第 94 节
作者:
这就是结局 更新:2021-02-20 15:59 字数:9321
hastily。 〃This to Citizen President Dumas。 Go with it quick;
Simon。 These eighty heads must fall TO…MORROW;TO…MORROW;
Simon。 Dumas will advance their trial a day。 I will write to
Fouquier…Tinville; the public accuser。 We meet at the Jacobins
to…night; Simon; there we will denounce the Convention itself;
there we will rally round us the last friends of liberty and
France。〃
A shout was heard in the distance behind; 〃Vive la republique!〃
The tyrant's eye shot a vindictive gleam。 〃The republic!faugh!
We did not destroy the throne of a thousand years for that
canaille!〃
THE TRIAL; THE EXECUTION; OF THE VICTIMS IS ADVANCED A DAY! By
the aid of the mysterious intelligence that had guided and
animated him hitherto; Zanoni learned that his arts had been in
vain。 He knew that Viola was safe; if she could but survive an
hour the life of the tyrant。 He knew that Robespierre's hours
were numbered; that the 10th of Thermidor; on which he had
originally designed the execution of his last victims; would see
himself at the scaffold。 Zanoni had toiled; had schemed for the
fall of the Butcher and his reign。 To what end? A single word
from the tyrant had baffled the result of all。 The execution of
Viola is advanced a day。 Vain seer; who wouldst make thyself the
instrument of the Eternal; the very dangers that now beset the
tyrant but expedite the doom of his victims! To…morrow; eighty
heads; and hers whose pillow has been thy heart! To…morrow! and
Maximilien is safe to…night!
CHAPTER 7。XIII。
Erde mag zuruck in Erde stauben;
Fliegt der Geist doch aus dem morschen Haus。
Seine Asche mag der Sturmwind treiben;
Sein Leben dauert ewig aus!
Elegie。
(Earth may crumble back into earth; the Spirit will still escape
from its frail tenement。 The wind of the storm may scatter his
ashes; his being endures forever。)
To…morrow!and it is already twilight。 One after one; the
gentle stars come smiling through the heaven。 The Seine; in its
slow waters; yet trembles with the last kiss of the rosy day; and
still in the blue sky gleams the spire of Notre Dame; and still
in the blue sky looms the guillotine by the Barriere du Trone。
Turn to that time…worn building; once the church and the convent
of the Freres…Precheurs; known by the then holy name of Jacobins;
there the new Jacobins hold their club。 There; in that oblong
hall; once the library of the peaceful monks; assemble the
idolaters of St。 Robespierre。 Two immense tribunes; raised at
either end; contain the lees and dregs of the atrocious
populace;the majority of that audience consisting of the furies
of the guillotine (furies de guillotine)。 In the midst of the
hall are the bureau and chair of the president;the chair long
preserved by the piety of the monks as the relic of St。 Thomas
Aquinas! Above this seat scowls the harsh bust of Brutus。 An
iron lamp and two branches scatter over the vast room a murky;
fuliginous ray; beneath the light of which the fierce faces of
that Pandemonium seem more grim and haggard。 There; from the
orator's tribune; shrieks the shrill wrath of Robespierre!
Meanwhile all is chaos; disorder; half daring and half cowardice;
in the Committee of his foes。 Rumours fly from street to street;
from haunt to haunt; from house to house。 The swallows flit low;
and the cattle group together before the storm。 And above this
roar of the lives and things of the little hour; alone in his
chamber stood he on whose starry youthsymbol of the
imperishable bloom of the calm Ideal amidst the mouldering
Actualthe clouds of ages had rolled in vain。
All those exertions which ordinary wit and courage could suggest
had been tried in vain。 All such exertions WERE in vain; where;
in that Saturnalia of death; a life was the object。 Nothing but
the fall of Robespierre could have saved his victims; now; too
late; that fall would only serve to avenge。
Once more; in that last agony of excitement and despair; the seer
had plunged into solitude; to invoke again the aid or counsel of
those mysterious intermediates between earth and heaven who had
renounced the intercourse of the spirit when subjected to the
common bondage of the mortal。 In the intense desire and anguish
of his heart; perhaps; lay a power not yet called forth; for who
has not felt that the sharpness of extreme grief cuts and grinds
away many of those strongest bonds of infirmity and doubt which
bind down the souls of men to the cabined darkness of the hour;
and that from the cloud and thunderstorm often swoops the
Olympian eagle that can ravish us aloft!
