by Mary Shelley
Falkner was not a man to sit quietly under these emotions. In their first onset they had driven him to suicide; preserved, as by a miracle, he had exerted strong self-command, and, by dint of resolution, forced himself to live. Year after year had passed, and he abided by the sentence of life he had passed on himself — and, like the galley slave, the iron which had eaten into the flesh, galled less than when newly applied. But he was brought back from the patience engendered by custom, at the sight of the unfortunate boy. He felt himself accursed — God-reprobated — mankind (though they knew it not) abhorred him. He would no longer live — for he deserved to die. He would not again raise his hand against himself — but there are many gates to the tomb; he found no difficulty on selecting one by which to enter. He resolved to enter upon a scene of desperate warfare in a distant country, and to seek a deliverance from the pains of life by the bullet or the sword on the field of battle. Above all, he resolved that Elizabeth’s innocence should no longer be associated with his guilt. The catastrophe he meditated must be sought alone; and she, whom he had lived to protect and foster, must be guarded from the hardships and perils to which he was about to deliver himself up.
Meditation on this new course absorbed him for some days. At first he had been sunk in despondency; as the prospect opened before him of activity allied to peril, and sought for the sake of the destruction to which it unavoidably led, his spirits rose; like a war-horse dreaming of the sound of a trumpet, his heart beat high in the hope of forgetting the consciousness of remorse in all the turbulence of battle, or the last forgetfulness of the grave. Still it was a difficult task to impart his plan to the orphan, and to prepare her for a separation. Several times he had tried to commence the subject, and felt his courage fail him. At length, being together one day, some weeks after their arrival in London — when, indeed, many steps had been already taken by him in furtherance of his project; at twilight, as they sat together near the window which looked upon one of the London squares — and they had been comparing this metropolis with many foreign cities — Falkner abruptly, fearful if he lost this occasion, of not finding another so appropriate, said, “I must bid you good-by, to-night, Elizabeth — to-morrow, early, I set out for the north of England.”
“You mean to leave me behind?” she asked; “but you will not be away long?”
“I am going to visit your relations,” he replied; “to disclose to them that you are under my care, and to prepare them to receive you. I hope soon to return, either to conduct you to them, or to bring one among them to welcome you here.”
Elizabeth was startled. Many years had elapsed since Falkner had alluded to her alien parentage. She went by his name, she called him father; and the appellation scarcely seemed a fiction — he had been the kindest, fondest parent to her — nor had he ever hinted that he meant to forego the claim his adoption had given him, and to make her over to those who were worse than strangers in her eyes. If ever they had recurred to her real situation, he had not been chary of expressions of indignation against the Raby family. He had described with warm resentment the selfishness, the hardness of heart, and disdain of the well-being of those allied to them by blood, which too often subsists in aristocratic English families, when the first bond has been broken by any act of disobedience. He grew angry as he spoke of the indignity with which her mother had been treated — and the barbarous proposition of separating her from her only child; and he had fondly assured her that it was his dearest pride to render her independent of these unworthy and inhuman relations. Why were his intentions changed? His voice and look were ominous. Elizabeth was hurt — she did not like to object; she was silent — but Falkner deciphered her wounded feelings in her ingenuous countenance, and he too was pained; he could not bear that she should think him ungrateful — mindless of her affection, her filial attentions, and endearing virtues: he felt that he must, to a certain degree, explain his views — difficult as it was to make a segment of his feelings in any way take a definite or satisfactory shape.
“Do not think hardly of me, my own dear girl,” he began; “for wishing that we should separate. God knows that it is a blow that will visit me far more severely than you. You will find relations and friends, who will be proud of you — whose affections you will win; — wherever you are, you will meet with love and admiration — and your sweet disposition and excellent qualities will make life happy. I depart alone. You are my only tie — my only friend — I break it and leave you — never can I find another. Henceforth, alone — I shall wander into distant and uncivilized countries, enter on a new and perilous career, during which I may perish miserably. You cannot share these dangers with me.”
