The Plague, Pestilence & Apocalypse MEGAPACK™

by Robert Reed

  heart sickened at the thought of amusement; if the younger part of

  our community were ever impelled, by youthful and untamed hilar-

  ity, to enter on any dance or song, to cheer the melancholy time, they

  would suddenly break off, checked by a mournful look or agonizing

  sigh from any one among them, who was prevented by sorrows and

  losses from mingling in the festivity . If laughter echoed under our

  roof, yet the heart was vacant of joy; and, when ever it chanced

  that I witnessed such attempts at pastime, they encreased instead of

  diminishing my sense of woe . In the midst of the pleasure-hunting

  throng, I would close my eyes, and see before me the obscure cavern,

  where was garnered the mortality of Idris, and the dead lay around,

  mouldering in hushed repose . When I again became aware of the

  present hour, softest melody of Lydian flute, or harmonious maze of

  graceful dance, was but as the demoniac chorus in the Wolf’s Glen,

  and the caperings of the reptiles that surrounded the magic circle .

  My dearest interval of peace occurred, when, released from the

  obligation of associating with the crowd, I could repose in the dear

  home where my children lived . Children I say, for the tenderest emo-

  tions of paternity bound me to Clara . She was now fourteen; sorrow,

  and deep insight into the scenes around her, calmed the restless

  spirit of girlhood; while the remembrance of her father whom she

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  idolized, and respect for me and Adrian, implanted an high sense of

  duty in her young heart . Though serious she was not sad; the eager

  desire that makes us all, when young, plume our wings, and stretch

  our necks, that we may more swiftly alight tiptoe on the height of

  maturity, was subdued in her by early experience . All that she could

  spare of overflowing love from her parents’ memory, and attention

  to her living relatives, was spent upon religion . This was the hidden

  law of her heart, which she concealed with childish reserve, and

  cherished the more because it was secret . What faith so entire, what

  charity so pure, what hope so fervent, as that of early youth? and

  she, all love, all tenderness and trust, who from infancy had been

  tossed on the wide sea of passion and misfortune, saw the finger

  of apparent divinity in all, and her best hope was to make herself

  acceptable to the power she worshipped. Evelyn was only five years

  old; his joyous heart was incapable of sorrow, and he enlivened our

  house with the innocent mirth incident to his years .

  The aged Countess of Windsor had fallen from her dream of

  power, rank and grandeur; she had been suddenly seized with the

  conviction, that love was the only good of life, virtue the only en-

  nobling distinction and enriching wealth . Such a lesson had been

  taught her by the dead lips of her neglected daughter; and she devoted

  herself, with all the fiery violence of her character, to the obtaining

  the affection of the remnants of her family . In early years the heart

  of Adrian had been chilled towards her; and, though he observed a

  due respect, her coldness, mixed with the recollection of disappoint-

  ment and madness, caused him to feel even pain in her society . She

  saw this, and yet determined to win his love; the obstacle served the

  rather to excite her ambition . As Henry, Emperor of Germany, lay in

  the snow before Pope Leo’s gate for three winter days and nights, so

  did she in humility wait before the icy barriers of his closed heart,

  till he, the servant of love, and prince of tender courtesy, opened it

  wide for her admittance, bestowing, with fervency and gratitude, the

  tribute of filial affection she merited. Her understanding, courage,

  and presence of mind, became powerful auxiliaries to him in the

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  difficult task of ruling the tumultuous crowd, which were subjected

  to his control, in truth by a single hair .

  The principal circumstances that disturbed our tranquillity during

  this interval, originated in the vicinity of the impostor-prophet and

  his followers . They continued to reside at Paris; but missionaries

  from among them often visited Versailles—and such was the power

  of assertions, however false, yet vehemently iterated, over the ready

  credulity of the ignorant and fearful, that they seldom failed in draw-

  ing over to their party some from among our numbers . An instance

  of this nature coming immediately under our notice, we were led to

  consider the miserable state in which we should leave our country-

  men, when we should, at the approach of summer, move on towards

  Switzerland, and leave a deluded crew behind us in the hands of

  their miscreant leader . The sense of the smallness of our numbers,

  and expectation of decrease, pressed upon us; and, while it would

  be a subject of congratulation to ourselves to add one to our party, it

  would be doubly gratifying to rescue from the pernicious influence

  of superstition and unrelenting tyranny, the victims that now, though

  voluntarily enchained, groaned beneath it . If we had considered the

  preacher as sincere in a belief of his own denunciations, or only

  moderately actuated by kind feeling in the exercise of his assumed

  powers, we should have immediately addressed ourselves to him,

  and endeavoured with our best arguments to soften and humanize

  his views . But he was instigated by ambition, he desired to rule over

  these last stragglers from the fold of death; his projects went so far,

  as to cause him to calculate that, if, from these crushed remains, a

  few survived, so that a new race should spring up, he, by holding

  tight the reins of belief, might be remembered by the post-pestilen-

  tial race as a patriarch, a prophet, nay a deity; such as of old among

  the post-diluvians were Jupiter the conqueror, Serapis the lawgiver,

  and Vishnou the preserver. These ideas made him inflexible in his

  rule, and violent in his hate of any who presumed to share with him

  his usurped empire .