And the invocation was heard;the bondage of sense was rent away
from the visual mind。 He looked; and saw;no; not the being he
had called; with its limbs of light and unutterably tranquil
smilenot his familiar; Adon…Ai; the Son of Glory and the Star;
but the Evil Omen; the dark Chimera; the implacable Foe; with
exultation and malice burning in its hell…lit eyes。 The Spectre;
no longer cowering and retreating into shadow; rose before him;
gigantic and erect; the face; whose veil no mortal hand had ever
raised; was still concealed; but the form was more distinct;
corporeal; and cast from it; as an atmosphere; horror and rage
and awe。 As an iceberg; the breath of that presence froze the
air; as a cloud; it filled the chamber and blackened the stars
from heaven。
〃Lo!〃 said its voice; 〃I am here once more。 Thou hast robbed me
of a meaner prey。 Now exorcise THYSELF from my power! Thy life
has left thee; to live in the heart of a daughter of the charnel
and the worm。 In that life I come to thee with my inexorable
tread。 Thou art returned to the Threshold;thou; whose steps
have trodden the verges of the Infinite! And as the goblin of
its fantasy seizes on a child in the dark;mighty one; who
wouldst conquer Death;I seize on thee!〃
〃Back to thy thraldom; slave! If thou art come to the voice that
called thee not; it is again not to command; but to obey! Thou;
from whose whisper I gained the boons of the lives lovelier and
dearer than my own; thouI command thee; not by spell and charm;
but by the force of a soul mightier than the malice of thy
being;thou serve me yet; and speak again the secret that can
rescue the lives thou hast; by permission of the Universal
Master; permitted me to retain awhile in the temple of the clay!〃
Brighter and more devouringly burned the glare from those lurid
eyes; more visible and colossal yet rose the dilating shape; a
yet fiercer and more disdainful hate spoke in the voice that
answered; 〃Didst thou think that my boon would be other than thy
curse? Happy for thee hadst thou mourned over the deaths which
come by the gentle hand of Nature;hadst thou never known how
the name of mother consecrates the face of Beauty; and never;
bending over thy first…born; felt the imperishable sweetness of a
father's love! They are saved; for what?the mother; for the
death of violence and shame and blood; for the doomsman's hand to
put aside that shining hair which has entangled thy bridegroom
kisses; the child; first and last of thine offspring; in whom
thou didst hope to found a race that should hear with thee the
music of celestial harps; and float; by the side of thy familiar;
Adon…Ai; through the azure rivers of joy;the child; to live on
a few days as a fungus in a burial…vault; a thing of the
loathsome dungeon; dying of cruelty and neglect and famine。 Ha!
ha! thou who wouldst baffle Death; learn how the deathless die if
they dare to love the mortal。 Now; Chaldean; behold my boons!
Now I seize and wrap thee with the pestilence of my presence;
now; evermore; till thy long race is run; mine eyes shall glow
into thy brain; and mine arms shall clasp thee; when thou wouldst
take the wings of the Morning and flee from the embrace of
Night!〃
〃I tell thee; no! And again I compel thee; speak and answer to
the lord who can command his slave。 I know; though my lore fails
me; and the reeds on which I leaned pierce my side;I know yet
that it is written that the life of which I question can be saved
from the headsman。 Thou wrappest her future in the darkness of
thy shadow; but thou canst not shape it。 Thou mayest foreshow
the antidote; thou canst not effect the bane。 From thee I wring
the secret; though it torture thee to name it。 I approach thee;
I look dauntless into thine eyes。 The soul that loves can dare
all things。 Shadow; I defy thee; and compel!〃
The spectre waned and recoiled。 Like a vapour that lessens as
the sun pierces and pervades it; the form shrank cowering and
dwarfed in the dimmer distance; and through the casement again
rushed the stars。
〃Yes;〃 said the Voice; with a faint and hollow accent; 〃thou
CANST save her from the headsman; for it is written; that
sacrifice can save。 Ha! ha!〃 And the shape again suddenly
dilated into the gloom of its