"'This is a strange event!' said Bertrand, again looking at me.
"Astonishment prevented my utterance, and my silence, I believe, strengthened Bertrand in the suspicion of my guilt, which I afterwards found had immediately flashed on his mind.
"Bertrand, his brother-in-law, and the women, now began to converse together, in low voices, throwing, as I observed, at intervals, the most significant glances at me.—I felt confused beyond what I can express, and, had not a false shame prevented me, I should have fallen on my knees to pray for the return of Dulac, and to declare my innocence.
"In a short time, Bertrand's brother-in-law, Laval, left the house, and Bertrand, then turning to me, charged me with being one of a banditti, that had for some time, he said, infested that part of the country, and that having by some means gained intelligence that Dulac was to receive a large sum of money the day before, had planned the stratagem by which I had entered the house, for the purpose of plundering him of it. 'Not satisfied,' added he, 'with robbing him who kindly became your benefactor in an hour of pretended distress, you have endeavoured to shelter one crime by the commission of a blacker enormity: but tremble, young man; for offended justice is diligent in detecting the breakers of her law.'
"The terror I experienced at this open declaration of his sentiments, though I had before read them in his countenance, overpowered me so much, that it was with difficulty I kept myself from sinking on the floor; and my agitation, I am certain, confirmed Bertrand and his wife in thinking me guilty.
"The door was now locked upon me, to prevent my leaving the house, and I was given to understand that Laval was gone to the neighbouring town to fetch the officers of justice.
"In a short time, however, I gained courage from reflecting on my innocence, and I besought Bertrand to hear my vindication; he did not seem to attend to me, nor I believed listened, whilst I laid down at length all the particulars I recollected relative to the preceding night.
"Every sound that met my ear,—every footstep that I heard fall,—made my heart flutter with the hope and expectation of seeing Dulac enter; and oh! how forcibly did every new disappointment add to the load of anxiety that weighed down my heart!
"Presently after, Peter returned from his search of Dulac. 'He had,' he said, 'looked for him in vain.' Bertrand seemed to receive the intelligence he expected.—Martha began in a low voice to communicate to her son what had passed in his absence; and I could not help bursting into tears, as my thoughts continued to dwell on my unhappy situation.
"In about two hours after, the officers of justice arrived, and, on the accusation of Bertrand, Laval, and their wives, bound me their prisoner.—Bertrand then requested that I might be searched: when,—with what words or feelings shall I relate it?—one of them drew from my pocket—open, and bloody—the knife which Dulac had lent me for the purpose of opening the door. In my agitation the circumstance had entirely fled from my mind. Thus I had not related that part of the night's occurrences to Bertrand: no one would now hear me explain it; and it was decided by all, that it had been the instrument of Dulac's death.
"Deaf to my remonstrances, they led me to the next town, and I was thrown into prison, there to lie, till the period at which I was destined to take my trial, should arrive.
"I apprised my brother-in-law of what had happened: he immediately set out for my prison, and having learnt my unhappy story from my own mouth, he, without delay, began to exert such interest as he could command in my favour, against the day of my trial.
"Dulac returned not:—every possible inquiry was made after him by my advocates, but they all proved in vain; and the fatal day arrived, without any one circumstance having occurred which tended in the slightest degree to convince the world of my innocence. The well, it is true, had been searched, and no body found in it; but still that was not reckoned a circumstance sufficiently strong to operate against that of a bloody knife having been found upon my person.
"My trial was short, and I heard myself condemned to die: that sentence was the death-blow to my sister; for, as I have since heard, she never recovered from the shock given her on receiving the tidings of my condemnation. I was taken back to prison, and a confessor was ordered to attend me: my situation moved him; he began, I believe, from my unshaken firmness at the approach of death, to think me innocent, and promised to use his influence in my behalf. His entreaties, joined to what degree of weight my brother count Harden possessed in the city, obtained for me life, on the terms of becoming a galley-slave for the remainder of my days.
"Death would surely on such a condition have been preferable, had I not hoped that something unforeseen might still occur to prove me guiltless, and restore me to my country.
"I pass over the agonising separation from my beloved sister, and my tedious journey, to the moment when I was chained to the oar.
"Ten years' service in the island of Corsica, for to that king had I been sold, inured me to the hardships I experienced, but did not abate the anxiety of my mind. Oh! what a sensation is that of an innocent heart, struggling amidst the most complicated and severe trials, without the means of proving how distant it is from meriting the load it labours under!
"At the end of this period a war broke out between the power to whom I was subject, and the emperor of Morocco. In the course of a year the emperor obtained a great victory over the Corsicans, and I, amongst other prisoners, became the property of the grand vizier: here it became my office to cultivate the gardens belonging to the vizier's palace: my labour was less, but I was still a slave; and the task-master was more severe than he to whom I had before been subservient.
"Thus did I pass on twelve more years, void of comfort either for my mind or my body, when, by an exchange of slaves, with the cause of which I was unacquainted, I was sent to work in a garden belonging to the palace of the emperor.
