"You think so, sir."
"I am sure of it."
"I thought so at first; but the a.s.sertions of her ladyship."
"Her head, doubtless, has been weakened by illness, and visionaries always believe in their visions."
"I ought to tell you also, sir, that at the moment when I left the chamber of the countess, one of her women, entered precipitately, saying, "His highness will be here in an hour!""
"It is the prince!" thought Polidori. "He at the house of the Countess Sarah, whom he was never to see again! I do not know wherefore, but I do not like this meeting; it may make our position worse." Then, turning to the clerk, he said, "Once more I repeat that this is nothing. I will, however, inform M. Ferrand of what you have just related to me."
CHAPTER XIV.
RUDOLPH AND SARAH.
We will conduct the reader to the countess"s, whom a salutary crisis had s.n.a.t.c.hed from the delirium and sufferings which, during several days, had caused the most serious fears for her life. The day began to close. Sarah, seated in a large arm-chair, and supported by her brother, Thomas Seyton, was attentively surveying herself in a mirror, which was held by one of her women kneeling before her. This scene pa.s.sed in the saloon where La Chouette had made her murderous attempt. The countess was as pale as marble, which gave a bolder relief to her dark eyes and hair; an ample white muslin wrapper completely concealed her form.
"Give me the coral coronet," she said to one of her women, in a weak but imperious voice.
"Betty will fasten it," said Thomas Seyton; "you will fatigue yourself; you are already so imprudent."
"The coral!" repeated she, impatiently, as she took the jewel and placed it on her brow. "Now fasten it, and leave me," she added, to her women.
As they were retiring, she said,
"Let them show M. Ferrand into the little blue saloon; and," she continued, with an expression of ill-concealed pride, "as soon as his Serene Highness the Grand Duke of Gerolstein arrives, he must be ushered in here. At length," said Sarah, throwing herself back in her chair as soon as she was alone with her brother, "at length I touch this crown--the dream of my life! The prediction is about to be accomplished!"
"Sarah, calm your emotion," said her brother, earnestly. "Yesterday they still despaired of your life; disappointment now might cause a relapse."
"You are right, Tom. The fall would be dreadful, for my hopes have never been nearer being realized than now! I am certain that what has prevented me from sinking under my sufferings has been my constant hope to profit by the important revelation which this woman made me at the moment when she stabbed me."
"Even during your delirium you constantly referred to this idea."
"Because this idea alone sustained my flickering life. What a hope!
Sovereign princess! almost a queen," she added, with rapture.
"Once more, Sarah; no mad dreams; the awakening will be terrible!"
"Mad dreams? How! when Rudolph shall know that this young girl, now a prisoner at Saint Lazare, is our child, do you think that---"
Seyton interrupted his sister.
"I believe," he replied, with bitterness, "that princes place reasons of state and political proprieties before natural ties."
"Do you count so little on my address?"
"The prince is not the same fond and enamored youth whom you seduced in days gone by."
"Do you know why I have wished to ornament my hair with this band of coral?
and why I have put on this white robe? It is because, the first time Rudolph saw me at the court of Gerolstein, I was dressed in white, and I wore the same band of coral in my hair."
"How?" said Thomas Seyton, looking at his sister with surprise: "you wish to evoke these memories; do you not, on the contrary, dread their influence?"
"I know Rudolph better than you. Doubtless, my features, now changed by age and sufferings, are no longer those of the young girl of sixteen he so wildly loved--whom he has alone loved--for I was his first love. And this love, unique in the life of man, leaves always in his heart ineffaceable traces. Believe me, brother, the sight of this ornament will awaken in Rudolph, not only the memories of his love, but also those of his youth; and to men the recollection of their first emotions is always sweet and precious."
"But to these soft memories are joined others of terrible import. Do you forget the fatal termination of your love? The conduct of the prince"s father toward you? Your obstinate silence when Rudolph, after your marriage with Earl M"Gregor, demanded your child, then quite an infant? your daughter, of whose death, ten years before, you informed him in a cold letter? Do you forget that since that time the prince has only felt for you contempt--hatred?"
"Pity has taken the place of hatred. Since he has known that I was in a dying state, each day has he sent Baron de Graun to make inquiries."
"From humanity."
"Just now he answered my note; said that he would come here. This concession is immense, my brother."
"He believes you dying. He supposes that he is coming to take a last farewell. You were wrong not to write to him what you are now about to disclose."
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LITTLE MENDICANT]
"I know why I act thus. This revelation will fill him with surprise and joy, and I shall be present to profit by his first burst of tenderness.
To-day, or never, he shall say to me, "A marriage would make the birth of our child legitimate." If he says so, his word is sacred, and the hope of all my life will at length be realized."
"If he makes you this promise--yes."
At this moment was heard the noise of a carriage, which entered the court-yard. "It is he--it is Rudolph!" cried Sarah.
"Yes, it is the prince, he is getting out of the carriage."
"Leave me alone--this is the decisive moment," said Sarah, with immovable self-control; for a towering ambition and unbounded selfishness had always been and still were the ruling motives of this woman.
After a momentary hesitation, Thomas Seyton drew near to his sister and said, "It is I who will inform the prince how your daughter has been saved; this interview will be too dangerous for you; a violent emotion would kill you."
"Your hand, my brother," said Sarah.
Then, placing on her impa.s.sable heart the hand of Seyton, she added, with a forced and icy smile, "Am I agitated?"
"No, in truth, not at all," said Seyton, with surprise; "I know what command you have over yourself. But at such a moment--where for you will be decided--a crown--or death--your calmness absolutely confounds me."
"Why this astonishment, my brother? did you not know that nothing--no, nothing has ever caused this marble heart to quicken its pulsations? It will only palpitate when I shall feel placed on my brow the sovereign crown. I hear Rudolph--leave me."
"But--"
"Leave me!" cried Sarah, in a tone so imperious, so resolute, that her brother left the apartment some moments before the prince was introduced.
When Rudolph entered the saloon, his countenance expressed pity; but seeing the countess seated in the chair decked with her jewels, he drew back with surprise, and his physiognomy became immediately somber and suspicious.
The countess, divining his thoughts, said to him in a soft and feeble voice, "You thought to find me dying; you came to receive my last farewell!"