  It is a strange fact, but incontestible, that the philanthropist, who

  ardent in his desire to do good, who patient, reasonable and gentle,

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  yet disdains to use other argument than truth, has less influence over

  men’s minds, than he who, grasping and selfish, refuses not to adopt

  any means, nor awaken any passion, nor diffuse any falsehood, for

  the advancement of his cause . If this from time immemorial has

  been the case, the contrast was infinitely greater, now that the one

  could bring harrowing fears and transcendent hopes into play;

  while the other had few hopes to hold forth, nor could influence

  the imagination to diminish the fears which he himself was the first

  to entertain . The preacher had persuaded his followers, that their

  escape from the plague, the salvation of their children, and the rise

  of a new race of men from their seed, depended on their faith in, and

  their submission to him . They greedily imbibed this belief; and their

  over-weening credulity even rendered them eager
to make converts

  to the same faith .

  How to seduce any individuals from such an alliance of fraud,

  was a frequent subject of Adrian’s meditations and discourse . He

  formed many plans for the purpose; but his own troop kept him in

  full occupation to ensure their fidelity and safety; beside which the

  preacher was as cautious and prudent, as he was cruel . His victims

  lived under the strictest rules and laws, which either entirely im-

  prisoned them within the Tuileries, or let them out in such numbers,

  and under such leaders, as precluded the possibility of controversy .

  There was one among them however whom I resolved to save; she

  had been known to us in happier days; Idris had loved her; and her

  excellent nature made it peculiarly lamentable that she should be

  sacrificed by this merciless cannibal of souls.

  This man had between two and three hundred persons enlisted

  under his banners . More than half of them were women; there were

  about fifty children of all ages; and not more than eighty men. They

  were mostly drawn from that which, when such distinctions existed,

  was denominated the lower rank of society . The exceptions con-

  sisted of a few high-born females, who, panic-struck, and tamed by

  sorrow, had joined him . Among these was one, young, lovely, and

  enthusiastic, whose very goodness made her a more easy victim . I

  have mentioned her before: Juliet, the youngest daughter, and now

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  sole relic of the ducal house of L—- . There are some beings, whom

  fate seems to select on whom to pour, in unmeasured portion, the

  vials of her wrath, and whom she bathes even to the lips in misery .

  Such a one was the ill-starred Juliet . She had lost her indulgent par-

  ents, her brothers and sisters, companions of her youth; in one fell

  swoop they had been carried off from her . Yet she had again dared to

  call herself happy; united to her admirer, to him who possessed and

  filled her whole heart, she yielded to the lethean powers of love, and

  knew and felt only his life and presence . At the very time when with

  keen delight she welcomed the tokens of maternity, this sole prop

  of her life failed, her husband died of the plague . For a time she had

  been lulled in insanity; the birth of her child restored her to the cruel

  reality of things, but gave her at the same time an object for whom to

  preserve at once life and reason . Every friend and relative had died

  off, and she was reduced to solitude and penury; deep melancholy

  and angry impatience distorted her judgment, so that she could not

  persuade herself to disclose her distress to us . When she heard of the

  plan of universal emigration, she resolved to remain behind with her

  child, and alone in wide England to live or die, as fate might decree,

  beside the grave of her beloved . She had hidden herself in one of the

  many empty habitations of London; it was she who rescued my Idris

  on the fatal twentieth of November, though my immediate danger,

  and the subsequent illness of Idris, caused us to forget our hapless

  friend . This circumstance had however brought her again in contact

  with her fellow-creatures; a slight illness of her infant, proved to

  her that she was still bound to humanity by an indestructible tie; to

  preserve this little creature’s life became the object of her being, and

  she joined the first division of migrants who went over to Paris.

  She became an easy prey to the methodist; her sensibility and

  acute fears rendered her accessible to every impulse; her love for

  her child made her eager to cling to the merest straw held out to save

  him . Her mind, once unstrung, and now tuned by roughest inharmo-

  nious hands, made her credulous: beautiful as fabled goddess, with

  voice of unrivalled sweetness, burning with new lighted enthusiasm,

  she became a stedfast proselyte, and powerful auxiliary to the leader

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  of the elect . I had remarked her in the crowd, on the day we met

  on the Place Vendome; and, recollecting suddenly her providential

  rescue of my lost one, on the night of the twentieth of November, I

  reproached myself for my neglect and ingratitude, and felt impelled

  to leave no means that I could adopt untried, to recall her to her

  better self, and rescue her from the fangs of the hypocrite destroyer .

