Sir Jasper Carew Part 35

"And how is she called?"

I could not tell him. I only knew her as one who was as a mother to me, and yet said she had no t.i.tle to that name. Once or twice I had heard her addressed as the Countess. There ended my knowledge of her condition.

"She is rich, then?" asked be.

"Far from it," said I, sorrowfully.

"Then can I make her so!" exclaimed he. "Joined with me in this mighty enterprise, you can be the richest and the greatest man of the age. Nay, child, this is not matter to smile at. I am no dreamer, no moon-struck student of the impossible. I do not ponder over those subtle combinations of metals that are to issue forth in yellow gold, nor do I labor to distil the essences which are to crystallize into rubies. What I strive at has been reached already,--the goal won, the prize enjoyed!

Ay, by my own father. By him was this brilliant discovery proclaimed triumphantly before the face of Europe."

The exultation with which he uttered these words seemed to carry him away in thought from the scene wherein he stood, and his eyes gleamed with a strange fire, and his lips continued to mutter rapidly. Then, ceasing of a sudden, he said,--

"I must seek her; she will recognize me, for she will have heard our history. She will give her permission, too, to you to join me in my great design. The fate that sent you hither was no accident. Boy, there are none such in life. Our pa.s.sions in their wilfulness color destiny with fitful changes, and these we call chance; but in nature all is predetermined, and by plan."

Now rambling on this wise, now stopping to question me as to who we were, whence we came, and with what objects, he continued to talk till, fairly overcome by weariness, I dropped off to sleep, his loud tones still ringing in my ears through my dreams.

The following day he never left me; he seemed insatiable in his desire to learn what progress I had made in knowledge, and how far my acquirements extended. For cla.s.sical learning and literature he evinced no respect. These and modern languages, he said, were mere accomplishments that might adorn a life of ease and luxury; but that to a man who would be truly great there was but one subject of inquiry,--the source of wealth, and the causes which make states affluent. These, he said, were the legitimate subjects for high intelligence to engage upon. "Master these," said he, "and monarchs are your va.s.sals." I was amazed to discover that amid the ma.s.s of prejudices which enc.u.mbered his mind, it was stored with information the most various and remarkable. It was evident, too, that he had lived much in the great world, and was familiar with all its habits and opinions. As time wore on, I learned from him that his present life, with all its privations, was purely voluntary; that he possessed sufficient means to support an existence of comfort and ease. "But," added he, "if you would give the intelligence a supremacy, it must be done at the cost of animal enjoyment. If the body is to be pampered, the brain will take its ease.

To this end came I here; to this end have I lived fourteen years of toil and isolation. I have estranged myself from all that could distract me; friendships, pleasures, the great events of the age,--I know none of them! I am satisfied to toil and think now that, in after ages, men should hold my name in reverence, and regard my memory with affection."

Although he constantly made allusions of this kind, he never proceeded to give me any closer insight into his designs; and if at moments the reasonableness of his manner and the strong force of his remarks impressed me favorably with regard to his powers of mind, at others I was induced to think that nothing short of erring faculties could have condemned a man to a voluntary life of such abject want and of such cruel privation as he endured.

It was still some weeks before I had strength to return home; but he permitted me to write every second day to my mother and Raper, from whom I heard in return. If at first my ardent longing to be once more at home--to be with those who made up the whole world of my existence--surpa.s.sed all other thoughts, I grew day by day to feel the strange fascination of an unknown interest in the subject of his talk, and to experience an intense anxiety to know his secret.

It was evident that he felt the influence he had obtained over me, and was bent on extending and enlarging it; for constantly would he dwell upon the themes which attracted me and fascinated my attention. Shall I confess what these were? The brilliant pictures of courtly life, the splendor and fascination of a palace, where all that could charm and captivate abounded, and all were at the feet of one who, not a king, was yet greater than a king, and who in the mighty power of his intellect held kings and kaisers as his bond-slaves.

That these were not mere fancies he a.s.sured me by saying,--

"This has been witnessed by all Europe; it is not more than fifty years ago that the world has seen all that I tell you. When I can convince you of this, will you pledge yourself to be my follower?"

I at once gave my promise, and ratified it by a solemn row.

The next day we started on our return to Reichenau.

