Frederick"s blood froze in his veins. For some minutes he remained motionless. Then falling prostrate on his face before the altar, he besought the intercession of every saint for pardon. A flood of tears succeeded to this transport; and the image of the beauteous Matilda rushing, in spite of him, on his thoughts, he lay on the ground in a conflict of penitence and pa.s.sion. Ere he could recover from this agony of his spirits, the Princess Hippolita, with a taper in her hand, entered the oratory alone. Seeing a man without motion on the floor, she gave a shriek, concluding him dead. Her fright brought Frederic to himself. Rising suddenly, his face bedewed with tears, he would have rushed from her presence; but Hippolita, stopping him, conjured him, in the most plaintive accents, to explain the cause of his disorder, and by what strange chance she had found him there in that posture.
"Ah, virtuous princess!" said the marquis, penetrated with grief, and stopped.
"For the love of Heaven, my lord," said Hippolita, "disclose the cause of this transport! What mean these doleful sounds, this alarming exclamation on my name? What woes has Heaven still in store for the wretched Hippolita?--yet silent! By every pitying angel I adjure thee, n.o.ble prince," continued she, falling at his feet, "to disclose the purport of what lies at thy heart. I see thou feelest for me; thou feelest the sharp pangs that thou inflictest. Speak, for pity! Does aught thou knowest concern my child!"
"I cannot speak," cried Frederic, bursting from her. "Oh, Matilda!"
Quitting the princess thus abruptly, he hastened to his own apartment.
At the door of it he was accosted by Manfred, who, flushed by wine and love, had come to seek him, and to propose to waste some hours of the night in music and revelling. Frederic, offended at an invitation so dissonant from the mood of his soul, pushed him rudely aside, and, entering his chamber, flung the door intemperately against Manfred, and bolted it inwards. The haughty prince, enraged at this unaccountable behaviour, withdrew in a frame of mind capable of the most fatal excesses. As he crossed the court, he was met by the domestic whom he planted at the convent as a spy on Jerome and Theodore. This man, almost breathless with the haste he had made, informed his lord, that Theodore and some lady from the castle were at that instant in private conference at the tomb of Alfonso, in St. Nicholas"s church. He had dogged Theodore thither; but the gloominess of the night had prevented his discovering who the woman was.
Manfred, whose spirits were inflamed, and whom Isabella had driven from her on his urging his pa.s.sion with too little reserve, did not doubt but the inquietude she had expressed had been occasioned by her impatience to meet Theodore. Provoked by this conjecture, and enraged at her father, he hastened secretly to the great church. Gliding softly between the aisles, and guided by an imperfect gleam of moonshine that shone faintly through the illuminated windows, he stole towards the tomb of Alfonso, to which he was directed by indistinct whispers of the person she sought. The first sounds he could distinguish were:
"Does it, alas! depend on me? Manfred will never permit our union."
"No, this shall prevent it!" cried the tyrant, drawing his dagger, and plunging it over her shoulder into the bosom of the person that spoke.
"Ah me, I am slain!" cried Matilda, sinking: "good Heaven, receive my soul!"
"Savage, inhuman monster, what hast thou done?" cried Theodore, rushing on him and wrenching his dagger from him.
"Stop, stop thy impious hand!" cried Matilda: "it is my father!"
Manfred, waking as from a trance, beat his breast, twisted his hands in his locks, and endeavoured to recover his dagger from Theodore to dispatch himself. Theodore, scarce less distracted, and only mastering the transports of his grief to a.s.sist Matilda, had now by his cries drawn some of the monks to his aid. While part of them endeavoured, in concert with the afflicted Theodore, to stop the blood of the dying princess, the rest prevented Manfred from laying violent hands on himself.
Matilda, resigning herself patiently to her fate, acknowledged, with looks of grateful love, the zeal of Theodore. Yet oft, as her faintness would permit her speech its way, she begged the a.s.sistants to comfort her father.
Jerome, by this time, had learnt the fatal news, and reached the church.
His looks seemed to reproach Theodore; but turning to Manfred, he said, "Now, tyrant, behold the completion of woe fulfilled on thy impious and devoted head! The blood of Alfonso cried to Heaven for vengeance; and Heaven has permitted its altar to be polluted by a.s.sa.s.sination, that thou mightest shed thy own blood at the foot of that prince"s sepulchre!"
"Cruel man," cried Matilda, "to aggravate the woes of a parent! may Heaven bless my father, and forgive him as I do! My lord, my gracious sire, dost thou forgive thy child? Indeed I came not hither to meet Theodore. I found him praying at this tomb, whither my mother sent me to intercede for thee, for her--dearest father, bless your child, and say you forgive her."
"Forgive thee, murderous monster," cried Manfred, "can a.s.sa.s.sins forgive? I took thee for Isabella; but Heaven directed my b.l.o.o.d.y hand to the heart of my child--oh, Matilda, I cannot utter it: canst thou forgive the blindness of my rage?"
