"Do you leave me, Janet?" said her mistress--"desert me in such an evil strait?"
"Desert you, madam!" exclaimed Janet; and running back to her mistress, she imprinted a thousand kisses on her hand--"desert you I--may the Hope of my trust desert me when I do so! No, madam; well you said the G.o.d you serve will open you a path for deliverance. There is a way of escape. I have prayed night and day for light, that I might see how to act betwixt my duty to yonder unhappy man and that which I owe to you. Sternly and fearfully that light has now dawned, and I must not shut the door which G.o.d opens. Ask me no more. I will return in brief s.p.a.ce."
So speaking, she wrapped herself in her mantle, and saying to the old woman whom she pa.s.sed in the outer room that she was going to evening prayer, she left the house.
Meanwhile her father had reached once more the laboratory, where he found the accomplices of his intended guilt. "Has the sweet bird sipped?" said Varney, with half a smile; while the astrologer put the same question with his eyes, but spoke not a word.
"She has not, nor she shall not from my hands," replied Foster; "would you have me do murder in my daughter"s presence?"
"Wert thou not told, thou sullen and yet faint-hearted slave," answered Varney, with bitterness, "that no MURDER as thou callest it, with that staring look and stammering tone, is designed in the matter? Wert thou not told that a brief illness, such as woman puts on in very wantonness, that she may wear her night-gear at noon, and lie on a settle when she should mind her domestic business, is all here aimed at? Here is a learned man will swear it to thee by the key of the Castle of Wisdom."
"I swear it," said Alasco, "that the elixir thou hast there in the flask will not prejudice life! I swear it by that immortal and indestructible quintessence of gold, which pervades every substance in nature, though its secret existence can be traced by him only to whom Trismegistus renders the key of the Cabala."
"An oath of force," said Varney. "Foster, thou wert worse than a pagan to disbelieve it. Believe me, moreover, who swear by nothing but by my own word, that if you be not conformable, there is no hope, no, not a glimpse of hope, that this thy leasehold may be trans.m.u.ted into a copyhold. Thus, Alasco will leave your pewter artillery untransmigrated, and I, honest Anthony, will still have thee for my tenant."
"I know not, gentlemen," said Foster, "where your designs tend to; but in one thing I am bound up,--that, fall back fall edge, I will have one in this place that may pray for me, and that one shall be my daughter.
I have lived ill, and the world has been too weighty with me; but she is as innocent as ever she was when on her mother"s lap, and she, at least, shall have her portion in that happy City, whose walls are of pure gold, and the foundations garnished with all manner of precious stones."
"Ay, Tony," said Varney, "that were a paradise to thy heart"s content.--Debate the matter with him, Doctor Alasco; I will be with you anon."
So speaking, Varney arose, and taking the flask from the table, he left the room.
"I tell thee, my son," said Alasco to Foster, as soon as Varney had left them, "that whatever this bold and profligate railer may say of the mighty science, in which, by Heaven"s blessing, I have advanced so far that I would not call the wisest of living artists my better or my teacher--I say, howsoever yonder reprobate may scoff at things too holy to be apprehended by men merely of carnal and evil thoughts, yet believe that the city beheld by St. John, in that bright vision of the Christian Apocalypse, that new Jerusalem, of which all Christian men hope to partake, sets forth typically the discovery of the GRAND SECRET, whereby the most precious and perfect of nature"s works are elicited out of her basest and most crude productions; just as the light and gaudy b.u.t.terfly, the most beautiful child of the summer"s breeze, breaks forth from the dungeon of a sordid chrysalis."
"Master Holdforth said nought of this exposition," said Foster doubtfully; "and moreover, Doctor Alasco, the Holy Writ says that the gold and precious stones of the Holy City are in no sort for those who work abomination, or who frame lies."
"Well, my son," said the Doctor, "and what is your inference from thence?"
"That those," said Foster, "who distil poisons, and administer them in secrecy, can have no portion in those unspeakable riches."
"You are to distinguish, my son," replied the alchemist, "betwixt that which is necessarily evil in its progress and in its end also, and that which, being evil, is, nevertheless, capable of working forth good. If, by the death of one person, the happy period shall be brought nearer to us, in which all that is good shall be attained, by wishing its presence--all that is evil escaped, by desiring its absence--in which sickness, and pain, and sorrow shall be the obedient servants of human wisdom, and made to fly at the slightest signal of a sage--in which that which is now richest and rarest shall be within the compa.s.s of every one who shall be obedient to the voice of wisdom--when the art of healing shall be lost and absorbed in the one universal medicine when sages shall become monarchs of the earth, and death itself retreat before their frown,--if this blessed consummation of all things can be hastened by the slight circ.u.mstance that a frail, earthly body, which must needs partake corruption, shall be consigned to the grave a short s.p.a.ce earlier than in the course of nature, what is such a sacrifice to the advancement of the holy Millennium?"
"Millennium is the reign of the Saints," said Foster, somewhat doubtfully.
