserves the name— that which purity alone can inspire, and perfect purity alone can reward.
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*•' As she mingled among the gay groupes that filled the place, one might observe a certain air that distinguished her from every female there, — not by pretension to superiority, (of that her unequalled loveli- ness must have acquitted her, even to the vainest of the groupe), but by an untainted, unsophisticated character, diffusing itself over look and motion, and even thought — turning wildness into grace — giving an em- phasis to a single exclamation, that made polished sentences sound trifling — for ever trespassing against etiquette with vivid and fearless enthusiasm, and apologizing the next moment with such timid and grace- ful repentance, that one doubted whe- ther the offence or the apology were most delightful.
" She presented altogether a singular contrast to the measured tones, the min- cing gait, and the organized uniformity of dress, and manner, and look, and feeling, of the females about her. The harness of art was upon every limb and feature from
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their birth, and its trappings concealed or crippled every movement which nature had designed for graceful. But in the movement of this young female, there was a bounding elasticity, a springiness, a luxu- riant and conscious vitality, that made eve- ry action the expression of thought ; and then, as she shrunk from the disclosure, made it the more exquisite interpreter of feeling. There was around her a mingled hght of innocence and majesty, never united but in her sex. Men may long re- tain, and even confirm, the character of power which nature has stamped on their frames, but they very soon forfeit their claim to the expression of innocence.
" Amid the vivid and eccentric graces of a form that seemed like a comet in the world of beauty, bound by no laws, or by laws that she alone understood and obeyed, there was a shade of melancholy, that, to a superficial observer, seemed transitory and assumed, perhaps as a studied relief to the glowing colours of a picture so brilliant.
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but which, to other eyes, announced, that with all the energies of intellect occupied, — with all the instincts of sense excited, — the heart had as yet no inmate, and want- ed one.
" The groupe who had been conversing about the stranger, felt their attention ir- resistibly attracted by this object ; and the low murmur of their fearful whispers was converted into broken exclamations of de- light and wonder, as the fair vision passed them. She had not long done so, w^hen the stranger was seen slowly returning, seeming, as before, known to all, but knowing none. As the female party turn- ed, they encountered him. His emphatic glance selected and centered in one alone. She saw him too, recognized him, and, ut- tering a wild shriek, fell on the earth sense- less.
" The tumult occasioned by this acci- dent, which so many witnessed, and none knew the cause of, for some moments drew off the attention of all from the stranger —
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all were occupied either in assisting or in- quiring after the lady who had fainted. She w^as borne to her carriage by more as- sistants than she needed or wished for — and just as she was hfted into it, the voice of some one near her uttered the word " Immalee !" She recognized the voice, and turned, with a look of anguish and a feeble cry, towards the direction from which it proceeded. Those around her had heard the sound, — but as they did not understand its meaning, or know to whom it was addressed, they ascribed the lady's emotion to indisposition, and hastened to place her in her carriage. It drove away, but the stranger pursued its course with his eyes — the company dispersed, he re- mained alone — twilight faded into dark- ness— he appeared not to notice the change — a few still continued lingering at the extremity of the walk to mark him — they were wholly unmarked by him.
" One w^ho rem.ained the longest said, that he saw him use the action of one who
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wipes away a tear hastily. To his eyes the tear of penitence was denied for ever. Could this have been the tear of passion ? If so, how much woe did it announce to its object !