“But why do you seek them?” exclaimed Elizabeth, alarmed by this sudden prophecy of ill.
“Do you remember the day when we first met?” replied Falkner; “when my hand was raised against my own life, because I knew myself unworthy to exist. It is the same now. It is cowardly to live, feeling that I have forfeited every right to enjoy the blessings of life. I go that I may die — not by my own hand — but where I can meet death by the hand of others.”
Strangely and frightfully did these words fall on the ear of his appalled listener; he went on rapidly — for having once begun, the words he uttered relieved, in some degree, the misery that burthened his soul.
“This idea cannot astonish you, my love; you have seen too much of the secret of my heart; you have witnessed my fits of distress and anguish, and are not now told, for the first time, that grief and remorse weigh intolerably on me. I can endure the infliction no longer. May God forgive me in another world — the light of this I will see no more!”
Falkner saw the sort of astonished distress her countenance depicted; and, angry with himself for being its cause, was going on in a voice changed to one less expressive of misery, but Elizabeth, seized with dismay — the unbidden tears pouring from her eyes; her young — her child’s heart bursting with a new sense of horror — cast herself at his feet and, embracing his knees as he sat, exclaimed, “My dear, dear father! — my more than father, and only friend — you break my heart by speaking thus. If you are miserable, the more need that your child — the creature you preserved, and taught to love you — should be at your side to comfort — I had almost said to help you. You must not cast me off! Were you happy, you might desert me; but if you are miserable, I cannot leave you — you must not ask me — it kills me to think of it!”
The youthful, who have no experience of the changes of life, regard the present with far more awe and terror than those who have seen one turn in the hour-glass suffice to change, and change again, the colour of their lives. To be divided from Falkner, was to have the pillars of the earth shaken under her — and she clung to him, and looked up imploringly in his face, as if the next word he spoke were to decide all; he kissed her, and, seating her on his knee, said, “Let us talk of this more calmly, dearest — I was wrong to agitate you — or to mix the miserable thoughts forced on me by my wretchedness — with the prudent consideration of your future destiny. I feel it to be unjust to keep you from your relations. They are rich. We are ignorant of what changes and losses may have taken place among them, to soften their hearts — which, after all, were never shut against you. You may have become of importance in their eyes. Raby is a proud name, and we must not heedlessly forego the advantages that may belong to your right to it.”
“My dear father,” replied Elizabeth, “this talk is not for me. I have no wish to claim the kindness of those who treated my true parents ill. You are every thing to me. I am little more than a child, and cannot find words to express all I mean; but my truest meaning is, to show my gratitude to you till my dying day; to remain with you for ever, while you love me; and to be the most miserable creature in the world if you drive me from you. Have we not lived together since I was a little thing, no higher than your knee? And all the time you have been kinder than any father. When we have been exposed to storms, you have wrapped me round in your arms so that
no drop could fall on my head. Do you remember that dreadful evening, when our carriage broke down in the wide, dark steppe; and you, covering me up, carried me in your arms, while the wind howled, and the freezing rain drove against you? You could hardly bear up; and when we arrived at the post-house, you, strong man as you are, fainted from exhaustion; while I, sheltered in your arms, was as warm and well as if it had been a summer’s day. You have earned me — you have bought me by all this kindness, and you must not cast me away!”
