Valperga (52 page)

Night came; and, wrapping a capuchin around her, she mounted the
horse that Bindo had brought, and followed him across the country,
towards the mountains which divide the Lucchese from the Modenese
territory; the dark forests extended into the valley, contrasting
their black shadows with the dun hues of the low country; the stars
shone keenly above. They rode swiftly; but the way was long; and it
was two o'clock before they arrived at the witch's cave. It
was a dreary habitation: and now, as the shades of night fell upon
it, it appeared more desolate than ever; the pines made a sorrowful
singing above it; the earth around was herbless; and a few pine
cones lay about, mingled with the grey rock that here and there
peeped above the soil.

The witch sat at the door of the hovel. She was a strange being:
her person was short, almost deformed, shrivelled and dried up, but
agile and swift of motion; her brown and leathern face was drawn
into a thousand lines; and the flesh of her cheeks, thus deformed,
seemed hardly human; her hands were large, bony, and thin; she was
unlike every other animal, but also was she unlike humanity, and
seemed to form a species apart, which might well inspire the
country people with awe. When she saw Beatrice, she arose, and
advanced towards her, saying, "What do you here, child of a
sleeping power? Come you here to teach, or to learn the secrets of
our art?"

"I come at your own request," replied Beatrice,
haughtily; "if you have nothing to say to me, I
return."

"I have much to say to you," said Mandragola;
"for I would awaken a spirit from lethargy, that can command
us all. You are the mistress of those, of whom I am the slave; will
it, and a thousand spirits wait your bidding; look, like subdued
hounds they now crouch at your feet, knowing that you are their
superior. It is my glory to obey them,--how far do you transcend
me!"

"You talk in riddles, good mother; I see no spirits, I feel
no power."

"And if you did, would you be here? Here, at the cavern of
a poor witch, who, spelling her incantations, and doing such
penance as would make your young blood freeze but to hear it, just
earns a power hardly gained, quickly to be resigned. But you could
ride the winds, command the vegetation of the earth, and have all
mankind your slaves. I ask you whether you did not once feel that
strength? For a moment you were eclipsed; but the influence of the
evil planet is well nigh gone, and you may now rule all,--will you
accept this dominion?"

"Your words appear idle to me; give them proof, and I will
listen."

"Consult your own heart, prophetess; and that will teach
you far more than I can. Does it not contain strange secrets known
only to yourself? Have you never owned a power, which dwelt within
you, and you felt your own mind distinct from it, as if it were
more wise than you; so wise that you confessed, but could not
comprehend its wisdom? Has it not revealed to you that, which
without its aid you never could have known? Have you not seen this
other self?"

"Stop, wonderful woman, if you would not madden me,"
screamed the poor terrified Beatrice. "That is the key, the
unbreakable link of my existence; that dream must either place me
above humanity, or destroy me."

"You own this power?" cried the witch
triumphantly.

"Send away the Albinois, and I will tell you all. [At the
beck of the witch Bindo withdrew.] Yet I gasp for breath, and fear
possesses me. What do you tell me of power? I feel that I am ruled;
and, when this dream comes over me, as it now does, I am no longer
myself. I dreamed of a flood, of a waste of white, still waters, of
mountains, of a real scene which I had never beheld. There was a
vast, black house standing in the midst of the water; a concourse
of dark shapes hovered about me; and suddenly I was transported
into a boat which was to convey me to that mansion. Strange!
another boat like to mine moved beside us; its prow was carved in
the same manner; its rowers, the same in number, the same in
habiliment, struck the water with their oars at the same time with
ours; a woman sat near the stern, aghast and wild as I;--but their
boat cut the waves without sound, their oars splashed not the
waters as they struck them, and, though the boats were alike black,
yet not like mine did this other cast a black shadow on the water.
We landed together; I could not walk for fear; I was carried into a
large room, and left alone; I leaned against the hangings, and
there advanced to meet me another form. It was myself; I knew it;
it stood before me, melancholy and silent; the very air about it
was still. I can tell no more;--a few minutes ago I remembered
nothing of all this; a few moments, and I distinctly remembered the
words it spoke; they have now faded. Yes; there is something
mysterious in my nature, which I cannot fathom."