"Say it is the reign of the Sages, my son," answered Alasco; "or rather the reign of Wisdom itself."
"I touched on the question with Master Holdforth last exercising night,"
said Foster; "but he says your doctrine is heterodox, and a d.a.m.nable and false exposition."
"He is in the bonds of ignorance, my son," answered Alasco, "and as yet burning bricks in Egypt; or, at best, wandering in the dry desert of Sinai. Thou didst ill to speak to such a man of such matters. I will, however, give thee proof, and that shortly, which I will defy that peevish divine to confute, though he should strive with me as the magicians strove with Moses before King Pharaoh. I will do projection in thy presence, my son,--in thy very presence--and thine eyes shall witness the truth."
"Stick to that, learned sage," said Varney, who at this moment entered the apartment; "if he refuse the testimony of thy tongue, yet how shall he deny that of his own eyes?"
"Varney!" said the adept--"Varney already returned! Hast thou--" he stopped short.
"Have I done mine errand, thou wouldst say?" replied Varney. "I have!
And thou," he added, showing more symptoms of interest than he had hitherto exhibited, "art thou sure thou hast poured forth neither more nor less than the just measure?"
"Ay," replied the alchemist, "as sure as men can be in these nice proportions, for there is diversity of const.i.tutions."
"Nay, then," said Varney, "I fear nothing. I know thou wilt not go a step farther to the devil than thou art justly considered for--thou wert paid to create illness, and wouldst esteem it thriftless prodigality to do murder at the same price. Come, let us each to our chamber we shall see the event to-morrow."
"What didst thou do to make her swallow it?" said Foster, shuddering.
"Nothing," answered Varney, "but looked on her with that aspect which governs madmen, women, and children. They told me in St. Luke"s Hospital that I have the right look for overpowering a refractory patient. The keepers made me their compliments on"t; so I know how to win my bread when my court-favour fails me."
"And art thou not afraid," said Foster, "lest the dose be disproportioned?"
"If so," replied Varney, "she will but sleep the sounder, and the fear of that shall not break my rest. Good night, my masters."
Anthony Foster groaned heavily, and lifted up his hands and eyes. The alchemist intimated his purpose to continue some experiment of high import during the greater part of the night, and the others separated to their places of repose.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Now G.o.d be good to me in this wild pilgrimage!
All hope in human aid I cast behind me.
Oh, who would be a woman?--who that fool, A weeping, pining, faithful, loving woman?
She hath hard measure still where she hopes kindest, And all her bounties only make ingrates. LOVE"S PILGRIMAGE.
The summer evening was closed, and Janet, just when her longer stay might have occasioned suspicion and inquiry in that zealous household, returned to c.u.mnor Place, and hastened to the apartment in which she had left her lady. She found her with her head resting on her arms, and these crossed upon a table which stood before her. As Janet came in, she neither looked up nor stirred.
Her faithful attendant ran to her mistress with the speed of lightning, and rousing her at the same time with her hand, conjured the Countess, in the most earnest manner, to look up and say what thus affected her. The unhappy lady raised her head accordingly, and looking on her attendant with a ghastly eye, and cheek as pale as clay--"Janet," she said, "I have drunk it."
"G.o.d be praised!" said Janet hastily--"I mean, G.o.d be praised that it is no worse; the potion will not harm you. Rise, shake this lethargy from your limbs, and this despair from your mind."
"Janet," repeated the Countess again, "disturb me not--leave me at peace--let life pa.s.s quietly. I am poisoned."
"You are not, my dearest lady," answered the maiden eagerly. "What you have swallowed cannot injure you, for the antidote has been taken before it, and I hastened hither to tell you that the means of escape are open to you."
"Escape!" exclaimed the lady, as she raised herself hastily in her chair, while light returned to her eye and life to her cheek; "but ah!
Janet, it comes too late."
"Not so, dearest lady. Rise, take mine arm, walk through the apartment; let not fancy do the work of poison! So; feel you not now that you are possessed of the full use of your limbs?"
"The torpor seems to diminish," said the Countess, as, supported by Janet, she walked to and fro in the apartment; "but is it then so, and have I not swallowed a deadly draught? Varney was here since thou wert gone, and commanded me, with eyes in which I read my fate, to swallow yon horrible drug. O Janet! it must be fatal; never was harmless draught served by such a cup-bearer!"
"He did not deem it harmless, I fear," replied the maiden; "but G.o.d confounds the devices of the wicked. Believe me, as I swear by the dear Gospel in which we trust, your life is safe from his practice. Did you not debate with him?"
"The house was silent," answered the lady--"thou gone--no other but he in the chamber--and he capable of every crime. I did but stipulate he would remove his hateful presence, and I drank whatever he offered.--But you spoke of escape, Janet; can I be so happy?"
"Are you strong enough to bear the tidings, and make the effort?" said the maiden.
"Strong!" answered the Countess. "Ask the hind, when the fangs of the deerhound are stretched to gripe her, if she is strong enough to spring over a chasm. I am equal to every effort that may relieve me from this place."