[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]moment, to make acquaintance, as he said, with the hand that was to
dispatch him to the presence of his last and eternal judge."
Balthazar paused; he appeared to meditate on a scene that had probably
left indelible impressions on his mind. Shuddering involuntarily, he
raised his eyes from the pavement of the chapel, and continued the
recital, always in the same subdued and tranquil manner.
"I have been the unwilling instrument of many a violent death--I have seen
the most reckless sinners in the agonies of sudden and compelled
repentance, but never have I witnessed so wild and fearful a struggle
between earth and heaven--the world and the grave--passion and the rebuke
of Providence--as attended the last hours of that unhappy man! There were
moments in which the mild spirit of Christ won upon his evil mood 'tis
true; but the picture was, in general, that of revenge so fierce, that the
powers of hell alone could give it birth in a human heart. He had with him
an infant of an age just, fitted to be taken from the breast. This child
appeared to awaken the fiercest conflicting feelings; he both yearned over
it and detested its sight, though hatred seemed most to prevail."
"This was horrible!" murmured the Doge.
"It was the more horrible, Herr Doge, that it should come from one who was
justly condemned to the axe. He rejected the priests; he would have naught
of any but me. My soul lothed the wretch--yet so few ever showed an
interest in us--and it would have been cruel to desert a dying man! At the
end, he placed the child in my care, furnishing more gold than was
sufficient to rear it frugally to the age of manhood, and leaving other
valuables which I have kept as proofs that might some day be useful. All I
could learn of the infant's origin was simply this. It came from Italy,
and of Italian parents; its mother died soon after its birth,"--a groan
escaped the Doge--"its father still lived, and was the object of the
criminal's implacable hatred, as its mother had been of his ardent love;
its birth was noble, and it had been baptized in the bosom of the church
by the name of Gaetano."
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"It must be he!--it is--it must be my beloved son!--" exclaimed the Doge,
unable to control himself any longer. He spread wide his arms, and
Sigismund threw himself upon his bosom, though there still remained
fearful apprehensions that all he heard was a dream. "Go on--go
on--excellent Balthazar," added the Signor Grimaldi, drying his eyes, and
struggling to command himself. "I shall have no peace until all is
revealed to the last syllable of thy wonderful, thy glorious tale!"
"There remains but little more to say, Herr Doge. The fatal hour arrived,
and the criminal was transported to the place where he was to give up his
life. While seated in the chair in which he received the fatal blow, his
spirit underwent infernal torments. I have reason to think that there were
moments when he would gladly have made his peace with God. But the demons
prevailed; he died in his sins! From the hour when he committed the little
Gaetano to my keeping, I did not cease to entreat to be put in possession
of the secret of the child's birth, but the sole answer I received was an
order to appropriate the gold to my own uses, and to adopt the boy as my
own. The sword was in my hand, and the signal to strike was given, when,
for the last time, I asked the name of the infant's family and country, as
a duty I could not neglect. 'He is thine--he is thine--' was the answer;
'tell me, Balthazar, is thy office hereditary, as is wont in these
regions?' I was compelled, as ye know, to say it was. 'Then adopt the
urchin; rear him to fatten on the blood of his fellows!' It was mockery to
trifle with such a spirit. When his head fell, if still bad on its fierce
features traces of the infernal triumph with which his spirit departed!"
"The monster was a just sacrifice to the laws of the canton!" exclaimed
the single-minded bailiff. "Thou seest, Herr Melchior, that we do well in
arming the hand of the executioner, in spite of all the sentiment of the
weak-minded. Such a wretch was surely unworthy to live."
This burst of official felicitation from Peterchen, who rarely neglected
an occasion to draw a conclusion favorable to the existing order of
things, like most of those who reap their exclusive advantage, and to the
prejudice of innovation, produced little attention; all present were too
much absorbed in the facts related by Balthazar, to turn aside; to speak,
or think, of other matters.
"What became of the boy?" demanded the worthy clavier, who had taken as
deep an interest as the rest, in the progress of the narrative.
"I could not desert him, father; nor did I wish to. He came into my
guardianship at a moment when God, to reprove our repinings at a lot that
he had chosen to impose, had taken our own little Sigismund to heaven. I
filled the place of the dead infant with my living charge; I gave to him
the name of my own son, and I can say confidently, that I transferred to
him the love I had borne my own issue; though time, and use, and a
knowledge of the child's character, were perhaps necessary to complete the
last. Marguerite never knew the deception, though a mother's instinct and
tenderness took the alarm and raised suspicions. We have never spoken
freely on this together, and like you, she now heareth the truth for the
first time."
"'Twas a fearful mystery between God and my own heart!" murmured the
woman; "I forbore to trouble it--Sigismund, or Gaetano, or whatever you
will have his name, filled my affections, and I strove to be satisfied.
The boy is dear to me, and ever will be, though you seat him on a throne;
but Christine--the poor stricken Christine--is truly the child of my
bosom!"
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Sigismund went and knelt at the feet of her whom he had ever believed his
mother, and earnestly begged her blessing and continued affection. The
tears streamed from Marguerite's eyes, as she willingly bestowed the
first, and promised never to withhold the last.
"Hast thou any of the trinkets or garments that were given thee with the
child, or canst render an account of the place where they are still to be
found?" demanded the Doge, whose whole mind was too deeply set on
appeasing his doubts to listen to aught else.
"They are all here in the convent. The gold has been fairly committed to
Sigismund, to form his equipment as a soldier. The child was kept apart,
receiving such education as a learned priest could give till of an age to
serve, and then I sent him to bear arms in Italy, which I knew to be the
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