CHAPTER XXII.

MEANWHILE it was necessary that I should make the best of the present circumstances. My heart was wounded ; my spirit was in a manner broken ; but not so utterly withered and destroyed as to make me rest supine in perpetual im- prisonment. I felt with equal conviction and pungency that my character and my happiness had sustained the deepest injuries ; but I felt it incumbent on me to collect and improve the fragments that remained. For some days indeed after the conference with Monluc, I was sunk in the deepest dejection. But, as that dejection subsided, I began to turn a steady attention upon the future. I recollected that an eternal and inexhaustible gift deserved to be made the subject of more than one experiment, before a decision was formed upon its merits. I shall become wiser, said I, as I go forward. Experience, however bitter, will teach me sagacity and discrimination. My next experiment shall be made with more prudence and a soberer gradation. I will remove to some distant country, where the disadvan- tages of my past adventures shall not follow me. I will take a new name. I shall then enjoy the benefit of a tyro just entering a scene, to all the personages of which he is wholly unknown. I shall be like a serpent that has stripped its tarnished and wrinkled skin, and comes forth in all the gloss and sleekness of youth. Surely, in an unknown land, with the prejudice of wealth in my favour, and no preju- dices against me, I shall know how to conduct myself so as to obtain honour and respect. It is impossible that inex- haustible wealth and immortal youth, gifts so earnestly coveted by every creature that lives, gifts which if I were known to possess, my whole species from the mere impulses of envy would probably combine to murder me, as not able to endure the sight of one so elevated above his brethren, — it is impossible that such gifts should not be pregnant with variety of joy.
Marguerite greatly contributed to raise me from the dejection, into which my imprisonment and the conference
TRAVELS OF ST. LEON. 233
of Monluc had sunk me. She was my better genius. I had been so accustomed to receive consolation from her lips in the most trying circumstances, that now the very sound of her voice was able to smooth my wrinkled brow, and calm my agitated spirit. I listened as to the sound of an angelic lyre ; I was all ear ; I drank in the accents of her tongue ; and, in the dear delight, my cares were hushed, and my sorrows at an end. She talked to me of her daugh- ters, whom she represented as about to have no protector but their father ; she urged me to watch over them, and to take such steps as should most conduce to their future vir- tue and happiness ; she pointed out the practicability of escape, and recommended to me to fly to some distant country : the dreams of future prosperity from the gifts of the stranger were not hers ; they were all my own. It was inexpressibly affecting at this time to receive consolation from her, who had no consolation in her own breast, who had bid farewell to all the gay attractions of the world, and talked familiarly of her death as a thing certain to happen in no very long time. She had lost the purest gratifica- tions of the domestic scene ; she had lost her son ; her heart was broken ; yet with her dying accents she sought to dispel retrospect, and inspire cheerfulness, in the breast of her husband.
The reader may perhaps imagine that I was something too sanguine, when, surrounded with jailors and all the precautions of a prison, I planned the nature and scene of my next residence exactly as if I had been a person at large. But I took it for granted that the power of money I possessed would easily unlock to me the gates of my cap- tivity. I believed that, upon the lowest calculation, per- sonal liberty was clearly included among the gifts of the stranger. Impressed with this opinion, T fixed upon a negro, a servant of the prison, and who had the keys of my apartment, as the subject of my pecuniary experiment. The idea of applying to him had perhaps first occurred to me, from the mere circumstance of my seeing him more fre- quently than any other attendant of the prison. When I thought further of the matter, I judged, from the meanness of his rank and his apparent poverty, that I could not have
234 TRAVELS OF ST. LEON.
chosen better. So far as related to the sum to be paid as the price of my liberty,, it was indeed indifferent to me, whether it were large or small. I had however suffered so much from the inconsiderate lavishing of wealth, that I had no inclination on the present occasion to make ostentation of more than was necessary. But, what was of most im- portance to me, I was desirous that my first experiment should be a successful one. Though not unaware of the power of gold, I conceived that, among persons of mid- dling rank and easier circumstances, there might be varie- ties of disposition, and I might be mistaken in my choice. Some might have the whim of integrity, or might place a sturdy sort of pride in showing that they were content with what they had, and were too high for a bribe. There might be persons who, though of plebeian rank, might value reputation as much as ever I had done, and be of opinion that no advance of station could compensate for the name or the consciousness of dishonour. These distinctions may seem an idle and superfluous refinement, when it is consi- dered that I had the power of raising my bribe to the level of any man's honesty or pride, be it as great as it might ; and it may be thought that my offer might be so increased as to be too dazzling for mortal firmness to resist. Be that as it will, I am merely stating the reflections that passed through my mind, not entering into their vindication.
Taking the first opportunity then of accosting this man when he was alone with me, I addressed him thus : —
" My good friend, are not you poor ? " ,
" Yes, sir."
" Would not you readily do me a kindness ? "
" If my master give me leave, I will."