"On the third day after my removal to my new situation, I observed an old man in a slave's habit, whose countenance I thought was familiar to me. He observed me not at first, but as I passed nearer him, the better to examine his features, he no sooner cast his eyes on me, than he pronounced my name; and his voice instantly convinced me, that it was no other than Dulac who stood before me!
"After our mutual expressions of surprise were ended, I began to inform him of all that had befallen me since our separation,—and with eagerness I then inquired of him, by what means it had been effected.
"'Oh!' said he, 'what hardships have I not suffered since we parted!—what misery have I not undergone!—But I will not murmur; for the decree of heaven is just, and unchangeable till its due time ordains a revocation of it.
"'Not long after you had returned to bed, on the morning on which I last beheld you, I imagined I heard some one enter the house, by the door from the garden; I immediately drew on my waistcoat and slippers, and running down stairs, I beheld in the kitchen, attempting to open the door which led to my private closet, wherein I kept such bonds, papers, and money, as I possessed, two of my nearest neighbours, whom I had long known to be of suspicious characters, from their being connected with a set of smugglers, who resided on the coast of France.
"'Their astonishment at seeing me you may well conceive; they immediately seized and gagged me, and having some moments concerted how they should dispose of me, to prevent my appearing in evidence against them, which by signs I endeavoured to convince them I would not do, if they would depart, and suffer me to remain unmolested, they resolved on carrying me to what they called their cave.
"'Without the house there were two other men, their accomplices, whose countenances I knew not, waiting to assist them in carrying off such booty as they might chance to obtain; they were not a little disappointed at seeing me only brought out to them: but, as I afterwards found that they made a point of securing all who might be liable to act towards their discovery, they dragged me on between two of them, muttering curses on me for having interrupted their plunder, and sourly smiling as they vowed vengeance against me.
&
nbsp; "'The cave they had mentioned, was dug out of the earth, some three leagues distant from the spot where I resided, and served for the purpose of concealing their contraband goods. Thither they conducted me; and having searched my pockets, in which was unfortunately a sum of money I had two days before received for some elms, they set by me a pot of water, and some dry crusts of bread, and left me.
"'My prison was shut from the faintest glimmering of light; the air admitted into it was so confined that I found a difficulty in breathing, and its scent was most nauseous; to which, add the agonies my mind was undergoing from the knowledge of my being in the power of these wretches, and torn from those I alone regarded, together with my anxiety for their concern at my unexpected and extraordinary disappearance, and you will easily picture to yourself the agonising feelings of my heart.
"'In the dusk of the evening two other men entered the cave, and having gagged me, led me forth; after some hours' walking, we came up with a body of men, who I soon found were colleagues of those who now conducted me: along with them were fifteen other prisoners, bound and gagged in like manner as myself, and who had been taken in similar caves by these inhuman robbers.
"'After some additional hours' travelling, we arrived at another cave, much resembling that in which I had been confined during the former night; and here the other prisoners, together with myself, were led down, and deposited in an inner division: the outer one, we found, was inhabited by the smugglers themselves.
"'Many were the conjectures we formed with regard to our situation; and though it was impossible we should assign any degree of certainty to any one of them, we could not still forbear drawing them.
"'The next night we were again led forth as before, and after several hours' travelling each night, for six successive nights, and being lodged by day in caverns similar to those I have already mentioned, we found ourselves on the sea coast: we were immediately put on board a vessel lying a short distance out at sea; and we soon understood that its master bargained with these smugglers for slaves, which he sold in Morocco, chiefly to the emperor.
"'There is but one sure friend in misfortune,—resignation to the divine power, and confidence in its will to convert all we suffer here to our glory in a state hereafter: I armed my heart with this cheering thought; and my communication of my feelings had, I believe, much weight on the minds of my fellow-sufferers.
"'After a passage of fatigue and hardship, we arrived where you now find me; here have I dwelt a slave ever since;—and if providence has decreed me here to end my unfortunate days, I bend to its almighty will.'
"With what sorrow did I behold him who had been my kind protector, in the unhappy situation I now saw him, and reduced to it, as I could not help thinking, partly by my means; as, had I not on that fatal night arisen from my bed and broken his repose, he in all probability would never have heard the entrance of those ruffians to whom he had now fallen a prey.
"I imparted to him my thoughts, and the anxiety they occasioned me; but he kindly chid me for forming my judgment from events, and declared that my lot, from the probability of its enduring so many years longer than the natural course of nature threatened him with a painful existence, was his greatest cause of disquietude.
"From the first moment of my finding Dulac, every nerve of thought was unremittingly on the stretch to devise some plan of effecting our escape, fondly anticipating the triumph I should enjoy, were I ever allowed to be the means of restoring him to his country and relatives.
"Whilst my mind was thus employed in forming various stratagems, all of which, however, appeared ineffectual, an occurrence, as unforeseen as unexpected, and which then appeared to me the happiest of my existence, took place: this was no other than intelligence being brought to Morocco, that a French nobleman, lately dead, had left by will, as an expiation of some crime he had committed, a sufficient sum of money for the liberation of fifty European slaves who had been the longest in captivity. And it is, I think, needless for me to relate to you the joy experienced by Dulac and myself, on being informed that we were of the happy number.