CHAPTER XXIV. "THE HERR ROBERT"

I will not attempt to describe the welcome that met me on my return, nor the grat.i.tude with which my mother overwhelmed my kind protector. The whole school, and no inconsiderable part of the village itself, had gone forth to meet us, and we were conducted back in a sort of triumph. Over and over again was I obliged to recount my story, of which the mystery still remained unexplained. Who and what was the strange recluse who so long had inhabited the castle of the Forlorn Glen, and who now stood before them, old and simply clad, but still bearing unmistakable marks of having been a person of some condition?

As Mr. Robert he desired to be known by me, and as such was he received by my mother. He declined the offer she freely made him of a room in her own small house, and hired a little lodging in the toll-house on the bridge, and which he said was convenient to the garden of the chateau, where he obtained the liberty of walking. If the interest which he manifested in me was at first a cause of anxiety to my mother, not knowing what it portended, nor how far it might contribute to withdraw my affection from herself, it was clear that she soon became satisfied with whatever explanation he afforded, and that those long conversations, frequently prolonged to a late hour of the night, which they held together, had the effect of reconciling her to his views and intentions.

Thus was a new individual introduced into the little circle of our family party, and each Sunday saw him seated at our dinner-table, of which his conversation formed the great charm. It was not alone that his mind was stored with varied information the most rare and curious, but his knowledge of the world itself and of mankind seemed more remarkable still; and frequently, after he had left us of an evening, have I overheard my mother express her wonder to Raper who and what he had been, and by what strange events he was reduced to his present condition. These remarks of hers at first showed me that whatever revelations he might have made in his long interviews with her, he had told little or nothing of his own story. Such was indeed the case, and I can remember well a little scene, in itself unimportant and of no consequence, which can both portray my mother's intense curiosity on this theme, and display some traits of him for whom it was excited.

It happened that at the period when her little quarterly pittance came due, my mother was confined to home by a slight feverish cold, and Herr Klann, the banker and moneychanger of the village, was condescending enough to come in person and hand her the amount. In spite of her narrow fortune, my mother had always been treated with a marked deference by the village, and Herr Klann demeaned himself on the occasion with every show of courtesy and politeness. He indeed did not scruple to display that he was the great depositary of riches for miles and miles around; that all the relations of trade and commerce, all the circ.u.mstances of family fortune,--the dowries of brides, the portions of younger sons,--were in his charge and keeping. He talked much of the responsibility of his station and its requirements, and, like many others, while encomiumizing his secrecy, he exhibited the very opposite quality. There was not a house in the village or its neighborhood of which he did not incidentally relate some story or incident. He became, in fact, candor itself in his confessions. It is but fair to own that my mother looked most becomingly in her half invalid costume, and that the little straw-wrapped flask of "Sieben-berger" with which she regaled him was excellent. Herr Klann was a man to acknowledge both such influences.

He possessed the Hebrew weaknesses both as regards gold and beauty. He therefore became largely confidential,--taking a survey of the whole neighborhood, and revealing their circ.u.mstances with the minute anatomy that a surgeon might have employed in displaying their structure. My mother heard him with no peculiar interest till by accident he alluded to the "Herr Robert;" it was a mere reference to the toll-house where he lived, but the name at once awakened her attention.

"With him, I conclude," said she, "your money dealings are few. He does not appear to be wealthy."

"He is a mystery in every way, madam," replied Klann, "his very cash does not come through a banker or an agent; he has no credit, no bills--nothing. He comes down to me at times, say once a month or so, to change a few gold pieces,--they are always 'Louis.' I remark, and sometimes of the time of the late reign. They are good money, and full weight invariably, that I must say."

"And what may be your own opinion of all this?"

"I can form none,--positively none, madam. Of course I need not say that I regret the vulgar notion in the village that he is in communication with supernatural agencies; neither you nor I, madam, are likely to fall into this absurd mistake."

"And so you rather incline to suppose--" She drew out the words tardily, and fixed on Herr Klann a look of ineffable softness and intelligence together.

"I do, madam,--that is my private opinion," said he, sententiously.

"Would that account for the life he has been leading for some years back,--should we have found him pa.s.sing such a long term in isolation from all the world?" asked she.