" You mistake me. Would you be my friend ? "
to call the man I love my friend. If you mean that, you know I cannot choose whether I wih1 be a man's friend ; it comes of itself."
' ' Can I not make you my friend ? "
" That is, make me love you ? "
I was surprised at the propriety of his answers. I am unable at this distance of time to recall the defects of his
TRAVELS OF ST. LEON. 235
language: and I disdain the mimic toil of inventing a jargon for him suitable to the lowness of his condition : the sense of what he said I faithfully report. I had before been struck with a certain correctness of thinking in him ; but I now examined his countenance more attentively than I had ever before done, and thought I could distinctly trace in it the indications of a sound understanding and an excellent heart.
" I do not know,, sir/' continued he. " If I see that you are a good man, I believe I shall love you. But if it happened that you were good and generous to me, I am sure I should love you very much."
' ( You are very poor ? "
" So they tell me. I never had more than a shilling or two at a time in my life."
" It is a very sad thing to be poor ? "
fe Why, yes, so I have heard, sir. But, for my own part, I am always merry and gay."
" My good fellow, I will make you rich."
" Thank you, sir ! But what good will that do me ? "
servants."
" Now, that I should not like at all. I am merry, be- cause I am light-hearted. If I had money, and property to take care of, and servants to direct, I am afraid they would make me grave and suspicious, and in every respect unlike what you see me."
es Is it possible you should be pleased with your present situation, under the orders of one man in a house, and obliged to play the tyrant to the rest ? "
" Why, as you say, sir, there may be more agreeable situations than the life of a jail. But, as to being under orders, I have no objection to that. I never knew any other condition, and therefore I am contented. It is not pleasant indeed to have a master who is always scolding and dis- satisfied ; but the gentleman I serve at present is reason- able ; I know how to content him, and, when I have done that, he leaves me to please myself. You offer me money : now, sir, that is not what I call being generous ; I count nothing for much, except when a man shows me has bowels,
236 TRAVELS OF ST. LEON.
and convinces me that he thinks justice due even to a negro. I dare say however you designed it for generosity, and expected something from me in return. Tell me what it is you want, and whatever I can do with propriety, you may depend on it I will."
" Do you approve of a man's being deprived of his liberty ? "
'" Will you please to tell me what you mean by liberty ? You offered me just now what you called liberty and inde- pendence ; and I am content to be a servant."
" Would you be pleased, instead of being a turnkey, to have the key turned on yourself?"
" That I should not. I understand the disagreeableness of that well enough, for when I first entered this place, it was as a prisoner."
" If then, my good fellow, you were convinced that I was a man disposed to be generous to you in your own way, and to deserve your attachment and love, surely you would not refuse to deliver me from a situation which you have yourself felt to be so disagreeable and calamitous."
with whom I am satisfied, and I do not wish to change my service. When I was a prisoner, he found out that I was innocent ; he got me cleared, and gave me employment. I am put here for the express purpose of seeing the prisoners in safe custody. That is the contract between me and my master. When I took the keys, by that action I pledged myself to be faithful to my trust ; and the nobleness of my master's behaviour to me in removing me from being a pri- soner to be a free servant, is a double bond upon my fidelity. J would sooner consent to be torn limb from limb, than fail in what is expected from me. You may be generous to a harmless stranger ; you have most reason to be generous to a man you love ; but, if you would heap benefits upon me merely because I proved myself a villain, I can only say it would be disgraceful to be the object of your favour."
Thus saying, he quitted me, and withdrew from further parley. The conversation in which we had engaged, though I had had considerable experience in the world, was alto- gether new to me, and overwhelmed me with astonishment.
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I found in this trial, that the power of money was subject to limitations, of which previously I had not been in the slightest degree aware. I thought that nothing but the most extraordinary degree of resolution and self-denial could enable a man to resist its enticements ; and I had even been told, though I did not believe, that every man had his price, and a bribe capable of indefinite augmentation must be in all cases victorious. Yet here was a poor creature utterly exempt from its operation. He had no sense of those attractions, which so often degrade the best, and con- vert virtue into the most shameless profligacy. It cost him no effort to be honest, and he uttered sentiments that would have given lustre to the most heroic character, without any consciousness of their greatness. What I had seen, led me also to reflect on another singularity I discerned in him. In the midst of the admirable, I had almost said the sub- lime, integrity he discovered, (for is it not a criterion of the sublime to be great without an effort ?) he was destitute of knowledge, of intellectual cultivation, and all those ex- quisite sensations that most distinguish the man from the brute. He passed on quietly in the road of ordinary life, and thought not of the ambition to be wise or great, to be honoured by thousands, or a benefactor to ages yet unborn. Kings might have confessed their inferiority to this man. But is he to be regarded as the model of what a human creature should be wished to be ? Oh, no !