"Our slaves' habits were exchanged for European garments; and in a few days we embarked on board a French vessel, which was to transport us to the coast of Languedoc, whence we were each to be conveyed to our respective country.
"Our voyage for the first six days was prosperous: on the seventh, towards sunset, the wind, which had blown freshly through the day, became extremely violent; the angry clouds rolled over each other, producing tremendous claps of thunder, and the flashes of lightning, reflected on the expanse of water, appeared alarmingly vivid. The ship was tossed in an uncertain course by the foaming billows, which at intervals washed over the deck, and then again yielded to the dividing bow of the ship. A general consternation seized every one on board; and, with a silence that increased the awfulness of the scene, each seemed to await the next moment as his last. At length, driven upon the side of a rock obscured by the rolling waves, the vessel split into two equal parts, and an universal cry seemed to announce instantaneous destruction.
"The boat was lashed to that partition of the ship on which Dulac and myself were standing: a sailor instantly ran to it; and, having launched it into the deep, sprang into it. I hesitated not an instant to follow him; and, having gained the boat, I received Dulac from the side of the ship, in my extended arms. Immediately the foaming billows dashed us to a considerable distance from the ship; and in a few moments after we saw her swallowed up in a whirlpool.
"We beheld the sight with horror, and knew not, as yet, whether to be thankful that we had not shared the fate of the unhappy sufferers. In the space of an hour the wind began to abate, but the billows still rolled mountain-high; and it was with extreme difficulty that we could by any means balance our little bark. For some hours we contrived to effect it; till our limbs becoming benumbed by the wet and cold we were enduring, a wave dashed over us, and overset our boat. I could swim; and immediately raising myself in the water, I caught the boat, and exerting strength which was called forth by the urgency of the moment, I managed again to place myself in it. I immediately looked round for Dulac: he had vanished from my sight. An arm was now raised from the water; I seized it, and lifted from the deep the sailor who had been the means of effecting my escape from the ship:—Dulac was gone for ever.
"This was the completion of my misery; but as the preservation of life, when threatened with danger, is always the predominant idea in the breast of man, however his mind may be clouded with sorrow, I did not at that moment feel in its full force the loss I had sustained.
"Towards the break of morning, a small vessel, bound to Villa-Nuova in Spain, perceived our situation; and having sent out to us its boat, we were taken on board, and such accommodation as the vessel would afford kindly bestowed on us: and not till then, when the recollection of the horrors I had lately been exposed to began to subside, did I feel how much more miserable and destitute a being, than I had even before been, the loss of Dulac had rendered me.
"The sailor who had been my companion in the boat, a very short time after our entering the vessel, fell a victim to what he had undergone. Oh! why was I, with so great cause to loathe the world, spared from sharing his fate?
"On the following day the Spanish vessel gained her destined port, and I landed on a country where I was an entire stranger, and possessed neither of the means of purchasing my subsistence, nor of earning it, as I understood not the language of the kingdom.
"Fortunately for me, the captain of the vessel was conversant with the French language; and, being a man of generous disposition, he at my request furnished me with the habit of a seaman; and having given me a piece of gold, I set forward, thinking, in my present disguise, I might reach count Harden's mansion in the vicinity of Ulm, unknown.
"Seven weeks served to complete my journey: when, conceive my disappointment!—on reaching the spot where I had hoped to meet the warm embraces of an affectionate sister, I learned that she had but two months surv
ived my exile; and that count Harden had also some years paid the debt of nature.
"I inquired whether my sister had left any offspring. I was informed, that she had never borne but one child, a daughter, and that she was also dead.
"I believe I had already been wounded so deeply by affliction, that an added pang was imperceptible to my grief-worn heart. I can no other way account for the firm composure with which I heard this defeat of my last and only hope.
"In my way to Ulm I had passed this cell; I had found it was deserted; its late possessor having been some years dead. I had no interest in the world, but rather a wish to secrete myself from it, lest I should be recognized by any of Dulac's relatives; and I possessed nothing in the world, for my property had been confiscated on my receiving sentence of banishment. I accordingly determined to make it my dwelling: and having found that I had sufficient money left, from what I had collected on my journey from the charitable, under the disguise of a shipwrecked sailor, to purchase me a woollen robe, a scrip, staff, and flagon, I immediately repaired hither, and have resided here ever since, indebted for my subsistence to the peasantry round about, in addition to the fruits and berries I collect in the surrounding wood.
"I have now dwelt here fifteen years; and, save the little intercourse I hold with the peasantry, you are the first whose conversation has cheered my solitary dwelling.—I am now fourscore and two years old: may you attain my years, without the sorrows that have numbered mine! and may you await the hour of your death, my now only consolation, with a heart like mine, full of forgiveness towards those who may have injured you."
Here the hermit concluded; and Lauretta, wiping away the tear from her eye, which had been drawn forth by the sufferings of her benefactor, thanked him for the confidence he had reposed in her, and of her own accord promised to be the faithful guardian of his sad tale.
The Complete Northanger Horrid Novel Collection (9 Books of Gothic Romance and Horror) Page 263