Part 6 (2/2)
_Devil_. I am ashamed to tell it you aloud.
_Abbess_. Then whisper it into my ear. What the Abbess of the Black Nuns could do without endangering her salvation, the Abbess of the White Nuns may do also.
_Devil_ (_softly into her ear_). He advised me to contrive so that this dangerous nun should commit the sin of * * *
_Abbess_ (_crossing herself_). Blessed Ursula! Why, that is the work of the Devil, and leads directly to h.e.l.l.
_Devil_. Ay, very true, but only the person who commits it; and I was not advising you to do it. Remember, dear sister, you are not to be punished for all the sins which your nuns may choose to commit.
_Abbess_. But, in Heaven's name, how did you manage this dangerous affair without being discovered?
_Devil_. Oh, my situation was much more difficult than yours, for you are a.s.sisted by the report of the dream, which already fills the whole city. Suppose, now, you were to let a man, dressed like the Dominican, slip into Clara's cell, and the signs of the sinful deed were afterwards to appear, would not the whole world say that it was a trick of the arch foe of mankind? Let Satan have the credit of it, and do you remain sitting in your chair, adorned with that dignity which Heaven has been pleased to grant you. I have given you this advice out of friends.h.i.+p, and for your good; you are now at liberty to do as you please. At all events, I will send you some one to-night to personate the Dominican, and he will only have to return if you are too scrupulous.
The abbess sat like one amazed, and in her confusion began to tell her Rosary: ”_Ave Maria_. It is certainly allying oneself to the Devil.
Blessed Ursula, illumine my darkness.” She cast her eyes upon the image of the saint. ”It would certainly be a great scandal to the convent.
_Ave Maria_. But then it would be placed to Satan's account. Perhaps, though, I might be d.a.m.ned for it. _Pater noster_. And am I now to become a servant in the cloister, and in my old days to be tormented by a superior, after I have so long tormented the nuns? This little baggage has already afforded sufficient scandal to the whole town without this.
Alas, when I have no longer authority to box the nuns about, how will this and that malignant creature revenge herself upon me! _Ave Maria_.
Well, I have made up my mind, and, for the good of the cloister, I will continue abbess the remainder of any days, cost what it will.”
The Devil applauded her, and the plan was soon arranged. Upon going away the Devil said to Faustus:
”Now, what have I done else than ask the pride of this old beldame whether it is better to risk eternal d.a.m.nation, or to give up that tyrannical power over the poor nuns, which the hand of Death will soon deprive her of?”
Whatever pleasure Faustus derived from the certainty that his desires would be gratified, he was nevertheless much displeased that the Devil should always be in the right. That same evening the abbess herself introduced him, under the disguise of the Dominican, into Clara's cell while the nuns were at vespers. Clara herself soon appeared, and after she had commended herself to St. Ursula, she laid herself down. Her imagination, which had once been directed to a certain object, often repeated to her in dreams her former vision; and she lay in just such a transport, when Faustus approached her, and embodied the apparition, upon which Clara awoke, and still believed herself merely in a dream. The abbess in the mean time did penance in her cell, and made a vow to fast every week for the good of her soul. But the consequences of this night were horrible to poor Clara.
The next morning Faustus took leave of his family. Few tears were shed; but his old father, in a mournful tone, gave him wholesome advice.
As Faustus, with the Devil, rode over the bridge which leads across the Rhine, thinking of last night's adventure, and making comments upon the abbess, he saw afar off a man in the water, who seemed upon the point of drowning, and only feebly struggled against approaching death. He commanded Leviathan to save the man. The Devil answered, with a significant look:
”Think well of what thou requirest; he is a youth, and perhaps it will be better for him and for thee that he ends his life here.”
_Faustus_. Thou fiend, only ready for mischief, wouldst thou have me withstand the sacred feeling of nature? Hasten and save him, I repeat.
_Devil_. Canst thou not swim thyself? No. Well, the consequences be thy reward; thou wilt repent of this.
He rushed into the stream, and rescued the youth. Faustus consoled himself with the idea of having, by this good act, atoned for the preceding night of sin; and Leviathan laughed at the consolation.
CHAPTER III.
The Devil now led Faustus through a series of adventures which were to serve as a prelude to the most afflicting vicissitudes. What Faustus had hitherto seen had embittered his heart; but the scenes which now opened upon him by degrees so wounded his spirit, that his mind was unable either to support or remedy them; and only one of the worldly great, or, what is nearly synonymous, a worker and designer of human misery, could have witnessed them unmoved.
The Devil and Faustus were riding in close conversation along the banks of the Fulda, when they saw beneath an oak-tree a countrywoman sitting with her children, appearing to be the lifeless image of agony and dumb despair. Faustus, whom sorrow attracted as much as joy, went hurriedly up to her, and inquired the cause of her grief. The woman gazed at him for some time, and it was not until his sympathising look had in some degree melted her frozen heart that she was able, amidst tears and sobbings, to explain herself in the following words:
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