But the most memorable feeling impressed upon me by this conversation, was a conviction of what I had been backward to confess, that knaves were the persons to whose assistance and concert I must look, and that I must be upon my guard against an honest man. No one was qualified to be my coadjutor, till he had proved himself unworthy of aU just and honourable society. The friend I must seek, was a man whose very soul melted at a bribe, whom money would seduce to perpetrate whatever his judgment most abhorred. Honour and integrity in the most refined and the rudest state, Monluc and the negro, both refused. It is impossible to conceive a sensation more painful and hu- miliating, than was this conviction to my mind.
I was not long at leisure for these reflections. In a few
238 TRAVELS OP ST. LEON.
minutes the master of the prison entered my apartment, and with him the negro whom I had endeavoured to pre- vail on to assist in restoring me to liberty. The master began to reproach me in very harsh terms for attempting to seduce his servant from his duty, and asked me what sort of enjoyment or satisfaction a man could have in life, if he could not depend upon the people he put into his employ- ment ? To' this I answered with sternness, " that I should hold no debate about right and wrong with a jailor ; that he might depend upon it I would leave no stone unturned to set myself free, and, what was more, that I would be free ; and that, for his part, it was his business to keep me if he could, but not to insult me." I therefore insisted upon his quitting the room.
" What use," replied the fellow, ' ' do you think now there is in putting yourself in a passion ? If I have not a right to speak to you, I know what I have a right to do, put you in the strong room, and load you with irons."
I turned my back upon him. " And how came you," said I to the negro, "to go and betray me? I should have expected better things of you. If you refused to serve me, at least you needed not have endeavoured to hurt me."
" I did nothing but my duty, sir. I have no wish to hurt you: but it is my business, not merely to take care of my master's interests myself, but to see that they are not injured by any body else. If he was not put on his guard, you might have been more successful with the next turnkey you endeavoured to bribe."
" You will find it more to your interest, monsieur," in- terposed the jailor, " to talk to me than to my servant. You are determined to be free, you say. If that is the case, and it is to happen, who has so good a right to benefit by your resolution as I have ? "
My eyes were opened in a moment. I saw that the knave whose rigour and sternness could not hold out against the warmth of a bribe, the friend of whose assistance I was in want, stood before me.
" I do not wonder," proceeded he, " that you preferred applying to one of my servants. Their honesty must be expected to be had at a cheaper market. But, for my part,
TRAVELS OP ST. LEON. 239
I am determined that no man shall ever pass these walls,, without my being the richer. If then your escape is a thing that must happen,, let us see what you can afford to give me for it."
ff Dear master," interposed the negro, " you surely will not listen to the gentleman's offer. When I refused to betray my trust, it is impossible you should consent to be- tray yours!"
" Hold your tongue, blockhead ! " said the other. " Do not you see that monsieur is determined to escape ? I know he is rich. Though you have refused a bribe, I am sure that all your fellows will not. The thing will happen sooner or later in spite of every thing I can do ; and there can be no harm in my helping to bring about, what it is im- possible I should prevent."
A morality like this seems exactly in its place in the breast of a jailor. We had already made some progress in adjusting the terms of our contract, when the keeper of the prison interposed : —
fc But, monsieur, you will please to remark, that this is an affair which will be attended with difficulty. Whatever passes between you and me must be a secret. Your escape will be a thing open and notorious, and you must have a confederate, that I may not bear the blame of it. You must therefore take my black here along with you, that his flight may cause all the blame to fall upon him."
" O, pray, master," said the negro, " do not part with me ! I love you, and will do any thing in the world, if you will let me stay. You saved my life for aught I know, and made a man of me again ; you cannot think what good it does me to serve a master that has been so kind to me ! "
" Get you gone ! " replied his owner. ' ' You are of no use to me ; you are not fit for a jail ; you are so simple^ I cannot tell what to do with you ! "
fe Indeed I do not like to go with this gentleman ; it will break my heart. He said he would be generous and kind to me, if I turned a villain ; I shall never be able, and shall never desire to earn his kindness : but you rewarded me because I was innocent. He said he would make a master of me ; and I am better as I am ; I had much rather be a servant."
240 TRAVELS OF ST. LEON.
The difficulties of this poor fellow were soon silenced by the peremptoriness of his master. The jailor told him that he would do him a great service, by thus giving his master an opportunity of representing him as the traitor ; and, with this consideration, the negro dried his tears, and with a reluctant heart consented to accompany me. Thus were his exemplary fidelity and affection rewarded ! So little do some men seem capable of feeling the value of attachment ! The character of the master was a singular one. The meanness and mercenariness of his spirit were unredeemed by a single virtue. He was avarice personified. But he had found or imagined an interest in taking this negro, who had been want only thrown into prison by a former tyrant, for his servant ; and this the poor fellow, in the simplicity of his heart, had mistaken for an act of exalted generosity. His avarice had swallowed up all his other passions ; and his servants had neither impatience nor insolence to en- counter from him : weighed therefore in the balance of the negro's experience, he appeared a miracle of mildness and benevolence.
