Volume I Part 5 (2/2)
”That would be rather difficult. Some victim the n.o.bles must have, and you may rejoice if they will be satisfied with the old messenger.
However, I will see what is to be done for him, if he stand the torture without confession. G.o.d be with you!”
He went, and Francis continued sitting gloomily at the table. The peril, which with every moment approached nearer and nearer to him, straightened his breast sorely. His confidence in the all-powerful protection of his father had already sunk to a very low ebb, and the comfort left him by the doctor did not go a great way either.--”The infernal bay!” he muttered at last, glad to have found something on which he could lay the consequences of his own action--”the infernal bay!”--and he relapsed into a long melancholy silence.
Suddenly there arose below a loud noise and trampling; halberds clattered against each other; doors were opened and shut; and then again a deep awful stillness prevailed.
”What is the matter below?” he anxiously asked the jailer, who then brought in his supper to him.
”Logan Oppersdorf and the other commissioners have just arrived, together with several gentlemen of the council. Goldmann leads up the dance to-day!”
”G.o.d support the poor fellow!” groaned the agonized Francis, and ran about the chamber, goaded by all the pangs of h.e.l.l. Quick footsteps were heard approaching the door: it flew open, and in burst Agatha with dishevelled locks, despair upon her pale, tearless face, and flung herself at the feet of her lover.
”Save, save my unhappy father!” she cried, in tones that rent the heart.
”Collect yourself, my poor girl,” said Francis, and raised up the wretched creature: ”what would you from me?”
”The dreadful tale has reached even my hovel!” she exclaimed shuddering: ”this night my father is to be put upon the rack. He is old and feeble; he will sink under the torture, and confess to deeds of which his soul knows nothing: therefore help, Frank, help, before it is too late. Your hand plunged us into this abyss; your hand must s.n.a.t.c.h us from it. You have solemnly sworn it to us, and must redeem your word, that G.o.d may one day not forget you in your dying hour.”
”Leave us alone,” said Francis to the jailer; and when the latter had gone, he exclaimed to Agatha, ”What would you have of me? You ask help of one who is himself most helpless. Would I be here, if I had the influence which you attribute to me?”
”Your father is all-powerful in this city,” cried Agatha, wringing her hands. ”It is a trifle for him to help the man who is now to suffer for having saved your life.”
”My father's hands are bound by the bishop and the furious n.o.bles.
Could he govern at his pleasure, he had surely saved his own son from the grief and shame of a prison. But I have done what I could, and your father's cause is commended to good hands.”
”I will believe it,” said Agatha, suppressing her feelings, ”though I find you terribly cold to a sorrow that concerns you so nearly.”
She was henceforth silent, leaning her head on the shoulder of Francis, who embraced her in indescribable anxiety, while the silence of death prevailed in the dungeon. On a sudden, through the nightly stillness broke a hollow shriek from the lower chambers. Francis had a foreboding of what it meant, and shuddered; Agatha listened intently to the groans, which with every moment sounded sharper and more agonized.
”Eternal mercy!” she suddenly cried in wild horror; ”that is my father's voice!”
”Perhaps we deceive ourselves,” said Francis, endeavouring to soothe her.
”That is my father's voice,” screamed Agatha; ”I should know it amidst thousands. It must be the pangs of h.e.l.l that can extort such cries from the iron old man. Gracious heavens! And I hear his shrieks and cannot help him!”
”Cease,” cried Francis, beside himself; ”you torture yourself and me with more bitter cruelty than any he can suffer on the rack; and you torture us in vain, for by the Almighty I cannot help, though with my own blood I would purchase his!”
Agatha fixed her eyes upon him with a cold piercing gaze of inquiry, and said, ”Are you in earnest, Frank? Would you really purchase his life with your own? Well then, call in the jailers; let the judges be requested to suspend awhile the torture: confess yourself the a.s.sa.s.sin of Netz, and my father is saved.”
”And I lost!” exclaimed Francis. ”You ask of me more than is reasonable!”
”I was not in earnest,” said Agatha contemptuously. ”I knew beforehand that your own wretched life was dearer to you than any thing else, and I merely wished to shame the boaster who affected a magnanimity to which his miserable heart can never elevate itself. Father, I _cannot_ save you; this man _will_ not I can do nothing, therefore, but pray for you in the hour of your suffering, that the All-merciful may comfort your soul and preserve it from despair.”--And she sank upon her knees; her lips moved softly, and her eyes, turned up to heaven, overflowed with gentle tears, while the cries of agony from below grew fainter and fainter, and at length were silent altogether.
The maiden arose and stood again before the trembling Francis; with awful calmness she said, ”A horrid light is beginning to dawn upon me.
It seems to me as if my poor father suffered for your crime, the wild vengeance of the n.o.bles absolutely exacting blood in atonement for the blood which has been spilt. It seems, too, as if you were well content to buy yourself free with this expiatory sacrifice. Once again, therefore, I conjure you, Francis, exert yourself for us. If you could not rescue your saviour from the pangs of the rack, at least preserve his life. Save it not merely for me, save it for yourself! For I swear to you, by the agonies of this dreadful hour, if my father perishes, you too are lost! I will bend all the energies of my soul to your destruction; I will steal after you through life as your evil demon, till at last I reach you and hurl the lightnings of vengeance upon your guilty head!”
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