"Take her, my son," replied the superior; "I will bid her follow. If G.o.d has indeed spoken to her soul, no worldly voice will move her. If it be otherwise, may she return no more to the cloister, but be blessed wherever she goes! Adieu, my son; the peace of the Lord be with you!"
Hope revived in the heart of William Van Amberg; it seemed to him as if--the convent threshold once pa.s.sed--Christine would revert to her former character--to her youth and love. He believed he was about to remove his beloved child for ever from these gloomy walls, and with painful impatience he awaited her coming. Soon a light step was heard in the corridor; William threw open the door, Christine was there, and no grating now separated her from her uncle.
"My beloved Christine!" exclaimed William; "at last, then, you are restored to me; at last I can press you to my heart! Come, we will return to our own country, and revisit the house where we all dwelt together."
Sister Martha-Mary was still paler than at her first interview with William. If any expression was discernible upon that calm countenance, it was one of sadness. She allowed herself to be taken by the hand and conducted to the convent gate; but when the gate was opened, and, pa.s.sing into the open air, she encountered the broad daylight and the fresh breeze, she tottered and leaned for support against the wall. Just then the sun rent the clouds, and threw its golden beams on plain and mountain; the air was clear and transparent, and the flat and monotonous horizon acquired beauty from the burst of light.
"See, my daughter!" said William; "see how lovely is the earth! How soft is the air we breathe! How good it is to be free, and to move towards that immense horizon!"
"Oh, my dear uncle!" replied the novice; "how beautiful are the heavens!
See how the sun shines above our heads! It is in heaven that his glory should be admired! His rays are already dim and feeble when they touch the earth!"
William led Christine to a carriage; they got in, and the horses set off. Long did the gaze of the novice remain fixed on her convent"s walls; when these were hidden from her by the windings of the road, she closed her eyes and seemed to sleep. During the journey, William endeavoured in vain to make her converse; she had forgotten how to express her thoughts. When compelled to reply, fatigue overwhelmed her; her whole existence was concentrated in her soul, and detached entirely from the external world. At intervals she would say to herself, "How long the morning is! Nothing marks the hours; I have not heard a single bell to-day!"
At last they reached the red house, and the carriage drove into the court, where the gra.s.s grew between the stones. Gothon came out to receive them, and Martha-Mary, leaning on her uncle"s arm, entered the parlour where the family of Van Amberg had so often a.s.sembled. The room was deserted and cold; no books or work gave it the look of habitation; abandoned by its last occupants, it awaited new ones. Christine slowly traversed this well-known apartment, and sat down upon a chair near the window. It was there her mother had sat for twenty years; there had her childhood pa.s.sed at the knees of Annunciata.
William opened the window, showed her the meadow, the willows, and the river. Christine looked at them in silence, her head resting on her hand, her eyes fixed on the horizon. For a long while William stood beside her, then he placed his hand on her shoulder and p.r.o.nounced her name. She rose and followed him. They ascended the stairs, traversed the gallery, and William opened a door. "Your mother"s room," said he to Christine. The novice entered and paused in the middle of the chamber; tears flowed from her eyes, she clasped her hands and prayed.
"My daughter," said William, "_she_ ardently desired your happiness."
"She has obtained it!" replied the novice.
The old man felt a profound sadness come over him. It was like pressing to his heart a corpse to which his love restored neither breath nor warmth. Martha-Mary approached her mother"s bed, knelt down, and kissed the pillow that had supported the dying head of Annunciata.
"Mother," she murmured, "soon we shall meet again."
William shuddered. He took Christine"s hand, and led her to the room she had formerly occupied. The little white-curtained bed was still there, the guitar hung against the wall, Christine"s favourite volumes filled the shelves of her modest book-case; through the open window were seen the willows and the river. Martha-Mary noticed none of these things: the wooden crucifix was still upon the wall; she rapidly approached it, knelt, bowed her head upon the feet of Christ, closed her eyes and breathed deeply, like one finding repose after long fatigue. Like the exile returning to his native land, like the storm-tossed mariner regaining the port, she remained with her brow resting upon her Saviour"s feet.
Standing by her side, William looked on in tearful silence. Farther off, Gothon wiped her eyes with her ap.r.o.n. Several hours elapsed. The house clock struck, the birds sang in the garden; the wind rustled among the trees; in the lofty pigeon-house the doves cooed; the c.o.c.k crowed in the poultry-yard. None of these loved and familiar sounds could divert Martha-Mary from her devout meditation. Sick at heart, her uncle descended to the parlour. He remained there long, plunged in gloomy reflections. Suddenly hasty steps were heard; a young man rushed into the room, and into William"s arms.
"Christine! Christine!" cried Herbert; "where is Christine? Is it not a dream? M. Van Amberg gives me Christine!... Once more in my native land, and Christine mine!"
"Karl Van Amberg gives, but G.o.d refuses her to you!" replied William, mournfully. Then he told Herbert what had pa.s.sed at the convent, and since their arrival at the house: he gave a thousand details--he repeated them a thousand times, but without convincing Herbert of the melancholy truth.