Our bargain was at length concluded ; and, the next time Marguerite came to visit me, I announced to her the success of my negotiation. Before we parted, we sent for the jailor, and discussed with him the road I should take. My purpose was to pass into Italy ; and Marguerite under- took by midnight to have every thing prepared to convey us to the foot of the mountains. This point being adjusted, the keeper of the prison left us ; and, tenderly embracing Marguerite, I besought her to congratulate me upon the recovery of my liberty. She had heard however of the infamous nature of the charge against me, and, though she yielded it no credit, 1 could easily perceive that it ren- dered yet heavier the depression under which she la- boured. She returned my embrace ; the tears stole down her cheeks; but she was silent. I endeavoured to di- vert her thoughts and re-animate her spirits, by hinting at the new scenes before us, and the distant country to which we were about to remove ; but in vain. " I will not reproach you, Reginald ! " said she ; " I will not desert my duty while I have power to perform it ; you may de-
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pend upon my doing every thing I am able both for the children and yourself!"
She left me in a very melancholy frame of mind. I had not expected to see her thus languid and disconsolate ; and upon the eve of my liberation, I felt it like caprice. In- comparable woman ! She was incapable of giving inten- tional pain : but, with her exquisitely susceptible mind, she was unable to support the dreadful reverse in which I had involved her, or even at times to assume the gestures of cheerfulness and tranquillity; gestures that, at the best, but ill disguised the grief within I
I was busily reflecting on what had just occurred, when the keeper of the prison re-entered my apartment. " I am come, monsieur," said he, C( to take my leave of you. As I do not at all intend to lose my place, it is not proper that I should see you any more. You understand me ? "
Two days had already elapsed since the conclusion of our contract, and I had provided myself for this and such other demands as seemed likely to be immediately impending. I should have preferred indeed to have delayed this payment till the moment of my departure : but what the jailor sug- gested appeared reasonable ; and I could not assign, even to my own mind, any cause why I should be reluctant to comply with it. I paid to this wretch the price of his vil- lany.
I now began to count the hours, and eagerly to anti- cipate the arrival of midnight. Though the moment of my liberty was so near, I yet contemplated with unspeakable loathing the scene of my confinement, which was associated with the deepest disgrace and the blackest charges that are incident to a human creature. I felt as if, in proportion as I removed from the hated spot, I should at least shake off a part of the burthen that oppressed me, and grow com- paratively young again.
Time was far from moving indeed with the rapidity my impatience required; but the hour of appointment at last was near, and I expected every moment the faithful negro to appear, and announce to me my freedom. The cathe- dral bell now sounded twelve ; I heard the noise of steps along the gallery ; and presently a key was applied to the
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door of my apartment. It opened ; and three persons., whom I knew for servants of the prison, entered.
" Come, sir/' said one of them ; " you must follow me."
" Where is my friend the negro ? " said I.
ce Ask no questions ; speak never a word ; but come."
It was strange that the master of the prison, whose tem- per was so full of anxiety and caution, should unnecessarily trust three of his people, who might easily have been kept ignorant of this hazardous secret ! This circumstance how- ever did not strike me at first so strongly as it ought to have done. I had perfect confidence in his fidelity to his profligate bargain, and expected every moment to meet the negro who was to be my guide. My conductors led me by a way which I soon perceived did not lead to the ordinary entrance of the prison.
' ' Where are we going ? " said I.
ee Hold your tongue, or you will spoil all ; " replied one of them roughly.
I bethought me that there might be an objection to the dismissing me by the public gate ; I recollected to have heard that there were several subterranean outlets to the citadel ; I judged from the words I had just heard that my conductors were acquainted with the plan that had been formed ; and for all these reasons I proceeded with tolerable ease and security. I was not much longer how- ever permitted to doubt. I was conducted to one of the dungeons of the prison, and told that there I was to remain. At first I remonstrated loudly, and told them " that I had been promised my liberty, and not a treatment like this."
ff We know that, sir," replied they, ' ' and that is the reason you are brought here. It is our business to teach you that the greatest offence that can be committed by a man in prison is to attempt to escape."
The shock and surprise that so unexpected an issue to my adventure produced, rendered me outrageous. I was no longer able to control my fury ; and, without knowing what I proposed, I knocked down two of my attendants before they had an opportunity to secure me, and rushed up the flight of steps by which we had descended. The
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third however contrived to intercept me; and, while we struggled, the other two came to his assistance. They loaded me with fetters and chained me to the wall. I was then left in utter darkness.
I felt myself sore with the bruises I had received in the contest ; but what was infinitely worse, I found the ex- pectations of freedom I had so confidently entertained, baffled and disappointed. Marguerite and my children were at this moment waiting for me to join them. They would probably wait hour after hour in vain. To what cause would they attribute my failing of my appointment ? To what cause was I myself to attribute my miscarriage ? My hopes in this instance had been in the utmost degree san- guine ; what was I to count upon for the future ? Was money useless in every instance in which mankind agreed to think its power unquestionable ? What was the source of the present catastrophe and the harsh treatment I en- dured ? Was the keeper of the prison discovered, and dis- missed from his office ? Had the negro gone and given information against him ? I formed a thousand conjec- tures as to what might have happened ; but I was unable to rest in any.
