Talbot Mundy - "Winds of the World"

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - "Dante's Inferno [Divine Comedy]"

Laurence Sterne - "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman"

James Otis - "Toby Tyler"

A Romance Of Two Worlds

M >> Marie Corelli >> A Romance Of Two Worlds




These sounds were meant for me alone, then? I waited, and the music
gradually died away; and as I resumed my kneeling position by the
bier all was again silence, save for the unabated raging of the
storm.

A strange calmness now fell on my spirits. Some invisible hand
seemed to hold me still and tearless. Zara was dead. I realized it
now. I began to consider that she must have known her fate
beforehand. This was what she had meant when she said she was going
on a journey. The more I thought of this the quieter I became, and I
hid my face in my hands and prayed earnestly.

A touch roused me--an imperative, burning touch. An airy brightness,
like a light cloud with sunshine falling through it, hovered above
Zara's bier! I gazed breathlessly; I could not move my lips to utter
a sound. A face looked at me--a face angelically beautiful! It
smiled. I stretched out my hands; I struggled for speech, and
managed to whisper:

"Zara, Zara! you have come back!"

Her voice, so sweetly familiar, answered me: "To life? Ah, never,
never again! I am too happy to return. But save him--save my
brother! Go to him; he is in danger; to you is given the rescue.
Save him; and for me rejoice, and grieve no more!"

The face vanished, the brightness faded, and I sprang up from my
knees in haste. For one instant I looked at the beautiful dead body
of the friend I loved, with its set mouth and placid features, and
then I smiled. This was not Zara--SHE was alive and happy; this fair
clay was but clay doomed to perish, but SHE was imperishable.

"Save him--save my brother!" These words rang in my ears. I
hesitated no longer--I determined to seek Heliobas at once. Swiftly
and noiselessly I slipped out of the chapel. As the door swung
behind me I heard a sound that first made me stop in sudden alarm,
and then hurry on with increased eagerness. There was no mistaking
it--it was the clash of steel!




CHAPTER XVI.

A STRUGGLE FOR THE MASTERY.


I rushed to the study-door, tore aside the velvet hangings, and
faced Heliobas and Prince Ivan Petroffsky. They held drawn weapons,
which they lowered at my sudden entrance, and paused irresolutely.

"What are you doing?" I cried, addressing myself to Heliobas. "With
the dead body of your sister in the house you can fight! You, too!"
and I looked reproachfully at Prince Ivan; "you also can desecrate
the sanctity of death, and yet--you LOVED her!"

The Prince spoke not, but clenched his sword-hilt with a fiercer
grasp, and glared wildly on his opponent. His eyes had a look of
madness in them--his dress was much disordered--his hair wet with
drops of rain--his face ghastly white, and his whole demeanour was
that of a man distraught with grief and passion. But he uttered no
word. Heliobas spoke; he was coldly calm, and balanced his sword
lightly on his open hand as if it were a toy.

"This GENTLEMAN," he said, with deliberate emphasis, "happened, on
his way thither, to meet Dr. Morini, who informed him of the fatal
catastrophe which has caused my sister's death. Instead of
respecting the sacredness of my solitude under the circumstances, he
thrust himself rudely into my presence, and, before I could address
him, struck me violently in the face, and accused me of being my
sister's murderer. Such conduct can only meet with one reply. I gave
him his choice of weapons: he chose swords. Our combat has just
begun--we are anxious to resume it; therefore if you, mademoiselle,
will have the goodness to retire---"

I interrupted him.

"I shall certainly not retire," I said firmly. "This behaviour on
both your parts is positive madness. Prince Ivan, please to listen
to me. The circumstances of Zara's death were plainly witnessed by
me and others--her brother is as innocent of having caused it as I
am."

And I recounted to him quietly all that had happened during that
fatal and eventful evening. He listened moodily, tracing out the
pattern of the carpet with the point of his sword. When I had
finished he looked up, and a bitter smile crossed his features.

"I wonder, mademoiselle," he said, "that your residence in this
accursed house has not taught you better. I quite believe all you
say, that Zara, unfortunate girl that she was, received her death by
a lightning-flash. But answer me this: Who made her capable of
attracting atmospheric electricity? Who charged her beautiful
delicate body with a vile compound of electrical fluid, so that she
was as a living magnet, bound to draw towards herself electricity in
all its forms? Who tampered with her fine brain and made her imagine
herself allied to a spirit of air? Who but HE--HE!--yonder
unscrupulous wretch!--he who in pursuit of his miserable science,
practised his most dangerous experiments on his sister, regardless
of her health, her happiness, her life! I say he is her murderer--
her remorseless murderer, and a thrice-damned villain!"