"It is impossible!" cried the young man; "if Christine is alive, if Christine is here, to the first word uttered by her lover, Christine will reply."
"G.o.d grant it!" exclaimed William; "my last hope is in you."
Herbert sprang up the stairs, his heart too full of love to have room for fear. Christine free, was for him Christine ready to become his wife. He hastily opened her chamber door; but then he paused, as if petrified, upon the threshold. The day was closing in, and its fading light fell upon Martha-Mary, whose form stood out like a white shadow from the gloom of the room. She was still on her knees, her head resting on the feet of Christ, her fragile person lost in the multiplied folds of her conventual robes. She heard not the opening of the door, and Herbert stood gazing at her, till a flood of tears burst from his eyes.
William took his hand and silently pressed it.
"I am frightened!" said Herbert, in a low tone. "That is not my Christine! A phantom risen from the earth, or an angel descended from heaven, has taken her place!"
"No, she is no longer Christine!" replied William, sadly.
For a few moments more Herbert stood in mournful contemplation. Then he exclaimed--"Christine, dear Christine!"
At the sound of his voice the novice started, rose to her feet, and p.r.o.nounced his name. As in former days, when her lover called "Christine!" Martha-Mary replied "Herbert!"
The young man"s heart beat violently; he stood beside the novice, he took her hands. "It is I, it is Herbert!" he said, kneeling down before her.
The novice fixed her large black eyes upon him with a long inquiring gaze; a slight flush pa.s.sed across her brow; then she became pale as before, and said gently to Herbert--"I thought not to see you again upon earth."
"Dear Christine! tears and suffering have long been our portion; but happy days at last dawn upon us! My love! my bride! we will never part again!"
Martha-Mary extricated her hands from those of Herbert, and retreated towards the image of Christ.
"I am the bride of the Lord," she said in trembling accents. "He expects me."
Herbert uttered a cry of grief.
"Christine! dear Christine! remember our oft-repeated pledges, our loves, our tears, our hopes. You left me vowing to love me always.
Christine, if you would not have me die of despair, remember the past!"
Martha-Mary"s eyes continued riveted on the crucifix; her hands, convulsively clasped, were extended towards it.
"Gracious Lord!" she prayed, "speak to his heart as you have spoken to mine! It is a n.o.ble heart, worthy to love you. Stronger than I, Herbert may survive, even after much weeping! Console him, oh Lord!"
"Christine! my first and only love! sole hope and joy of my life! do you thus abandon me? That heart, once entirely mine, is it closed to me for ever?"
Her gaze upon the crucifix, her hands still joined, the novice, as if able to speak only to her G.o.d, gently replied:--"Lord! he suffers as I suffered! shed upon him the balm wherewith you healed my wounds! Leaving him life, take his soul as you have taken mine. Give him that ineffable peace which descends upon those thou lovest!"
"Oh Christine! my beloved!" cried Herbert, once more taking her hand, "do but look at me! turn your eyes upon me and behold my tears! Dearest treasure of my heart! you seem to slumber! Awake! Have you forgotten our tender meetings, the willows bending over the stream, the boat in which we sailed a whole night, dreaming the joy of eternal union? See! the moon rises as it rose that night. We were near each other as now; but then they tore us asunder, and now we are free to be together!
Christine, have you ceased to love? Is all forgotten?"
William took her other hand. "Dear child," he said, "we entreat you not to leave us! To you we look for happiness; remain with us, Christine."
One hand in the hands of Herbert, the other in those of William, the novice slowly and solemnly replied:
"The corpse that reposes in the tomb lifts not the stone to re-enter the world. The soul that has seen heaven, does not leave it to return to earth. The creature to whom G.o.d has said, "Be thou the spouse of Christ," does not quit Christ to unite herself to a man; and she who is about to die should turn her affections from mortal things!"
"Herbert!" cried William, "be silent! Not another word! I can scarcely feel the throbbing of her pulse! She is paler even than when I first saw her behind the convent grating. We give her pain. Enough, Herbert, enough! Better yield her to G.o.d upon earth, than send her to Him in heaven!"
The old man placed the almost inanimate head of Martha-Mary upon his shoulder, and pressed her to his heart as a mother embraces her child.
"Recover yourself, my daughter," he said; "I will restore you to the house of G.o.d."
Martha-Mary turned her sad and gentle gaze upon her uncle, and her hand feebly pressed his. Then addressing herself to Herbert:
"You, Herbert," she said, in a scarcely audible voice--"you, who will live, do not abandon him!"
"Christine!" cried Herbert, on his knees before his betrothed.
"Christine! do we part for ever?"
The novice raised her eyes to heaven.
"Not for ever!" she replied.
Some days afterwards the convent gates opened to receive sister Martha-Mary. They closed upon her for the last time. With feeble and unsteady step the novice traversed the cloisters to prostrate herself on the altar-steps. The superior came to her.