I had remained about twelve hours in this situation, full of angry and disconsolate thoughts, when the principal jailor entered my dungeon. I looked at him with astonish- ment ; the cloud vanished from my understanding, and I began to comprehend the solution of the enigma.
then am I here ? "
ff You are here by my orders."
" Execrable villain ! " said I. ( ' Did you not promise me my freedom ? Have you not received the price of it ? How dare you show yourself in my presence ? " As I spoke, I shook my chains, I clenched my fists, I trembled with resentment and rage.
" If you are not perfectly quiet and reasonable/' said he, " I shall leave you to your fate and return no more."
Nothing is more singular in a state of great mental effer- vescence, than the rapidity with which our ideas succeed each other. At such times we seem to think more in B 2
244 TRAVELS OP ST. LEON.
minutes than at other times in hours. I felt how miserable a slave a man is, the moment he falls completely into the power of another. The wretch who stood hefore me was more vacant of human affections than any one I ever saw. Yet I was his creature, to be moulded as he pleased. A thousand injuries he could inflict upon me, for which neither the institutions of society nor the extraordinary endowments I derived from the stranger could afford a remedy. He might so torture my mind and baffle my wishes, as to kill in me every spark of lofty adventure and generous pride. My liberty might, for aught I knew, be for years at his disposal. I felt however that my best course was to regard him with contempt, and use him as I would a spade or a file, to execute my purposes, without suffering him to awaken my passions. I immediately grew more calm, and he perceived the revolution of my sentiments.
" You seem to wonder," continued he, " that I did not keep my engagement with you ? I pride myself upon being superior to the prejudices, by which other men are fright- ened, like children with a bugbear. I have therefore no rule but my interest : and I did not see how my interest bound me to keep my engagement with you."
" And what became of the countess ? "
" I neither know nor care. I suppose she stayed all night under the walls ; I knew she durst not disturb the prison/'
I felt I had still emotions to suppress. I curbed my tongue, but they showed^themselves in my eyes.
' ' How do you intend to dispose of me ? "
" Keep you in close custody. I have got your thousand pounds ; the next thing for me to take care of is, that I do not lose my place."
" And for what purpose do you come to me now ? "
" Why to tell you a secret, I have not not quite deter- mined what conduct to pursue, and therefore I came here that I might have a better opportunity of judging."
ment how you have cheated me ? "
" You inform ! Have riot I got you under lock and key? I warrant you, I will take care what goes out of these walls to the government."
TRAVELS OF ST. LEON. 245
fe The countess has a licence to visit me."
" What care I for that ? I can keep her at bay as long as I will. She will not easily go to the government ; and she is not such a fool as not to know, that to lodge a complaint against me, is not the way to procure the liberty of a man condemned to perpetual imprisonment. I can at any time trump up a story of your attempting to corrupt the turnkeys, and be sure, when I do, I will not want for proofs. That will cover any thing I can do to annoy you, and answer any accusation you can make against me. Do you think that the word of a jailor will not be taken, before that of the murderer he has in custody ?
ff I can bring your own servants as witnesses, three of whom assaulted me last night."
" Dunce, do you think I trusted them with my secret ? They have nothing to tell, and apprehend nothing but a plot between you and my black, who has been put into the peni- tentiary for his offence. He is my only confident; and I trust him, because his stupidity answers to me for his faith."
ff Suppose I were to double the bribe for which you sold me my liberty, what security should I have that you would abide by your bargain ? "
(C Oh, if you were to do that, it would alter the case."
" Might you not then detain the money, and defy me, as you have done now ? "
" Suppose that a thing which might happen : can you help yourself ? can you do better ? "
I saw there was no remedy, and I was constrained to allow the success of this twofold perfidy. It was with an ill grace, and an attempt at sullenness and indifference, that the jailor accepted my proposal. The second thousand however had irresistible charms ; and, in spite of himself, the sensation that made his heart dance, relaxed his muscles, and played about his mouth. He was puzzled what to think of me. The facility with which I produced the sums he demanded, with less apparent effort than they might have come from a duke or a sovereign prince, startled and stag- gered him. He had still his qualms, and evidently doubted whether he should not raise his price a third time. I saw no safety but in pertinacity and firmness, and had the B 3
246 TRAVELS OP ST. LEON.
good fortune ultimately to check his doubtful,, half-formed experiments.
