"If he were a living lover," she whispered to herself, "I should be bound by every consideration of honor and duty to cast him out of my heart--if I could! But for my dead boy, my husband, slain in the flower of his youth for my sake, I may cherish remembrance and sorrow."
Thus, it is no wonder that she moved through the splendor of her first London season, a beautiful, pale, grave Melpomene.
But the splendor of that season was soon to be dimmed.
News came by telegraph to the Duke of Hereward, announcing the sudden death of the Baron de la Motte, of apoplexy, in Paris.
Now much has been said and written about the ingrat.i.tude of children; but quite as much might be said of their indestructible affection. The Baron de la Motte had shown himself a very cruel father to his only child; he had shot down her young husband in a duel; yet, notwithstanding all that, Valerie was wild with grief at the news of his sudden death. She wondered, poor child, if she herself had not had some hand in bringing it on by all the trouble she had given him, although that trouble had pa.s.sed away now more than twelve months since; and the late baron was known to have been a man of full habit and excitable temperament, and, withal, a heavy feeder and hard drinker--a very fit subject for apoplexy to strike down at any moment.
The Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Hereward hastened to Paris, where they found the remains of the baron laid in state in the great saloon of the Hotel de la Motte, and the widowed baroness prostrated by grief, and confined to her bed.
The duke and d.u.c.h.ess remained until after the funeral, when the will of the late baron was read. It was then discovered for the first time that his daughter, Valerie, was not nearly the wealthy heiress she was supposed to be.
All the late baron"s landed estates went to the male heir-at-law, a young officer in the Cha.s.seurs d" Afrique, then in Algiers. All his personal property, consisting of bank and railroad stocks, after a deduction as a provision for his widow, was bequeathed to his only daughter Valerie, d.u.c.h.ess of Hereward. But this property was so inconsiderable, that, without other means, it would scarcely have sufficed for the respectable support of the mother and daughter.
After the settlement of the late baron"s affairs, the duke and d.u.c.h.ess would have returned immediately to London but for the condition of the widowed baroness" health.
Madame de la Motte had for years been a delicate invalid, and she had experienced, in the sudden death of her husband, a severe shock, from which she could not rally; so that, within a few weeks after the baron"s remains had been laid in the family vault, she pa.s.sed away, and hers were laid by his side.
Valerie was even more prostrated with sorrow by the loss of her mother than she had been by that of her father.
The duke, to distract her grief, telegraphed to New Haven, where his yacht, the _Sea-Bird_, was lying to have her brought over to meet him at Dieppe, took his d.u.c.h.ess down to that little seaport and embarked with her for a voyage to Norway.
The season was most favorable for such a northerly voyage. They sailed on the first of July, and spent three months cruising about the coasts of Norway, Iceland, and down to the Western Isles. They returned about the first of October.
The duke left his yacht at Dieppe, and, accompanied by the d.u.c.h.ess, went up to Paris, to attend to some business connected with the estate of the late baron.
As but a third of a year had pa.s.sed since the death of her parents, and the d.u.c.h.ess had scarcely pa.s.sed out of her first deep c.r.a.pe mourning, she went very little into society. Nevertheless, she was constrained, at the duke"s request, to accept one invitation.
There was to be a diplomatic dinner given at the British Legation, at which the Prussian, Austrian and Russian ministers, with the higher officers of their suites, were to be present.
Valerie, living her recluse life in the city, did not know the names of one of these ministers, nor, in the apathy of her grief, did she care to inquire.
On the evening appointed for the entertainment, she went to the hotel of the British Legation, escorted by her husband.
Dressed in her rich and elegant mourning of jet on c.r.a.pe, glimmering light on blackest darkness, and looking herself paler and fairer by its contrast, she entered the grand drawing-room, leaning on the arm of her husband. She heard their names announced:
"The Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Hereward."
Then she found herself in a room spa.r.s.ely occupied by a very brilliant company, and stood--not, as she had expected to stand, among strangers--but in the midst of her own familiar friends, whom she had known in her girlhood at the court of St. Petersburg, or met, in her womanhood, in the drawing-rooms of London.
It was while she was still leaning on her husband"s arm and receiving the courteous salutations of her old friends, that their host, Lord C--n, approached with a gentleman.
Valerie looked up and saw standing before her the young husband of her girlish love!
CHAPTER x.x.xIV.
RISEN FROM THE GRAVE.
Waldemar de Volaski, left as dead upon the duelling ground by his antagonist, the Baron de la Motte, was tenderly lifted by his second and the surgeon in attendance, laid upon a stretcher, and conveyed to the infirmary of a neighboring monastery, where he was charitably received by the brethren.