"I can, I do, and may Heaven confirm it," said Matilda; "but while I have life to ask it--oh, my mother, what will she feel! will you comfort her, my lord, will you not put her away? indeed she loves you--oh, I am faint; bear me to the castle--can I live to have her close my eyes?"
Theodore and the monks besought her earnestly to suffer herself to be borne into the convent; but her instances were so pressing to be carried to the castle, that, placing her on a litter, they conveyed her thither as she requested. Theodore, supporting her head with his arm, and hanging over her in an agony of despairing love, still endeavoured to inspire her with hopes of life. Jerome on the other side comforted her with discourses of heaven; and holding a crucifix before her, which she bathed with innocent tears, prepared her for her pa.s.sage to immortality.
Manfred, plunged in the deepest affliction, followed the litter in despair.
Ere they reached the castle, Hippolita, informed of the dreadful catastrophe, had flown to meet her murdered child; but when she saw the afflicted procession, the mightiness of her grief deprived her of her senses, and she fell lifeless to the earth in a swoon. Isabella and Frederic, who attended her, were overwhelmed in almost equal sorrow.
Matilda alone seemed insensible to her own situation: every thought was lost in tenderness for her mother. Ordering the litter to stop, as soon as Hippolita was brought to herself, she asked for her father. He approached, unable to speak. Matilda, seizing his hand and her mother"s, locked them in her own, and then clasped them to her heart. Manfred could not support this act of pathetic piety. He dashed himself on the ground, and cursed the day he was born. Isabella, apprehensive that these struggles of pa.s.sion were more than Matilda could support, took upon herself to order Manfred to be borne to his apartment, while she caused Matilda to be conveyed to the nearest chamber. Hippolita, scarce more alive than her daughter, was regardless of everything but her; but when the tender Isabella"s care would have likewise removed her, while the surgeons examined Matilda"s wound, she cried:
"Remove me! never! never! never! I lived but in her, and will expire with her." Matilda raised her eyes at her mother"s voice, but closed them again without speaking. Her sinking pulse and the damp coldness of her hand soon dispelled all hopes of recovery. Theodore followed the surgeons into the outer chamber, and heard them p.r.o.nounce the fatal sentence with a transport equal to frenzy.
"Since she cannot live mine," cried he, "at least she shall be mine in death! Father! Jerome! will you not join our hands?" cried he to the friar, who with the marquis had accompanied the surgeons.
"What means thy distracted rashness?" said Jerome; "is this an hour for marriage?"
"It is, it is," cried Theodore: "alas! there is no other!"
"Young man, thou art too unadvised," said Frederic: "dost thou think we are to listen to thy fond transports in this hour of fate? what pretensions hast thou to the princess?"
"Those of a prince," said Theodore, "of the sovereign of Otranto. This reverend man, my father, has informed me who I am."
"Thou ravest," said the marquis: "there is no prince of Otranto but myself, now Manfred, by murder, by sacrilegious murder, has forfeited all pretensions."
"My lord," said Jerome, a.s.suming an air of command, "he tells you true.
It was not my purpose the secret should have been divulged so soon; but fate presses onward to its work. What his hot-headed pa.s.sion has revealed, my tongue confirms. Know, prince, that when Alfonso set sail for the Holy Land----"
"Is this a season for explanations?" cried Theodore. "Father, come and unite me to the princess; she shall be mine--in every other thing I will dutifully obey you. My life; my adored Matilda!" continued Theodore, rushing back into the inner chamber, "will you not be mine? will you not bless your----" Isabella made signs to him to be silent, apprehending the princess was near her end. "What, is she dead?" cried Theodore; "is it possible?" The violence of his exclamations brought Matilda to herself. Lifting up her eyes, she looked around for her mother.
"Life of my soul! I am here," cried Hippolita; "think not I will quit thee!"
"Oh, you are too good," said Matilda; "but weep not for me, my mother! I am going where sorrow never dwells;--Isabella, thou hast loved me: wo"t thou not supply my fondness to this dear, dear woman?--Indeed I am faint!"
"Oh, my child, my child!" said Hippolita, in a flood of tears, "can I not withhold thee a moment?"
"It will not be," said Matilda: "commend me to Heaven--where is my father? Forgive him, dearest mother--forgive him my death; it was an error. Oh, I had forgotten, dearest mother, I vowed never to see Theodore more--perhaps that has drawn down this calamity, but it was not intentional--can you pardon me?"
"Oh, wound not my agonizing soul," said Hippolita; "thou never couldst offend me. Alas! she faints! help! help!"
"I would say something more," said Matilda, struggling, "but it wonnot be--Isabella--Theodore--for my sake--oh!" She expired. Isabella and her women tore Hippolita from the corse; but Theodore threatened destruction to all who attempted to remove him from it. He printed a thousand kisses on her clay-cold hands, and uttered every expression that despairing love could dictate.