And he sprang forward to renew the combat. I stepped quietly,
unflinchingly between him and Heliobas.

"Stop!" I exclaimed; "this cannot go on. Zara herself forbids it!"

The Prince paused, and looked at me in a sort of stupefaction.

"Zara forbids it!" he muttered. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," I went on, "that I have seen Zara since her death; I have
spoken to her. She herself sent me here."

Prince Ivan stared, and then burst into a fit of wild laughter.

"Little fool!" he cried to me; "he has maddened you too, then! You
are also a victim! Miserable girl! out of my path! Revenge--revenge!
while I am yet sane!"

Then pushing me roughly aside, he cast away his sword, and shouted
to Heliobas:

"Hand to hand, villain! No more of these toy-weapons! Hand to hand!"

Heliobas instantly threw down his sword also, and rushing forward
simultaneously, they closed together in savage conflict. Heliobas
was the taller and more powerful of the two, but Prince Ivan seemed
imbued with the spirit of a hundred devils, and sprang at his
opponent's throat with the silent breathless ferocity of a tiger. At
first Heliobas appeared to be simply on the defensive, and his
agile, skilful movements were all used to parry and ward off the
other's grappling eagerness. But as I watched the struggle, myself
speechless and powerless, I saw his face change. Instead of its calm
and almost indifferent expression, there came a look which was
completely foreign to it--a look of savage determination bordering
on positive cruelty. In a moment I saw what was taking place in his
mind. The animal passions of the mere MAN were aroused--the
spiritual force was utterly forgotten. The excitement of the contest
was beginning to tell, and the desire of victory was dominant in the
breast of him whose ideas were generally--and should have been now--
those of patient endurance and large generosity. The fight grew
closer, hotter, and more terrible. Suddenly the Prince swerved aside
and fell, and within a second Heliobas held him down, pressing one
knee firmly against his chest. From my point of observation I noted
with alarm that little by little Ivan ceased his violent efforts to
rise, and that he kept his eyes fixed on the overshadowing face of
his foe with an unnatural and curious pertinacity. I stepped
forward. Heliobas pressed his whole weight heavily down on the young
man's prostrate body, while with both hands he held him by the
shoulders, and gazed with terrific meaning into his fast-paling
countenance. Ivan's lips turned blue; his eyes appeared to start
from their sockets; his throat rattled. The spell that held me
silent was broken; a flash of light, a flood of memory swept over my
intelligence. I knew that Heliobas was exciting the whole battery of
his inner electric force, and that thus employed for the purposes of
vengeance, it must infallibly cause death. I found my speech at
last.

"Heliobas!" I cried "Remember, remember Azul! When Death lies like a
gift in your hand, withhold it. Withhold it, Heliobas; and give Life
instead!"

He started at the sound of my voice, and looked up. A strong shudder
shook his frame. Very slowly, very reluctantly, he relaxed his
position; he rose from his kneeling posture on the Prince's breast--
he left him and stood upright. Ivan at the same moment heaved a deep
sigh, and closed his eyes, apparently insensible.

Gradually one by one the hard lines faded out of the face of
Heliobas, and his old expression of soft and grave beneficence came
back to it as graciously as sunlight after rain. He turned to me,
and bent his head in a sort of reverential salutation.

"I thank and bless you," he said; "you reminded me in time! Another
moment and it would have been too late. You have saved me."

"Give him his life," I said, pointing to Ivan.

"He has it," returned Heliobas; "I have not taken it from him, thank
God! He provoked me; I regret it. I should have been more patient
with him. He will revive immediately. I leave him to your care. In
dealing with him, I ought to have remembered that human passion like
his, unguided by spiritual knowledge, was to be met with pity and
forbearance. As it is, however, he is safe. For me, I will go and
pray for Zara's pardon, and that of my wronged Azul."

As he uttered the last words, he started, looked up, and smiled.

"My beautiful one! Thou HAST pardoned me? Thou wilt love me still?
Thou art with me, Azul, my beloved? I have not lost thee, oh my best
and dearest! Wilt thou lead me? Whither? Nay--no matter whither--I
come!"

And as one walking in sleep, he went out of the room, and I heard
his footsteps echoing in the distance on the way to the chapel.