She clung round his neck — her face bathed in tears, sobbing and speaking in broken accents. As she saw him soften, she implored him yet more earnestly, till his heart was quite subdued; and, clasping her to his heart, he showered kisses on her head and neck; while, to his surprise, forgotten tears sprung to his own eyes. “For worlds I would not desert you,” he cried. “It is not casting you away that we should separate for a short time; for where I go, indeed, dearest, you cannot accompany me. I cannot go on living as I have done. For many years now my life has been spent in pleasantness and peace — I have no right to this — hardship and toil, and death, I ought to repay. I abhor myself for a coward, when I think of what others suffer through my deeds — while I am scathless. You can scarcely remember the hour when the touch of your little hand saved my life. My heart is not changed since then — I am unworthy to exist. Dear Elizabeth, you may one day hate me, when you know the misery I have caused to those who deserved better at my hands. The cry of my victim rings in my ears, and I am base to survive my crime. Let me, dearest, make my own the praise, that nothing graced my life more than the leaving it. To live a coward and a drone, suits vilely with my former acts of violence and ill. Let me gain peace of mind by exposing my life to danger. By advocating a just cause I may bring a blessing down upon my endeavours. I shall go to Greece. Theirs is a good cause — that of liberty and Christianity against tyranny and an evil faith. Let me die for it; and when it is known, as it will one day be, that the innocent perished through me, it will be added, that I died in the defence of the suffering and the brave. But you cannot go with me to Greece, dearest; you must await my return in this country.”
“You go to die!” she exclaimed, “and I am to be far away. No, dear father, I am a little girl, but no harm can happen to me. The Ionian Isles are under the English government — there, at least, I may go. Athens too, I dare say, is safe. Dear Athens — we spent a happy winter there before the revolution began. You forget what a traveller I am — how accustomed to find my home among strangers in foreign and savage lands. No, dear father, you will not leave me behind. I am not unreasonable — I do not ask to follow you to the camp — but you must let me be near — in the same country as yourself.”
“You force me to yield against my better reason,” said Falkner. “This is not right — I feel that it is not so — one of your sex, and so young, ought not to be exposed to all I am about to encounter; — and if I should die, and leave you there desolate?”
“There are good Christians everywhere to protect the orphan,” persisted Elizabeth. “As if you could die when I am with you! And if you died while I was far, what would become of me? Am I to be left, like a poor sailor’s wife — to get a shocking, black-sealed letter, to tell me that, while I was enjoying myself, and hoping that you had long been — ? It is wicked to speak of these things — but I shall go with my own dear, dear father, and he shall not die!”
Falkner yielded to her tears, her caresses, and persuasions. He was not convinced, but he could not withstand the excess of grief she displayed at the thought of parting. It was agreed that she should accompany him to the Ionian Isles, and take up her residence there while he joined the patriot band in Greece. This point being decided upon, he was anxious that their departure should not be delayed a single hour, for most earnest was he to go, to throw off the sense of the present — to forget its pangs in anticipated danger.
Falkner played no false part with himself. He longed to die; nor did the tenderness and fidelity of Elizabeth disarm his purpose. He was convinced that she must be happier and more prosperous when he was removed. His tortured mind found relief when he thought of sacrificing his life, and quitting it honourably on the field of battle. It was only by the prospect of such a fate that he shut his eyes to sterner duties. In his secret heart, he knew that the course demanded of him by honour and conscience, was to stand forth, declare his crime, and reveal the mysterious tragedy, of which he was the occasion, to the world; but he dared not accuse himself, and live. It was this that urged him to the thoughts of death. “When I am no more,” he told himself, “let all be declared — let my name be loaded with curses — but let it be added, that I died to expiate my guilt. I cannot be called upon to live with a brand upon my name; soon it will be all over, and then let them heap obloquy, pyramid-high, upon my grave! Poor Elizabeth will become a Raby; and, once cold beneath the sod, no more misery will spring from acts of mine!”
Actuated by these thoughts, Falkner drew up two narratives — both short. The tenor of one need not be mentioned in this place. The other stated how he had found Elizabeth, and adopted her. He sealed up with this the few documents that proved her birth. He also made his will — dividing his property between his heir at law and adopted child — and smiled proudly to think, that, dowered thus by him, she would be gladly received into her father’s family.
