Volume Ii Part 23 (1/2)
”'You are out of your senses!' cried the Chevalier, who had, however, now regained his composure a good deal, and began to observe that the Colonel was losing at every deal.
”'Twenty thousand ducats, or Angela!' the Colonel said almost in a whisper, as he paused for a moment during the shuffling of the cards.
The Chevalier said not a word. The Colonel played again, and nearly all the cards were in favour of the players--against him.
”'Done!' the Chevalier whispered in the Colonel's ear when the next deal began; and he threw the Queen on the table.
”The Queen lost.
”The Chevalier drew back, grinding his teeth, and leaned at the window with despair and death in his white face.
”The game ended, and, with a jeering 'Well! what next?' the Colonel came up to the Chevalier.
”'Oh, G.o.d!' cried the Chevalier, quite beside himself. 'You have made me a beggar, but you must be a madman if you think you have won my wife! Are we in the West Indies? Is my wife a slave--a chattel in her husband's power, so that he can sell her, or gamble her away at faro?
It is true, of course, that you would have had to pay me twenty thousand ducats if the Queen had won, so that I have lost the right to make any objection if my wife chooses to leave me and go away with you.
Come home with me, and despair when my wife repulses with horror the man whom she would have to follow as a dishonoured mistress.'
”'Despair yourself, Chevalier!' said the Colonel with a scornful laugh, 'when Angela turns from you with horror---from you, the miserable wretch who has brought her to beggary--and throws herself into my arms with eager rapture; despair yourself, when you find that the Church's benediction unites us--that fate crowns our most eager desires. You say I must be mad!--Ha, ha! All I wanted was to gain power of veto. I knew of a certainty that your wife belonged to me. Ho, ho, Chevalier! Let me tell you that your wife loves me--me--unutterably, to my certain knowledge. Let me tell you that I am that Duvernet, the neighbour's son, brought up with Angela, united to her in the warmest affection, which you, with your devilish artifices, dispelled. Alas! it was not till I had to depart on field service that Angela knew what I was to her. I know the whole matter. It was too late then. But the dark spirit told me that I should succeed in ruining you at play--that was why I devoted myself to it and followed you to Genoa. And I have done it!--come now to your wife!'
”The Chevalier stood like one annihilated, stricken by a thousand burning lightnings. The mystery so long sealed to him was explained.
Now, for the first time, he saw the full extent of the misfortunes which he had brought upon poor Angela.
”'My wife shall make her decision,' he said in a hollow tone, and followed the Colonel, who stormed away.
”When they came to the house, and the Colonel seized the handle of Angela's door, the Chevalier thrust him back, saying, 'My wife is in a sweet sleep; would you awaken her?'
”'Ha!' said the Colonel. 'Has Angela ever been in a sweet sleep since you brought nameless misery upon her?'
”He was about to enter the room, but the Chevalier prostrated himself at his feet, and cried, in utter despair, 'Have some mercy! You have made me a beggar! Leave me my wife!'
”'So lay old Vertua at _your_ feet, unfeeling monster that you were, and could not move your stony heart. Therefore, may the vengeance of Heaven be upon you!'
”So saying, the Colonel again turned towards Angela's room.
”The Chevalier sprang to the door, burst it open, dashed up to the bed where his wife was lying, drew the curtains aside, cried 'Angela!
Angela!'--bent over her--took her hand--shuddered like one convulsed in the death agony, and cried out in a terrible voice--
”'See here! What you have won from me is my wife's corpse!'
”The Colonel hurried to the bedside in terror. There was no trace of life. Angela was dead.
”The Colonel raised his clenched hands to heaven, and rushed away with a hollow cry. He was no more seen.”
It was thus that the stranger finished his narrative, and having done so, he went quickly away, before the Baron, much moved by it, was able to utter any word.
A day or two afterwards the stranger was found insensible in his room, stricken by apoplexy. He was speechless till his death, which happened in a few hours. His papers showed that, though he was known by the name of Bauda.s.son, he really was none other than the unfortunate Chevalier Menars.
The Baron recognized the warning of Heaven which had brought the Chevalier Menars to him just when he was nearing the abyss, and he took a solemn vow that he would resist all the temptations of the deceptive Gambler's Fortune. Hitherto he has kept his vow.
”Would one not suppose,” said Lothair, when Theodore had ended, ”that you were a man who knew all about gambling, and were great at all those games yourself, though perhaps your conscience might now and then give you a slap in the face? and yet I know very well that you never touch a card.”
”That is quite the case,” said Theodore. ”And yet I derived much a.s.sistance, in my story, from a strange experience which I had myself once.”