Isabella, in the meantime, was accompanying the afflicted Hippolita to her apartment; but in the middle of the court they were met by Manfred, who, distracted with his own thoughts, and anxious once more to behold his daughter, was advancing towards the chamber where she lay. As the moon was now at its height, he read in the countenances of this unhappy company the event he dreaded.
"What! is she dead?" cried he in wild confusion: a clap of thunder at that instant shook the castle to its foundations; the earth rocked, and the clank of more than mortal armour was heard behind. Frederic and Jerome thought the last day was at hand. The latter, forcing Theodore along with them, rushed into the court. The moment Theodore appeared, the walls of the castle behind Manfred were thrown down with a mighty force, and the form of Alfonso, dilated to an immense magnitude, appeared in the centre of the ruins.
"Behold in Theodore the true heir of Alfonso!" said the vision; and having p.r.o.nounced those words, accompanied by a clap of thunder, it ascended solemnly towards heaven, where the clouds parting asunder, the form of St. Nicholas was seen, and receiving Alfonso"s shade, they were soon wrapt from mortal eyes in a blaze of glory.
The beholders fell prostrate on their faces, acknowledging the divine will. The first that broke silence was Hippolita.
"My lord," said she to the desponding Manfred, "behold the vanity of human greatness! Conrad is gone! Matilda is no more! in Theodore we view the true Prince of Otranto. By what miracle he is so, I know not--suffice it to us, our doom is p.r.o.nounced! Shall we not--can we but--dedicate the few deplorable hours we have to live, in deprecating the further wrath of Heaven? Heaven ejects us: whither can we fly, but to yon holy cells that yet offer us a retreat?"
"Thou guiltless but unhappy woman! unhappy by my crimes!" replied Manfred, "my heart at last is open to thy devout admonitions. Oh, could--but it cannot be--ye are lost in wonder,--let me at last do justice on myself! To heap shame on my own head is all the satisfaction I have left to offer to offended Heaven. My story has drawn down these judgments: let my confession atone--but ah! what can atone for usurpation and a murdered child; a child murdered in a consecrated place? List, sirs, and may this b.l.o.o.d.y record be a warning to future tyrants!
"Alfonso, ye all know, died in the Holy Land--ye would interrupt me--ye would say he came not fairly to his end--it is most true--why else this bitter cup which Manfred must drink to the dregs? Ricardo, my grandfather, was his chamberlain--I would draw a veil over my ancestor"s crimes, but it is in vain! Alfonso died by poison. A fict.i.tious will declared Ricardo his heir. His crimes pursued him. Yet he lost no Conrad, no Matilda! I pay the price of usurpation for all. A storm overtook him. Haunted by his guilt, he vowed to St. Nicholas to found a church and two convents, if he lived to reach Otranto. The sacrifice was accepted: the saint appeared to him in a dream, and promised that Ricardo"s posterity should reign in Otranto, until the rightful owner should be grown too large to inhabit the castle, and as long as issue-male from Ricardo"s loins should remain to enjoy it. Alas! alas!
nor male nor female, except myself, remains of all his wretched race!--I have done--the woes of these three days speak the rest. How this young man can be Alfonso"s heir, I know not--yet I do not doubt it. His are these dominions: I resign them--yet I knew not Alfonso had an heir--I question not the will of Heaven--poverty and prayer must fill up the woeful s.p.a.ce, until Manfred shall be summoned to Ricardo."
"What remains is my part to declare," said Jerome. "When Alfonso set sail for the Holy Land, he was driven by a storm to the coast of Sicily.
The other vessel, which bore Ricardo and his train, as your _lordship_ must have heard, was separated from him."
"It is most true," said Manfred; "and the t.i.tle you give me is more than an outcast can claim--well! be it so--proceed."
Jerome blushed, and continued.
"For three months Lord Alfonso was wind-bound in Sicily. There he became enamoured of a fair virgin, named Victoria. He was too pious to tempt her to forbidden pleasures. They were married. Yet deeming this amour incongruous with the holy vow of arms by which he was bound, he determined to conceal their nuptials, until his return from the crusado, when he purposed to seek and acknowledge her for his lawful wife. He left her pregnant. During his absence she was delivered of a daughter; but scarce had she felt a mother"s pangs, ere she heard the fatal rumour of her lord"s death, and the succession of Ricardo. What could a friendless, helpless woman do? would her testimony avail?--yet, my lord, I have an authentic writing----"
"It needs not," said Manfred; "the horrors of these days, the vision we have but now seen, all corroborate thy evidence beyond a thousand parchments. Matilda"s death and my expulsion----"
"Be composed, my lord," said Hippolita; "this holy man did not mean to recall your griefs."