  I will not, at this period of my story, record the artifices I used

  to penetrate the asylum of the Tuileries, or give what would be a

  tedious account of my stratagems, disappointments, and persever-

  ance . I at last succeeded in entering these walls, and roamed its halls

  and corridors in eager hope to find my selected convert. In the eve-

  ning I contrived to mingle unobserved with the congregation, which

  assembled in the chapel to listen to the crafty and eloquent harangue

  of their prophet . I saw Juliet near him . Her dark eyes, fearfully im-

  pressed with the restless glare of madness, were fixed on him; she

  held her infant, not yet a year old, in her arms; and care of it alone

  could distract her attention from the words to which she eagerly

  listened . After the sermon was over, the congregation dispersed; all

  quitted the chapel except she whom I sought; her babe had fallen

  asleep; so she placed it on a cushion, and sat on the floor beside,

  watching its tranquil slumber .

  I presented myself to her; for a moment natural feeling produced

  a sentiment of gladness, which disappeared again, when with ar-

  dent and affectionate exhortation I besought her to accompany me

  in flight from this den of superstition and misery. In a moment she

  relapsed into the delirium of fanaticism, and, but that her gentle na-

  ture forbade, would have loaded me with execrations . She conjured

  me, she commanded me to leave her— “Beware, O beware,” she

  cried, “fly while yet your escape is practicable. Now you are safe;

  but strange sounds and inspirations come on me at times, and if the

  Eternal should in awful whisper reveal to me his will, that to save

  my child you must be sacrificed, I would call in the satellites of him

  you call the tyrant; they would tear you limb from limb; nor would I

  hallow the death of him whom Idris loved, by a single tear .”

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  She spoke hurriedly, with tuneless voice, and wild look; her child

  awoke, and, frightened, began to cry; each sob went to the ill-fated

  mother’s heart, and she mingled the epithets of endearment she ad-

  dressed to her infant, with angry commands that I should leave her .

  Had I had the means, I would have risked all, have torn her by force

  from the murderer’s den, and trusted to the healing balm of reason

  and affection . But I had no choice, no power even of longer struggle;

  steps were heard along the gallery, and the voice of the preacher

  drew near. Juliet, straining her child in a close embrace, fled by an-

  other passage . Even then I would have followed her; but my foe and

  his satellites entered; I was surrounded, and taken prisoner .

  I remembered the menace of the unh
appy Juliet, and expected the

  full tempest of the man’s vengeance, and the awakened wrath of his

  followers, to fall instantly upon me . I was questioned . My answers

  were simple and sincere . “His own mouth condemns him,” ex-

  claimed the impostor; “he confesses that his intention was to seduce

  from the way of salvation our well-beloved sister in God; away with

  him to the dungeon; tomorrow he dies the death; we are manifestly

  called upon to make an example, tremendous and appalling, to scare

  the children of sin from our asylum of the saved .”

  My heart revolted from his hypocritical jargon: but it was unwor-

  thy of me to combat in words with the ruffian; and my answer was

  cool; while, far from being possessed with fear, methought, even at

  the worst, a man true to himself, courageous and determined, could

  fight his way, even from the boards of the scaffold, through the herd

  of these misguided maniacs . “Remember,” I said, “who I am; and be

  well assured that I shall not die unavenged . Your legal magistrate,

  the Lord Protector, knew of my design, and is aware that I am here;

  the cry of blood will reach him, and you and your miserable victims

  will long lament the tragedy you are about to act .”

  My antagonist did not deign to reply, even by a look;—“You

  know your duty,” he said to his comrades,—“obey .”

  In a moment I was thrown on the earth, bound, blindfolded, and

  hurried away —liberty of limb and sight was only restored to me,

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  when, surrounded by dungeon-walls, dark and impervious, I found

  myself a prisoner and alone .

  Such was the result of my attempt to gain over the proselyte of

  this man of crime; I could not conceive that he would dare put me

  to death .—Yet I was in his hands; the path of his ambition had ever

  been dark and cruel; his power was founded upon fear; the one word

  which might cause me to die, unheard, unseen, in the obscurity of

  my dungeon, might be easier to speak than the deed of mercy to act .

  He would not risk probably a public execution; but a private assassi-

  nation would at once terrify any of my companions from attempting

  a like feat, at the same time that a cautious line of conduct might

  enable him to avoid the enquiries and the vengeance of Adrian .

  Two months ago, in a vault more obscure than the one I now in-