"I think so, madam, and I will tell you why. The agents employed by the regency, and in the beginning of the present reign in France, were all men of certain condition,--many of them belonged to high families, and, having ruined their fortunes by extravagance, were fain to take any occupation for mere subsistence. Some of them resided as n.o.bles in Vienna, and were received at the court of the Empress. Others gained admittance to St. James's. They were supplied with money, both for purposes of play and bribery; and that they used such means to good account is now matter of history. When the game was played out, and they were no longer needed by the government, such men were obliged to retire from the stage whereon they had only played a part. The Duc de Senneterre went into a monastery; Count Leon de Rhode set off for the New World; and there was one taken ill in this very village, whose name I now forget, who had gone into the priesthood, and was head of a seminary in Flanders. What more likely, then, than that our friend at the bridge yonder was some great celebrity of those times, of which I hear he loves to talk and declaim?"

The hint thus thrown out made a deep impression on my mother. It served to explain not only many circ.u.mstances of Herr Robert's position, but also to account for the strange glimpses of a great and glorious future, in which at moments of excitement he would indulge. A life of intrigue and plot would naturally enough suggest ambitious hopes, and conduce to the very frame of mind which he appeared to reach. That I should become the follower of such a man, and the disciple of such a school, revolted against all her feelings. The spy, no matter how highly accredited and how richly rewarded, was, in her eyes, the most ign.o.ble of all careers; and she would rather have seen me clad in the sheepskin of an Alpine shepherd than wearing, in this capacity, the decorations of every order of Europe.

From the moment, therefore, the suspicion crossed her mind that Herr Robert had been such, she firmly determined to withdraw me altogether from his intimacy. Nor was the step an easy one. He had become a recognized member of our little household; each evening saw him seated at our hearth or board; on every Sunday he dined with us. His little presents of wine and fruit, and occasionally of books, showed that he intended reciprocity to be a basis of our intercourse, of which, indeed, the balance lay in our favor. How, therefore, was such a state of things to be suddenly arrested? How bring to an abrupt conclusion an intimacy of which nothing had hitherto interrupted the peaceful course? This was a matter of no common difficulty, and for several days did she ponder over it to herself.

It chanced that, for the first time since her arrival at Reichenau, Herr Robert had been slightly indisposed, and being unable to come and see us, had sent for me to come each evening and read to him. At any other moment my mother would have thought no more of this, but coming now, at the very time when her feelings of doubt and suspicion were torturing her, she regarded the circ.u.mstance with actual apprehension.

At first, she thought of sending Raper along with me, in the guise of protector; but as Herr Robert had not requested his company, there seemed an awkwardness in this; then she half resolved to refuse me permission, on pretence of requiring my presence at home: this, too, would look ungracious; and when at last she did accord her leave, it was for a very limited time, and with strict injunctions to be back by an early hour.

It chanced that Herr Robert felt on this evening a more than ordinary desire to be frank and confidential. He related to me various anecdotes of his early days, the scenes he had mixed in, and the high a.s.sociates with whom he was intimate; and when he had excited my curiosity and wonderment to a high degree, by gorgeous narratives of the great world, he stopped short and said: "I would not have you think, Jasper, that these dukes and princes were more gifted or more endowed than other men; the only real difference between them is, that they employ their faculties on great events, not little ones; and all their pleasures, their amus.e.m.e.nts, their very vices, react upon the condition of mankind in general, and consequently whatever goes forward in their society has a certain amount of importance, not for itself, but for what may follow it."

These words made a profound impression upon me, leading to the conviction that out of this charmed circle life had no ambition worth striving for, no successes that deserved a struggle. From my mother I had no concealment, and before I went to my bed I told her all that the Herr Robert had said to me, and showed how deeply this sentiment had sunk into my mind.

I conclude that it must have been from some relation to her former fears she took immediate alarm at the possible bent my mind was receiving.

a.s.suredly she deemed that his influence over me was not without peril, and resolved the following morning to send for the Herr Robert, and in all frankness avow her fears, and appeal to his friendship to allay them.

I was about to set off for school when the old man was ascending the stairs, and taking me by the hand he led me back again into the little chamber, where my mother awaited him.

"Let Jasper remain with us, madam," said he; "the few words of your note have shown me what is pa.s.sing in your mind, and it will save you and me a world of explanation if he be suffered to be present."

My mother a.s.sented, not over willingly, perhaps, and the old man, taking a seat, at once begun,--

"If I had ever suspected, madam, that my history could have possibly possessed any interest for you, you should certainly have heard it ere now. My opinion was, however, different; and I thought, moreover, that as I had strictly abstained from encroaching upon your confidence, an equal reserve might have protected mine. Forgive me if by any accident the slightest word should escape me to cause you pain or displeasure.