I was led by the accidents which have just been related, into further and deeper reflections on the power of money, as well as on the nature of the situation in which I found myself placed by the legacy of the stranger. My present experiment had been made upon a subject apparently the most favourable that could have been devised, upon a man whose breast the love of gold occupied without a rival : yet with this man I very hardly succeeded. I was not indeed so blinded by the present dejection of my spirit and sickness of my heart, as to imagine that I had not a secure game with this base-minded wretch, if I consented to play it. I had only to enlarge my bribe, to change it from the limited sum of two thousand pounds to the more brilliant offer of two thousand per annum, and no doubt I might have led him with me to the extremity of the globe. However he might have demurred, however he might have doubted, however curiosity, whetted even to agony by the goadings of avarice, might have prompted him to an incessant enquiry within himself as to the solution of my character and my powers, his grasping spirit would infallibly have chained his tongue, and been surety for his fidelity. But I could not yet prevail upon my self to endow such groveling and noxious propensities with so rich a reward. I considered, in the language of the stranger, that the talent I possessed was of the most momentous nature, and bestowed by the governor of the universe for the highest purposes ; and I should have held myself unjustifiable in enriching by its means, however urgent the necessity might appear, the most worthless of mankind.
The sentiments of my tyrant varied every hour ; he was fickle, anxious, and undetermined ; harassed with the double fear of losing the sum already obtained, and of not securing the whole of what was capable of being acquired. He parted with me at last with all the pangs of a lover, who witnesses the ceremony of his mistress's taking the monastic veil, and being sundered from him for ever. I was his Fortunatus's purse, and this was the last day he was to enjoy the use of it ; I was to him as the buried treasure of some long-forgotten
TRAVELS OF ST. LEON. 247
hoarder, and he feared he should quit his digging before he had carried off every thing that the field concealed. At length however he began to apprehend that he had urged the refinement of an unprincipled avarice as far as it would go ; and therefore in a few days, the negro being already discharged fnvm his penance, he suffered us to escape together.
CHAP. XXIII.
HAVING rejoined the remainder of my family, we set out together for the plains of Italy. My first interview with Marguerite after my return from Dresden had been melan- choly. But our situation was now such as to give addi- tional anguish to her serious thoughts. She had then re- garded me as ambiguous, mysterious, and impenetrable, qualities from which the frankness of her nature spontane- ously revolted ; she saw in me the destroyer of her son, the idol of her heart ; she believed me an alchymist, a charac- ter which she viewed as base, degrading, and insensible ; she had heard that rumour had been busy with my fame. But now she saw in me a man of blasted reputation, ar- raigned and imprisoned for robbery and murder. She did not credit these imputations. But did the ingenuous and noble-minded Marguerite de Damville ever think to find herself allied to a being thus loaded with the world's ab- horrence ; that she should be compelled to honour with the sacred name of husband a fugitive, a prison-breaker, and an outlaw ? If I had suffered these things in the defence of my children, my religion, or my country, the case would have been widely different. If, while encountering the contempt of men, I had carried within me the glorious feeling, that what they regarded as my disgrace was indeed my immortal honour, Marguerite de Damville, beyond all women, was prepared to despise their senseless blame, and proudly to demand her share in such a dishonour.
I know there are men who will listen with fretful impa- tience to a detail of such sorrows as hers, and who will cry B 4
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out, " If we must be distressed., give us more substantial and genuine sources of distress ! " They will regard the dejection of Marguerite as an idle wilfulness of grief, better entitled to aversion than to sympathy ; and will tell me that nothing but the most deplorable blindness could have prevented her from discerning the happiness of her condi- tion ; that she had the world before her, a rich, a brave, and an enterprising husband, with a lovely family of chil- dren ; that they could move from country to country, and from climate to climate, carrying with them the means of luxury, indulgence, homage, and usefulness. To such moralisers I write not. For those who are incapable of sympathising with the delicate sensations of Marguerite, I am as little qualified to enter into their feelings as they into mine. In the sequel of the story however it is not impos- sible they may meet with their gratification. I am hasten- ing to events corporeal and palpable. I and my family did wander from country to country, and from climate to cli- mate. With what resulting success will speedily be seen.
Our destination at the present moment led us through the territory of the Orisons, and Qver a limb of the Rhetian Alps, to Como, Milan, Piacenza, Parma, and Pisa, in the neighbourhood of which latter city we resolved to take up our immediate residence. In this passage we met with few adventures that merit to be recorded in my history. One however seems entitled to a place, both as it tends to dis- play the singular worth of a dumb and unpretending brute, and as it is in some sort connected with the fortunes I en- countered in the Pisan territory. It occurred in our jour- ney over the Alps.