Left alone with the Prince, I snatched a glass of cold water from
the table, and sprinkled some of it on his forehead and hands. This
was quite sufficient to revive him; and he drew a long breath,
opened his eyes, and stared wildly about him. Seeing no one but me
he grew bewildered, and asked:

"What has happened?"

Then catching sight of the drawn swords lying still on the ground
where they had been thrown, he sprang to his feet, and cried:

"Where is the coward and murderer?"

I made him sit down and hear with patience what I had to say. I
reminded him that Zara's health and happiness had always been
perfect, and that her brother would rather have slain himself than
her. I told him plainly that Zara had expected her death, and had
prepared for it--had even bade me good-bye, although then I had not
understood the meaning of her words. I recalled to his mind the day
when Zara had used her power to repulse him.

"Disbelieve as you will in electric spiritual force," I said. "Your
message to her then through me was--TELL HER I HAVE SEEN HER LOVER."

At these words a sombre shadow flitted over the Prince's face.

"I tell you," he said slowly, "that I believe I was on that occasion
the victim of an hallucination. But I will explain to you what I
saw. A superb figure, like, and yet unlike, a man, but of a much
larger and grander form, appeared to me, as I thought, and spoke.
'Zara is mine,' it said--'mine by choice; mine by freewill; mine
till death; mine after death; mine through eternity. With her thou
hast naught in common; thy way lies elsewhere. Follow the path
allotted to thee, and presume no more upon an angel's patience.'
Then this Strange majestic-looking creature, whose face, as I
remember it, was extraordinarily beautiful, and whose eyes were like
self-luminous stars, vanished. But, after all, what of it? The whole
thing was a dream."

"I am not so sure of that," I said quietly, "But, Prince Ivan, now
that you are calmer and more capable of resignation, will you tell
me why you loved Zara?"

"Why!" he broke out impetuously. "Why, because it was impossible to
help loving her."

"That is no answer," I replied. "Think! You can reason well if you
like--I have heard you hold your own in an argument. What made you
love Zara?"

He looked at me in a sort of impatient surprise, but seeing I was
very much in earnest, he pondered a minute or so before replying.

"She was the loveliest woman I have ever seen!" he said at last, and
in his voice there was a sound of yearning and regret.

"Is THAT all?" I queried, with a gesture of contempt. "Because her
body was beautiful--because she had sweet kissing lips and a soft
skin; because her hand was like a white flower, and her dark hair
clustering over her brow reminded one of a misty evening cloud
hiding moonlight; because the glance of her glorious eyes made the
blood leap through your veins and sting you with passionate desire--
are these the reasons of your so-called love? Oh, give it some other
and lower name! For the worms shall feed on the fair flesh that won
your admiration--their wet and slimy bodies shall trail across the
round white arms and tender bosom--unsightly things shall crawl
among the tresses of the glossy hair; and nothing, nothing shall
remain of what you loved, but dust. Prince Ivan, you shudder; but I
too loved Zara--I loved HER, not the perishable casket in which,
like a jewel, she was for a time enshrined. I love her still--and
for the being I love there is no such thing as death."

The Prince was silent, and seemed touched. I had spoken with real
feeling, and tears of emotion stood in my eyes.

"I loved her as a man generally loves," he said, after a little
pause. "Nay--more than most men love most women!"

"Most men are too often selfish in both their loves and hatreds," I
returned. "Tell me if there was anything in Zara's mind and
intelligence to attract you? Did you sympathize in her pursuits; did
you admire her tastes; had you any ideas in common with her?"

"No, I confess I had not," he answered readily. "I considered her to
be entirely a victim to her brother's scientific experiments. I
thought, by making her my wife, to release her from such tyranny and
give her rescue and refuge. To this end I found out all I could
from--HIM"--he approached the name of Heliobas with reluctance--"and
I made up my mind that her delicate imagination had been morbidly
excited; but that marriage and a life like that led by other women
would bring her to a more healthy state of mind."

I smiled with a little scorn.

"Your presumption was almost greater than your folly, Prince," I
said, "that with such ideas as these in your mind you could dream of
winning Zara for a wife. Do you think she could have led a life like
that of other women? A frivolous round of gaiety, a few fine dresses
and jewels, small-talk, society scandal, stale compliments--you
think such things would have suited HER? And would she have
contented herself with a love like yours? Come! Come and see how
well she has escaped you!"

And I beckoned him towards the door. He hesitated.

"Where would you take me?" he asked.

"To the chapel. Zara's body lies there."

He shuddered.