When he was laid upon a bed, undressed, and examined, it was discovered that he was not dead, but only swooning from the loss of blood.
When his wound was probed, it was found that the bullet had pa.s.sed the right lobe of the lungs, and lodged in the flesh below the right shoulder blade. To extract it, under the circ.u.mstances, or to leave it there, seemed equally dangerous, threatening, on the one hand, inflammation and mortification, and, on the other, fatal hemorrhage. Therefore, the surgeon in charge of the case sent off to the nearest town to summon other medical aid, and meanwhile kept up the strength of the patient by stimulants. In the consultation that ensued on the arrival of the other surgeons, it was decided that the extraction of the bullet would be difficult and dangerous; but that in it lay the only chance of the patient"s life.
On the next morning, therefore, Waldemar de Volaski was put under the influence of chloroform, and the operation was performed. His youth and vigorous const.i.tution bore him safely through the trying ordeal, but could not save him from the terrible irritative fever that set in and held him in its fiery grasp for many days there after.
He was well tended by the holy brotherhood, who sent to the vine-dresser"s cottage for information concerning him, that they might find out who and where were his friends, and write and apprise them of his condition.
But the vine-dresser could tell the monks no more than this--that the young man and young woman had come as strangers to the village, were married by the good Father Pietro in the church of San Vito, and had come to lodge in his cottage. The young pair had lived as merrily as two birds in a bush until the sudden arrival of an ill.u.s.trious and furious signore, who tore the bride from the arms of her husband, and carried her off to the convent of Santa Madelena. That was all the vine-dresser knew.
The surgeon supplemented the vine-dresser"s story with an account of the duel between the enraged baron and the young captain.
The good Father Pietro was next interviewed, and gave the names of the imprudent young pair whom he had tied together, as Waldemar Peter de Volaski and Valerie Aimee de la Motte; but besides this, who they were, or whence they came, he could not tell.
Inquiries were made in the village of San Vito, which only resulted in the information that the "ill.u.s.trious" strangers had departed with their daughter no one knew whither.
Meanwhile the unfortunate victim of the duel tossed and tumbled, fumed and raved in fever and delirium, that raged like fire for nine days, and then left him utterly prostrated in mind and body. Many more days pa.s.sed before he was able to answer questions, and weeks crept by before he could give any coherent account of himself.
His first sensible inquiry related to his bride.
"Where is she? What have they done with her?" he demanded to know.
"The ill.u.s.trious signore has taken the signorita away with him, no one knows whither," answered the monk who was minding him.
"I know--so he has taken her away?--I know where he has taken her,--to Paris," faltered the victim, and immediately fainted dead away, exhausted by the effort of speaking these words.
His next question, asked after the interval of a week, related to the length of time he had been ill.
"How long have I lain stretched upon this bed?" he asked.
"The Signore Captain has been here four weeks," answered his nurse.
"Great Heaven! then I have exceeded my month"s leave by two weeks! I shall be court-martialed and degraded!" cried the patient, starting up in great excitement, and instantly swooning away from the reaction.
In this manner the recovery of the wounded man became a matter of difficulty and delay; for as often as he rallied sufficiently to look into his affairs, their threatening aspect threw him back prostrated.
He recovered, however, by slow degrees.
As soon as he was able to sustain the continued exertion of talking, he requested one of the brothers on duty in the infirmary to write two letters at his dictation. The first was addressed to the colonel of his regiment, informing that officer of the long and severe illness of Captain de Volaski, and pet.i.tioning for the invalid an extended leave of absence. The other was to the Count de Volaski, apprising that n.o.bleman of the condition of his son, and imploring him to hasten at once to the bedside of the patient.
The next morning Waldemar de Volaski sat up in bed and asked for stationery, and wrote with his own weak and trembling hand a short letter to his youthful bride--telling her that he had been very ill, but was now convalescent, and that as soon as he should be able to travel he would hasten to Paris and claim his wife in the face of all the fathers, priests and judges in Paris, or in the world. He addressed her as his well beloved wife, signed himself her ever-devoted husband, and had the temerity to direct his letter to Madame Waldemar de Volaski, Hotel de la Motte, Rue Faubourg St. Honore, Paris.
The mail left St. Vito only twice a week, so that the three letters left the post office on the same day to their respective destinations; one went to St. Petersburg, to the Colonel of the Royal Guards; one to Warsaw, to the Count de Volaski; and one to Paris, to Madame de Volaski.