Nothing can be further from my thoughts than this intention, and I beg of you so to receive whatever I say.

"Some years ago, a physician, in whom I had and have the fullest confidence, forewarned me that if certain symptoms which I then labored under should ever recur, my case would be beyond remedy, and my life could not be prolonged many days. Two days since, the first signs of these became evident; yesterday the appearance became more palpable; to-day I recognize them in full force. When a man of my age talks of his approaching death, he only speaks of what has been before his thoughts every day and every night for years back. Whatever benefit I was ever capable of rendering my fellow-men in my younger days, I have been latterly a useless and profitless member of the guild, and for this reason, that though time had not effaced my powers of intellect, the energy and the force that should develop them was gone. Without youth there is no vitality; without vitality, no action; without action, no success. I often fancied what results might arise if to the mature thoughts and experience of age were to be added the fire, the energy, and the pa.s.sion of youth. If caution and rashness, reserve and intrepidity, the distrust that comes of knowing men, with that credulous hope that stirs the young heart, were all to centre in one nature, what might we not effect? The fate that brought Jasper and myself together whispered to me that he might become such! I pictured to my mind the training he should go through, the hard discipline of work and labor, and yet without impairing in the slightest that mainspring of all power, the daring courage and energy of a young and brave spirit. To this end, he should incur no failures in early life, never know a reverse till it could become to him the starting-point for higher success. And thus launched upon life with every favoring breeze of fortune, what might not be predicted of his course?

"He who would stand high among his fellow-men, and be regarded as their benefactor and superior during his lifetime, must essentially be a man of action! The great geniuses of authorship, the ill.u.s.trious in art, have received their best rewards from posterity; contemporaries have attacked them, depreciated and reviled them; the very accidents of their lives have served to injure the excellence of their compositions. But the man of action stands forth to his own age great and distinguished; the world on which his services have bestowed benefits is proud to reward him! and either as a legislator, a conqueror, or a discoverer, his claims meet full acknowledgment.

"Who would not be one of these, then?--who would not aspire to win the enthusiasm that tracks such a career, and makes a mere mortal G.o.dlike?

"To be such I possessed the secret! Nay, madam, this is not the weakness of faltering intellect, nor the outpouring of a silly vanity. Hear me out with patience but a very little longer. It is not of some wonder of science or of mystery, of occult art, that I speak; and yet the power to which I allude is infinitely greater than any of these were ever fancied to bestow. Imagine an engine by which the failing energies of a whole nation can be rallied, its wasting vigor repaired, its resources invigorated. Fancy a nation--millions--brought out of poverty, debt, and distress, into wealth, affluence, and abundance; the springs of their industry reinforced, the sources of their traffic refreshed. Picture to your mind the change from an embarra.s.sed government, a ruined aristocracy, an indebted, poverty-stricken people, to a full treasury, a splendid n.o.bility, and a prosperous and powerful nation. Imagine all this; and then, if you can ascribe the transformation to the working of one man's intelligence, what will you say of him?

"I am not conjuring up a mere visionary or impossible triumph; what I describe has been actually done, and he who accomplished it was my own father!

"Yes, madam, the mightiest financial scheme the world has ever witnessed, the grandest exemplification of the principle of credit that has ever been promulgated by man, was his invention. He farmed the whole revenues of France, and at one stroke annihilated the peculation of receivers-general, and secured the revenue of the nation. He fructified the property of the state by employing its vast resources in commercial speculations; from the east to the west, from the fertile valley of the Mississippi to the golden plains of Asia, he opened every land to the enterprise of Frenchmen. Paris itself he made the capital city of the world. Who has not heard of the splendor of the regency, of Chantilly, the gorgeous palace of the Duc d'Orleans, the very stables more magnificent than the residences of many princes? The wealth and the rank of Europe flocked thither; and in the pleasures of that paradise of capitals lies the history of an age! He who did all this was my own father, and his name was John Law, of Lauriston! Ay, madam, you see before you, poor, humbly clad, and gray-haired, going down to the grave in actual want, the son of a man who once counted his revenue by millions, whose offerings to the Church of St. Roch would have made a meet dowry for a princess, and whose very menials acquired fortunes such as modern n.o.bility cannot equal."