"No, no--not there! I cannot bear to look upon her perished
loveliness--to see that face, once so animated, white and rigid--
death in such a form is too horrible!"

And he covered his eyes with his hand--I saw tears slowly drop
through his fingers. I gazed at him, half in wonder, half in pity.

"And yet you are a brave man!" I said.

These words roused him. He met my gaze with such a haggard look of
woe that my heart ached for him. What comfort had he now? What joy
could he ever expect? All his happiness was centred in the fact of
BEING ALIVE--alive to the pleasures of living, and to the joys the
world could offer to a man who was strong, handsome, rich, and
accomplished--how could he look upon death as otherwise than a
loathsome thing--a thing not to be thought of in the heyday of
youthful blood and jollity--a doleful spectre, in whose bony hands
the roses of love must fall and wither! With a sense of deep
commiseration in me, I spoke again with great gentleness.

"You need not look upon Zara's corpse unless you wish it, Prince," I
said. "To you, the mysteries of the Hereafter have not been
unlocked, because there is something in your nature that cannot and
will not believe in God. Therefore to you, death must be repellent.
I know you are one of those for whom the present alone exists--you
easily forget the past, and take no trouble for the future. Paris is
your heaven, or St. Petersburg, or Vienna, as the fancy takes you;
and the modern atheistical doctrines of French demoralization are in
your blood. Nothing but a heaven-sent miracle could make you other
than you are, and miracles do not exist for the materialist. But let
me say two words more before you go from this house. Seek no more to
avenge yourself for your love-disappointment on Heliobas--for you
have really nothing to avenge. By your own confession you only cared
for Zara's body--that body was always perishable, and it has
perished by a sudden but natural catastrophe. With her soul, you
declare you had nothing in common--that was herself--and she is
alive to us who love her as she sought to be loved. Heliobas is
innocent of having slain her body; he but helped to cultivate and
foster that beautiful Spirit which he knew to be HER--for that he is
to be honored and commended. Promise me, therefore, Prince Ivan,
that you will never approach him again except in friendship--indeed,
you owe him an apology for your unjust accusation, as also your
gratitude for his sparing your life in the recent struggle."

The Prince kept his eyes steadily fixed upon me all the time I was
speaking, and as I finished, he sighed and moved restlessly.

"Your words are compelling, mademoiselle," he said; "and you have a
strange attraction for me. I know I am not wrong in thinking that
you are a disciple of Heliobas, whose science I admit, though I
doubt his theories. I promise you willingly what you ask--nay, I
will even offer him my hand if he will accept it."

Overjoyed at my success, I answered: "He is in the chapel, but I
will fetch him here."

Over the Prince's face a shadow of doubt, mingled with dread, passed
swiftly, and he seemed to be forming a resolve in his own mind which
was more or less distasteful to him. Whatever the feeling was he
conquered it by a strong effort, and said with firmness:

"No; I will go to him myself. And I will look again upon--upon the
face I loved. It is but one pang the more, and why should I not
endure it?"

Seeing him thus inclined, I made no effort to dissuade him, and
without another word I led the way to the chapel. I entered it
reverently, he following me closely, with slow hushed footsteps. All
was the same as I had left it, save that the servants of the
household had gone to take some needful rest before the morning
light called them to their daily routine of labour. Father Paul,
too, had retired, and Heliobas alone knelt beside all that remained
of Zara, his figure as motionless as though carved in bronze, his
face hidden in his hands. As we approached, he neither stirred nor
looked up, therefore I softly led the Prince to the opposite side of
the bier, that he might look quietly on the perished loveliness that
lay there at rest for ever. Ivan trembled, yet steadfastly gazed at
the beautiful reposeful form, at the calm features on which the
smile with which death had been received, still lingered--at the
folded hands, the fading orange-blosoms--at the crucifix that lay on
the cold breast like the final seal on the letter of life.
Impulsively he stooped forward, and with a tender awe pressed his
lips on the pale forehead, but instantly started back with the
smothered, exclamation:

"O God! how cold!"

At the sound of his voice Heliobas rose up erect, and the two men
faced each other, Zara's dead body lying like a barrier betwixt
them.

A pause followed--a pause in which I heard my own heart beating
loudly, so great was my anxiety. Heliobas suffered a few moments to
elapse, then stretched his hand across his sister's bier.

"In HER name, let there be peace between us, Ivan," he said in
accents that were both gentle and solemn.

The Prince, touched to the quick, responded to these kindly words
with eager promptness, and they clasped hands over the quiet and
lovely form that lay there--a silent, binding witness of their
reconciliation.