Beatrice shivered; her face was deadly pale, and her eyes were
glazed by fear. The witch had now tuned her instrument, and she
proceeded to play on it with a master's hand.

"Heavenly girl," she said, "I acknowledge myself
your slave. Command me and my powers, as you will; they will do all
you bid them;--but that is little. There are other spirits, which
belong not to the elements, but to the mind and fortunes of man,
over which I have no sway, but which are attendant upon you. Fear
not! The revelations you have received are almost too tremendous
for your weak human frame; but gather strength; for your body and
your spirit may master all the kings of the earth. That other self,
which at one time lives within you, and anon wanders at will over
the boundless universe, is a pure and immediate emanation of the
divinity, and, as such, commands all creatures, be they earthly or
ethereal. As yet you have seen it only in a dream; have faith, and
the consciousness of its presence will visit your waking
reveries."

Beatrice sighed deeply, and said: "I was in hope that my
part was done, and that I should die without more agitation and
fear; but I am marked, and cannot combat with my destiny. Strange
as is the tale which I have just related, I cannot believe what you
say: and, though doubtless there are other existences, of which we
know nothing, yet I do not believe that we can have communication
with, and far less power over them. I would fain preserve the
little reason I have still left me; and that tells me that what you
say is false."

"But if I can prove it to be true?"

"How?"

"Ask what you will! Would you see the cloudless sky become
black and tempestuous? Would you hear the roaring of the
overflowing waters, or see the animals of the forest congregate at
my feet? Or, would you exert your own power? Would you draw towards
you by your powerful incantations, one whom you wish to see, and
who must obey your call? If you speak, all must obey; the prince
himself, the victorious Castruccio, could not resist you."

The burning cheeks, and flashing eyes of the prophetess, shewed
the agitation that this proposal excited in her heart. Poor girl!
she still loved; that wound still festered, ever unhealed. She
would have risked her soul, to gain a moment's power over
Castruccio. She paused; and then said, "In three days I will
tell you what I wish, and what I will do."

"In the mean time swear never to reveal this visit, this
cavern, or my name: swear by yourself."

"A foolish vow,--by myself I swear."

"Enough; you dare not break that oath."

The witch retreated into her cave; and Bindo came forward to
conduct Beatrice home. She was faint and tired; and day dawned
before they arrived at the palace of Euthanasia.

The three following days were days of doubt and trepidation for
the unfortunate Beatrice. At one moment she utterly discredited the
pretensions of Mandragola; but then her imagination, that evil
pilot for her, suggested, Yet, if it should be so! and then she
would picture forth the scenes she desired, until she gasped with
expectation. At last, she thought,--"There will be no harm in
the experiment; if her promises are vain, no injury will
result;--if true--To be sure I know they are not; but something
will happen, and at least I will try.

"I know that Euthanasia, and more than she, Padre
Lanfranco, would tell me, that, if true, this woman deals with the
devil, and that I, who have lately saved my soul from his grasp,
should beware of trusting myself within his reach. All this is well
to children and old women; but I have already tempted the powers
above me too far to flinch now. Am I not, was I not, a Paterin?
Euthanasia, who has never wandered from the straight line of her
duty, and Lanfranco, who has learned his morality in a cloister,
cannot know what it most becomes an excommunicated wretch like me
to do.

"Yet I am very ungrateful and wicked, when I say this;
ungrateful to their prayers, wicked in transgressing the laws which
God has promulgated.

"What does this woman say? that I shall see him, that he
will obey my voice, and that, not by magic art, but by that innate
power, which, by the order of the universe, one spirit possesses
over another:--that I shall see him, as I have seen him!--Oh,
saints of heaven, suffer me not to be tempted thus! But no,--the
heavenly powers deign not to interfere; they know my weakness, my
incapacity to resist,--but, like most careless guardians, they
permit that to approach which must overcome me. I am resolved; she
shall guide me; if nothing come (as most surely nothing will come),
it imports not. And, if I am destined for one moment more in this
most wretched life to taste of joy, others may (but I will not)
dash the intoxicating draught away."