One evening, in the wildest and most desolate part of the mountain, after having lodged my family in an inn, I wandered forth to take a survey of the neighbouring scenery. It was moonlight ; our travel of the day had been short, and had left on me no impression of fatigue ; while the romantic appearance of every thing around, tempted me to extend my excursion further than I had originally purposed. Stories of robberies and murders in the vicinity had been repeated to us, and Marguerite had employed the precaution of desiring Hector, such was the
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name which the caprice of his former masters had bestowed on my faithful negro, to follow my steps and hold me in sight. No anticipations of danger however disturbed my contemplations. I resigned myself, as all my life I had been accustomed to do, to the impressions of the moment, and sought to shut out memory and the world from all my thoughts. The scene was inexpressibly beautiful ; the si- lence was uninterrupted and awful. The splendour of the moon gave a sober and silvery tint to every thing by which its light was caught ; soft white clouds were scattered in the deep azure of the sky ; the shades were of a blackness and profundity that could not be surpassed. Every thing was calculated to soothe and subdue the mind, to inspire a grand and expansive tranquillity. The enthusiasm it spoke occupied every channel of my heart. I stood still. It seemed as if motion would have jarred and broken the spell that seized me; I yielded with eager transport to the sentiment that shrowded and enveloped me in its ample embrace.
I had remained motionless for above half an hour, when a sudden and eager sound burst upon my ear. It seemed to be the shriek of some human creature in distress. It was repeated several times. My first impulse was to fly to the spot from which the sound appeared to proceed. Mean- while Hector came up to me, and endeavoured to detain me by violence. His first principle was obedience to every just and lawful command ; and the errand upon which he was commissioned, was to preserve me from the approach of danger. He represented to me the stories of banditti we had recently heard. He told me that we should too pro- bably fall in with a numerous party of these desperadoes, against whom all our efforts, either for ourselves or for those I was desirous to succour, would be nugatory. What would become of my children ? what would become of his mistress, if my rashness were succeeded by a fatal event ? While he was thus speaking, and exerting him self to detain me, the cries ceased. I believed they were those of a person assassinated. I conceived that I should be the vilest of poltroons if I suffered any consideration to prevent me from endeavouring to afford to this unfortunate the relief in my power.
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I had not advanced far, before I perceived coming to- wards us, in the same direction from which the sound had reached my ear, a dog, entirely black, and of uncommon stature and strength. He was alone. Having caught sight of us, he increased his pace, and had no sooner reached the spot on which we stood, than he seized the flap of my coat, and pulled it with considerable violence. I was somewhat alarmed at his size and action, the latter of which I appre- hended to have a hostile design ; and, having shaken him off, I put myself in a posture of defence with a cane that I carried in my hand. Undeterred however by my gesture, he returned to the attack, only pulling with something less exertion of strength than he had done before. More ac- curate attention convinced me that he had no intention to injure me, and I withheld the action of Hector, who had raised his hand to strike in defence of his master. I suf- fered him to guide me ; and, after a considerable circuit which the nature of the road obliged us to take, he led me to a spot where I found a man lying on the ground, and weltering in his blood, but with no person near, to whom to impute the violence he had sustained.
His blood flowed copiously from two or three different wounds, one of them in particular near his left breast ; and my first care was to stop the effusion. For this purpose we stripped him of his clothes, and tore his linen into bandages. When we found him, he was insensible ; but the anguish of binding his wounds revived him a little, though only enough to extort from him sighs and groans. This accom- plished, I dismissed Hector to the inn to procure something in the nature of a litter, by which he might more easily be conveyed within reach of effectual assistance.
I was now left for six hours with no other companions than the wounded gentleman and his dog, upon the very spot upon which he had just before sustained so ferocious a treatment, probably from the hands of banditti. They might every moment be expected to return. This was no agreeable notion to a person circumstanced as I was. I was compelled to feel that a man possessed of boundless and illimitable wealth, and of the power of repelling old age and disease, did not in these advantages possess every thing.
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Notwithstanding the disappointments and mortifications I had sustained, I was yet attached to life : and though the bequests of the stranger had hitherto produced to me nothing but evil, I still looked, with almost puerile eager- ness and beating of heart, for the time when I might spread out the whole extent of my treasures without parsimony or the dread of reverse. During the interval which I em- ployed in these reflections, the wounded man was for the most part in a state of insensibility, and constantly speech- less. I expected his death every moment, and I perceived, as I thought with certainty, that there was no hope of his recovery. While we had dressed his wounds, the dog had watched our motions with the most restless attention, and, now that it was over, he came and licked my hands, and laid himself down at my feet. The least motion however, so much as a rustling among the leaves, startled him : he rose, looked round, and seemed to enquire into the cause of the disturbance ; but he abstained from barking and every kind of noise j whether it were that he was conscious of the advantage of quiet to a person in his master's condition, or that he had the sense to know, in the situation in which we were placed, that whatever produced alarm, might event- ually expose us to undiscovered danger.