"I have to ask your pardon, Casimir," then whispered Ivan. "I have
also to thank you for my life."

"Thank the friend who stands beside you," returned Heliobas, in the
same low tone, with a slight gesture towards me. "She reminded me of
a duty in time. As for pardon, I know of no cause of offence on your
part save what was perfectly excusable. Say no more; wisdom comes
with years, and you are yet young."

A long silence followed. We all remained looking wistfully down upon
the body of our lost darling, in thought too deep for words or
weeping. I then noticed that another humble mourner shared our
watch--a mourner whose very existence I had nearly forgotten. It was
the faithful Leo. He lay couchant on the stone floor at the foot of
the bier, almost as silent as a dog of marble; the only sign of
animation he gave being a deep sigh which broke from his honest
heart now and then. I went to him and softly patted his shaggy coat.
He looked up at me with big brown eyes full of tears, licked my hand
meekly, and again laid his head down upon his two fore-paws with a
resignation that was most pathetic.

The dawn began to peer faintly through the chapel windows--the dawn
of a misty, chilly morning. The storm of the past night had left a
sting in the air, and the rain still fell, though gently. The wind
had almost entirely sunk into silence. I re-arranged the flowers
that were strewn on Zara's corpse, taking away all those that had
slightly faded. The orange-blossom was almost dead, but I left that
where it was--where the living Zara had herself placed it. As I
performed this slight service, I thought, half mournfully, half
gladly--

"Yes, Heaven is thine, but this
Is a world of sweets and sours--
Our flowers are merely FLOWERS;
And the shadow of thy perfect bliss
Is the sunshine of ours."

Prince Ivan at last roused himself as from a deep and melancholy
reverie, and, addressing himself to Heliobas, said softly:

"I will intrude no longer on your privacy, Casimir. Farewell! I
shall leave Paris to-night."

For all answer Heliobas beckoned him and me also out of the chapel.
As soon as its doors closed behind us, and we stood in the centre
hall, he spoke with affectionate and grave earnestness:

"Ivan, something tells me that you and I shall not meet again for
many years, if ever. Therefore, when you say 'farewell,' the word
falls upon my ears with double meaning. We are friends--our
friendship is sanctified by the dead presence of one whom we both
loved, in different ways; therefore you will take in good part what
I now say to you. You know, you cannot disguise from yourself that
the science I study is fraught with terrible truth and marvellous
discoveries; the theories I deduce from it you disbelieve, because
you are nearly a materialist. I say NEARLY--not quite. That 'not
quite' makes me love you, Ivan: I would save the small bright spark
that flickers within you from both escape and extinction. But I
cannot--at least, not as yet. Still, in order that you may know that
there is a power in me higher than ordinary human reason, before you
go from me to-night hear my prophecy of your career. The world waits
for you, Ivan--the world, all agape and glittering with a thousand
sparkling toys; it waits greedy for your presence, ready to fawn
upon you for a smile, willing to cringe to you for a nod of
approval. And why? Because wealth is yours--vast, illimitable
wealth. Aye--you need not start or look incredulous--you will find
it as I say. You, whose fortune up to now has barely reached a poor
four thousand per annum--you are at this moment the possessor of
millions. Only last night a relative of yours, whose name you
scarcely know, expired, leaving all his hoarded treasures to you.
Before the close of this present day, on whose threshold we now
stand, you will have the news. When you receive it remember me, and
acknowledge that at least for once I knew and spoke the truth.
Follow the broad road, Ivan, laid out before you--a road wide enough
not only for you to walk in, but for the crowd of toadies and
flatterers also, who will push on swiftly after you and jostle you
on all sides; be strong of heart and merry of countenance! Gather
the roses; press the luscious grapes into warm, red wine that, as
you quaff it, shall make your blood dance a mad waltz in your veins,
and fair women's faces shall seem fairer to you than ever, their
embraces more tender, their kisses more tempting! Spin the ball of
Society like a toy in the palm of your hand! I see your life
stretching before me like a brilliant, thread-like ephemeral ray of
light! But in the far distance across it looms a shadow--a shadow
that your power alone can never lift. Mark me, Ivan! When the first
dread chill of that shadow makes itself felt, come to me--I shall
yet be living. Come; for then no wealth can aid you--at that dark
hour no boon companions can comfort. Come; and by our friendship so
lately sworn--by Zara's pure soul--by God's existence, I will not
die till I have changed that darkness over you into light eternal!--
Fare you well!"

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