Alas! the trials of early years prepare man for the afflictions ofafter-life; but Paul had never experienced any.
I took him back to his own dwelling, where I found his mother and Madamede la Tour in a state of increased languor and exhaustion, but Margaretseemed to droop the most. Lively characters, upon whom petty troubleshave but little effect, sink the soonest under great calamities.
"O my good friend," said Margaret, "I thought last night I saw Virginia,dressed in white, in the midst of groves and delicious gardens. She saidto me, 'I enjoy the most perfect happiness:' and then approaching Paulwith a smiling air, she bore him away with her. While I was strugglingto retain my son, I felt that I myself too was quitting the earth, andthat I followed with inexpressible delight. I then wished to bid myfriend farewell, when I saw that she was hastening after me, accompaniedby Mary and Domingo. But the strangest circumstance remains yet to betold; Madame de la Tour has this very night had a dream exactly likemine in every possible respect."
"My dear friend," I replied, "nothing, I firmly believe, happens in thisworld without the permission of God. Future events, too, are sometimesrevealed in dreams."
Madame de la Tour then related to me her dream which was exactly thesame as Margaret's in every particular; and as I had never observed ineither of these ladies any propensity to superstition, I was struck withthe singular coincidence of their dreams, and I felt convinced thatthey would soon be realized. The belief that future events are sometimesrevealed to us during sleep, is one that is widely diffused among thenations of the earth. The greatest men of antiquity have had faith init; among whom may be mentioned Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar,the Scipios, the two Catos, and Brutus, none of whom were weak-mindedpersons. Both the Old and the New Testament furnish us with numerousinstances of dreams that came to pass. As for myself, I need only, onthis subject, appeal to my experience, as I have more than once had goodreason to believe that superior intelligences, who interest themselvesin our welfare, communicate with us in these visions of the night.Things which surpass the light of human reason cannot be proved byarguments derived from that reason; but still, if the mind of man is animage of that of God, since man can make known his will to the ends ofthe earth by secret missives, may not the Supreme Intelligence whichgoverns the universe employ similar means to attain a like end? Onefriend consoles another by a letter, which, after passing through manykingdoms, and being in the hands of various individuals at enmity witheach other, brings at last joy and hope to the breast of a single humanbeing. May not in like manner the Sovereign Protector of innocence comein some secret way, to the help of a virtuous soul, which puts its trustin Him alone? Has He occasion to employ visible means to effect Hispurpose in this, whose ways are hidden in all His ordinary works?
Why should we doubt the evidence of dreams? for what is our life,occupied as it is with vain and fleeting imaginations, other than aprolonged vision of the night?
Whatever may be thought of this in general, on the present occasion thedreams of my friends were soon realized. Paul expired two months afterthe death of his Virginia, whose name dwelt on his lips in his expiringmoments. About a week after the death of her son, Margaret saw her lasthour approach with that serenity which virtue only can feel. She badeMadame de la Tour a most tender farewell, "in the certain hope," shesaid, "of a delightful and eternal re-union. Death is the greatest ofblessings to us," added she, "and we ought to desire it. If life be apunishment, we should wish for its termination; if it be a trial, weshould be thankful that it is short."
The governor took care of Domingo and Mary, who were no longer able tolabour, and who survived their mistresses but a short time. As for poorFidele, he pined to death, soon after he had lost his master.
I afforded an asylum in my dwelling to Madame de la Tour, who boreup under her calamities with incredible elevation of mind. She hadendeavoured to console Paul and Margaret till their last moments, as ifshe herself had no misfortunes of her own to bear. When they were notmore, she used to talk to me every day of them as of beloved friends,who were still living near her. She survived them however, but onemonth. Far from reproaching her aunt for the afflictions she had caused,her benign spirit prayed to God to pardon her, and to appease thatremorse which we heard began to torment her, as soon as she had sentVirginia away with so much inhumanity.