It was broad daylight before Hector re-appeared, and several other persons in his company. Hector was riot of a temper to have receded from any thing he undertook, and the au- thority of Marguerite had in this instance seconded his remonstrances with the surly and inactive peasants of the place. I had at this time only one other male servant ; but, when Hector returned, he brought with him a crazy kind of litter, and a recruit of four mountaineers. The wounded man still lived, and was conveyed alive to the place at which I had taken up my lodging. He survived three days ; and, during the whole of that period, the dog could neither be moved by force, nor prevailed on by en- treaties, to quit the apartment of his master. Before his death my unfortunate guest recovered the power of speech. He told me that his name was Andrea Filosanto, and, which struck me as somewhat extraordinary, that he was of Pisa, the very place at which I purposed to take up my
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abode. He had a brother resident in that city, and had himself been about to marry a very beautiful and accom plished young lady, an heiress, of the house of Carrac- ciuoli in Pisa. Previously to his marriage, he {resolved to make a visit to his mother, who had espoused to her second husband a French nobleman of Languedoc. He had tra- velled accompanied only by one servant, contrary to the persuasions both of his brother and the family of his in- tended bride ; but that servant, though he had been a very short time in his employment, was active, ingenious, and obliging., and had established himself strongly in the favour of his master. Signor Filosanto had taken with him a sum of money, the produce of one year's income of the dower of his mother ; and it was but too probable that the rich- ness of the charge he bore, had been fatal to the life of the bearer. His servant had disappeared from his side not a quarter of an hour before his being attacked by the ban- ditti ; and various concurring circumstances seemed to fix on this servant the accusation of being an accomplice with the murderers. Having heard from the unfortunate suf- ferer the tale of treachery of his human attendant, I related to him the extraordinary example of fidelity and attachment shown by his dog. The master was struck with the story I told, and called the dog to him upon his bed. The poor animal first leaped up upon the foot of the bed, and then warily and with great caution crawled to his master's face. Filosanto embraced the dog, 'who by his manner showed himself fully sensible of the purport of the action. That very evening, having requested me to convey his remains to the tomb of his ancestors at Pisa, the master expired. The dog in dumb and constant grief watched by the corpse, and followed the vehicle in which it was conveyed to Pisa. After the funeral, he made the choice, from which he could not be diverted, of living with me, and not with the brother and relations of his master, to whom he was almost wholly a stranger, but who would gladly have received him. One of the advantages I derived from this adventure, was the friendship and protection of the Filosanti and Carracciuoli, two of the most powerful families in Pisa.
I have not yet finished the history of my dog. A few
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months after our establishment in the Pisan territory, the valet of the deceased had the audacity to appear in that city. He believed himself to be entirely unknown there, his master having taken him into his service during his resi- dence as a student in the university of Bologna ; and having ordered him, previously to his projected tour into France, to stay behind and settle his debts and other affairs at that place. He found however an adversary in Pisa that in all his anticipations had never occurred to his thoughts. The dog saw him at a distance in the street, ran towards him with incredible swiftness, and fell upon him with savage violence and ferocity. The man was not extricated from his gripe, till he had been severely and dangerously wounded. Thus assailed, all the terrors of superstition and an accusing conscience seized on this devoted villain ; he owned who he was, and confessed that he had made one among the assas- sins and plunderers of his master, visible probably to the dog, though unseen by the unfortunate Filosanto. He de- clared, that he knew not what motive had brought him to Pisa, that he seemed to himself under the guidance of an impulse which he had not power to resist, and that he re- joiced that Providence had thus conducted him to the expi- ation of his guilt. He was brought to his trial, and suffered death for his crime.
Charon, such was the name by which my dog was distinguished, showed himself in all his actions worthy of the character for attachment and sagacity which he had in these instances acquired. He was therefore the favourite of my whole family, and particularly of Hector. But his own partiality was with the nicest discrimination reserved for me. The ruling passion of his preceding master had been the sports of the field, and his leading singularity an uncom- mon familiarity and friendship towards his brute attendants. By this conduct he had won the affections, and perhaps awakened the understanding and virtues, of the faithful Charon. I own my weakness. I could not resist the assi- duities and regard of this generous brute ; and, though I had never before conceived any extraordinary partiality for creatures of his species, his sagacity and nobleness of nature took a strong hold of my affection. I admired his form
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and agility as he bounded and gamboled before me upon the plain. In the midst of his gayest frolics he was all attention, and the least sign I made him would instantly divert his exertions to a different pursuit. He was accus- tomed to salute me with honest, undesigning homage every morning as I came from my chamber, and I should have missed his presence" with heaviness of heart upon this plain and homely occasion. He was the associate of my solitary walks, and my companion when pensive meditations in- duced me to withdraw from all human society. I became accustomed at such periods to observe him by my side, and should have felt that all was not right if he were not there. I was interested in his health, his well-being and his enjoy- ments ; and, if any calamity befell him, was prepared to feel it more severely than a wise man is sometimes willing to confess. — It would scarcely be necessary to add to this simple history of my faithful Charon, the circumstance of his having saved the life of a beautiful little boy of ten years old, who had unluckly slipped into the Arno, and whom he seized by his garments and drew to the shore, had it not some connection with what I shall speedily have occasion to relate.