She thought thus, and spoke thus to her secret mind; but every
hour her resolution fluctuated, and remorse, hope, and dread
possessed her by turns. She feared to be alone; but the presence of
an indifferent person made her nerves tremble with the restraint
she was obliged to keep upon herself. There seemed some link of
confidence between her and Bindo; and she called for him to dispel
the appalling sensations with which solitude inspired her. He came;
and his conversation only tended to increase her chaos of
conflicting thoughts. He related the wonderful exploits of
Mandragola; how he had seen her call lightning and cloud from the
south, and how at her bidding the soft western wind would suddenly
arise, and dispel the wondrous tempests she had brewed; how the
planet of night obeyed her, and that, once during the full moon,
this planet had suddenly deserted the sky, but that while the
heavens were blank and rayless, its image continued to lie placidly
in the stream near which they stood. He related the strange effects
she had produced upon the minds of men, forcing them most
unwillingly to do her pleasure; at other times depriving them of
their senses, so that for many hours they wandered about like
madmen, until at her command their faculties were restored to
them.

Beatrice listened, half in disdain, half in fear; her conclusion
still was,--"The experiment is worth trying; if her words be
false, there is no harm done; if true"--and then her
imagination pictured forth happiness that never should be hers.

ON the third night she returned to the witch. "You need not
speak," said Mandragola, "I know your thoughts; you
hardly believe my words, yet you are determined to make the trial.
It is well; I should be surer of success, if you had implicit faith
in my powers and your own; but it is enough. What do you wish to
effect?"

"First, mother, I must know what I can do."

"Your power is almost illimitable; but that of which I
spoke, and that power which you prize most, is the power which you
possess over the prince of Lucca. Do you wish to see him? Do you
wish in solitude, with none but me near, to see him come, to hear
him renew his ancient vows?"

"He never made vows to me," cried Beatrice angrily;
"he was bound to me, I thought, by stronger ties than mortal
oaths; that is past for ever; but, except the salvation of my soul,
I would sacrifice every thing to see him once again, divested of
the ceremonial of power, listening to what will never be told,
consoling her who can never be consoled."

"That is easy work," said the witch, with alacrity,
"but first swear, swear by all that you hold sacred in the
world, by your life, by his, that you will never disclose this
conversation, or what I shall now reveal to you, or hint in any
manner the work we shall undertake."

Beatrice shivered; she could no longer stand, she sunk to the
ground: the witch went into the hut, and brought her a bowl of
water; Beatrice put it to her lips; then suddenly withdrawing it,
she cried,--"You have given me a poisonous drug, either to
kill me, or undermine my understanding;--dare you thus trifle with
me?"

The witch took the bowl from her hand, and drank the liquid it
contained: "Take shame for your mistrust," she said;
"this was pure water from the spring; and, except that the
charmed moon-beams sleep on it, even when you see not the moon in
the sky, it does not differ from the waters of any other fountain.
Now speak; do you swear secrecy?"

Again the prophetess paused. But curiosity and hope hurried her
beyond discretion; and with folded hands placed between the dry and
skinny palms of the witch, she pronounced the vow that was
dictated.

Mandragola then said: "This satisfies me. The moon is now
on the wane: when she fills again, I will send Bindo to inform you
what is to be done. Fear not, but that all will be well."

Beatrice returned to Lucca. Her glazed eyes and pale cheeks told
that the spirit which animated her now found nor rest nor hope. She
dreaded to look forward to the fearful trial she was about to make;
and yet she could think of nothing else. Her rosary was thrown
aside; her prayers were forgotten; and love again reassumed his
throne in her heart. Her reason was disturbed by doubt and fear;
and she often sat whole hours, her eye fixed upon the earth, her
parted lips pale, her hands closed with convulsive strength, as she
tried to reason herself into disbelief concerning the promises and
assertions of Mandragola. It was too much for her weak frame; if
the witch had been near her to mark the wasting of her faculties,
she might have wound her plot so as to inspire her with some
courage: but no one was near except Bindo; and he by his tales, and
his own fears and belief, only increased the combat of feelings to
which the prophetess was a prey.