Conscience, that certain punishment of the guilty, visited with all itsterrors the mind of this unnatural relation. So great was her torment,that life and death became equally insupportable to her. Sometimes shereproached herself with the untimely fate of her lovely niece, and withthe death of her mother, which had immediately followed it. At othertimes she congratulated herself for having repulsed far from her twowretched creatures, who, she said, had both dishonoured their familyby their grovelling inclinations. Sometimes, at the sight of the manymiserable objects with which Paris abounds, she would fly into a rage,and exclaim,--"Why are not these idle people sent off to the colonies?"As for the notions of humanity, virtue and religion, adopted by allnations, she said, they were only the inventions of their rulers, toserve political purposes. Then, flying all at once to the other extreme,she abandoned herself to superstitious terrors, which filled herwith mortal fears. She would then give abundant alms to the wealthyecclesiastics who governed her, beseeching them to appease the wrath ofGod by the sacrifice of her fortune,--as if the offering to Him of thewealth she had withheld from the miserable could please her HeavenlyFather! In her imagination she often beheld fields of fire, with burningmountains, wherein hideous spectres wandered about, loudly calling onher by name. She threw herself at her confessor's feet, imagining everydescription of agony and torture; for Heaven--just Heaven, always sendsto the cruel the most frightful views of religion and a future state.
Atheist, thus, and fanatic in turn, holding both life and death in equalhorror, she lived on for several years. But what completed the tormentsof her miserable existence, was that very object to which she hadsacrificed every natural affection. She was deeply annoyed at perceivingthat her fortune must go, at her death, to relations whom she hated, andshe determined to alienate as much of it as she could. They, however,taking advantage of her frequent attacks of low spirits, caused her tobe secluded as a lunatic, and her affairs to be put into the hands oftrustees. Her wealth, thus completed her ruin; and, as the possessionof it had hardened her own heart, so did its anticipation corrupt thehearts of those who coveted it from her. At length she died; and, tocrown her misery, she retained enough reason at last to be sensible thatshe was plundered and despised by the very persons whose opinions hadbeen her rule of conduct during her whole life.
On the same spot, and at the foot of the same shrubs as his Virginia,was deposited the body of Paul; and round about them lie the remains oftheir tender mothers and their faithful servants. No marble marks thespot of their humble graves, no inscription records their virtues;but their memory is engraven upon the hearts of those whom they havebefriended, in indelible characters. Their spirits have no need of thepomp, which they shunned during their life; but if they still take aninterest in what passes upon earth, they no doubt love to wander beneaththe roofs of these humble dwellings, inhabited by industrious virtue, toconsole poverty discontented with its lot, to cherish in the heartsof lovers the sacred flame of fidelity, and to inspire a taste forthe blessings of nature, a love of honest labour, and a dread of theallurements of riches.
The voice of the people, which is often silent with regard to themonuments raised to kings, has given to some parts of this island nameswhich will immortalize the loss of Virginia. Near the isle of Amber, inthe midst of sandbanks, is a spot called The Pass of the Saint-Geran,from the name of the vessel which was there lost. The extremity of thatpoint of land which you see yonder, three leagues off, half covered withwater, and which the Saint-Geran could not double the night before thehurricane, is called the Cape of Misfortune; and before us, at the endof the valley, is the Bay of the Tomb, where Virginia was found buriedin the sand; as if the waves had sought to res
tore her corpse to herfamily, that they might render it the last sad duties on those shoreswhere so many years of her innocent life had been passed.
Joined thus in death, ye faithful lovers, who were so tenderly united!unfortunate mothers! beloved family! these woods which sheltered youwith their foliage,--these fountains which flowed for you,--thesehill-sides upon which you reposed, still deplore your loss! No one hassince presumed to cultivate that desolate spot of land, or to rebuildthose humble cottages. Your goats are become wild: your orchards aredestroyed; your birds are all fled, and nothing is heard but the cry ofthe sparrow-hawk, as it skims in quest of prey around this rocky basin.As for myself, since I have ceased to behold you, I have felt friendlessand alone, like a father bereft of his children, or a traveller whowanders by himself over the face of the earth.
Ending with these words, the good old man retired, bathed
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