Every other arrangement for their voyage was quickly made, and it remained only to determine whether Miss Jervis should accompany them. Elizabeth’s mind was divided. She was averse to parting with an unoffending and kind companion, and to forego her instructions — though, in truth, she had got beyond them. But she feared that the governess might hereafter shackle her conduct. Every word Falkner had let fall concerning his desire to die, she remembered and pondered upon. To watch over and to serve him was her aim in going with him. Child as she was, a thousand combinations of danger presented themselves to her imagination, when her resolution and fearlessness might bring safety. The narrow views and timid disposition of Miss Jervis might impede her grievously.
The governess herself was perplexed. She was startled when she heard of the new scheme. She was pleased to find herself once again in England, and repugnant to the idea of leaving so soon again for so distant a region, where a thousand perils of war and pestilence would beset every step. She was sorry to part with Elizabeth, but some day that time must come; and others, dearer from ties of relationship, lived in England from whom she had been too long divided. Weighing these things, she showed a degree of hesitation that caused Falkner to decide as his heart inclined, and to determine that she should not accompany him. She went with them as far as Plymouth, where they embarked. Elizabeth, so long a wanderer, felt no regret in leaving England. She was to remain with one who was far more than country — who was indeed her all. Falkner felt a load taken from his heart when his feet touched the deck of the vessel that was to bear them away — half his duty was accomplished — the course begun which would lead to the catastrophe he coveted. The sun shone brightly on the ocean, the breeze was fresh and favourable. Miss Jervis saw them push from shore with smiles and happy looks — she saw them on the deck of the vessel, which, with sails unfurled, had already begun its course over the sea. Elizabeth waved her handkerchief — all grew confused; the vessel itself was sinking beneath the horizon, and long before night no portion of her canvass could be perceived.
“I wonder,” thought Miss Jervis, “whether I shall ever see them again!”
CHAPTER IX.
Three years from this time, Elizabeth found herself in the position she had vaguely anticipated at the outset, but which every day spent in Greece showed her as probable, if not inevitable. These three years brought Falkner to the verge of the death he had gone out to seek. He lay wounded, a prey of the Greek fever, to all appearance about to die; while she watched over him, striving, not only to avert the fatal consequences of disease, but also to combat the desire to die which destroyed him.
In describing Eliz
abeth’s conduct during these three years, it may be thought that the type is presented of ideal and almost unnatural perfection. She was, it is true, a remarkable creature; and unless she had possessed rare and exalted qualities, her history had not afforded a topic for these pages. She was intelligent, warm-hearted, courageous, and sincere. Her lively sense of duty was perhaps her chief peculiarity. It was that which strung to such sweet harmony the other portions of her character. This had been fostered by the circumstances of her life. Her earliest recollection was of her dying parents. Their mutual consolations, the bereaved widow’s lament, and her talk of another and better world, where all would meet again who fulfilled their part virtuously in this world. She had been taught to remember her parents as inheriting the immortal life promised to the just, and to aspire to the same. She had learnt, from her mother’s example, that there is nothing so beautiful and praiseworthy as the sacrifice of life to the good and happiness of one beloved. She never forgot her debt to Falkner. She felt herself bound to him by stronger than filial ties. A father performs an imperious duty in cherishing his child; but all had been spontaneous benevolence in Falkner. His very faults and passions made his sacrifice the greater, and his generosity the more conspicuous. Elizabeth believed that she could never adequately repay the vast obligation which she was under to him.
Miss Jervis also had conduced to perfectionize her mind by adding to its harmony and justness. Miss Jervis, it is true, might be compared to the rough-handed gardener, whose labours are without elegance, and yet to whose waterings and vigilance the fragrant carnation owes its peculiar tint, and the waxlike camellia its especial variety. It was through her that she had methodized her mind — through her that she had learnt to concentrate and prolong her attention, and to devote it to study. She had taught her order and industry — and, without knowing it, she had done more — she had inspired ardour for knowledge, delight in its acquisition, and a glad sense of self-approbation when difficulties were conquered by perseverance; and, when by dint of resolution, ignorance was exchanged for a clear perception of any portion of learning.