Part 44 (1/2)
”I thought you were in Courland,” she stammered, confused.
”And whilst you thought me afar, you forgot your sacred oath and holy duty,” he replied, in a harsh, severe tone. ”Oh my daughter, the Invisibles weep and lament bitterly over you.”
”I am curious to see these tears,” said Wilhelmine, who had now recovered her self-composure. ”Do you think, Herr Magus, any of them could be found in the eyes of Colonel Bischofswerder and his intimate friend Woellner? Do you pretend that they also weep over me?”
”They do not belong to the Invisibles, but the Visibles. But their souls are true and faithful, and would have to mourn over the unhappy one who could forget her vows.”
”Then allow me to say that I abjure these tears, and laugh at the idea that these hypocrites and necromancers weep over me.”
”My daughter, what words are these, and how strangely altered you are!
I have come from the far north, and but just alighted from the travelling-carriage. I came at once to see you, and hoped to be greeted joyfully with a kiss of love, and what do I hear instead? Harsh words filled with scorn and mockery, and disobedience against the Invisible Fathers, to whom you have sworn fidelity and submission!”
”You have forced me to it!” she cried, impetuously. ”In my own house you came upon me and compelled me to take part in your mystic a.s.sembly.”
”If one loves humanity, he must insist upon its accepting happiness,”
said Cagliostro, solemnly. ”We recognized in you one of the elect, one of the great souls which are worthy to see the light, and sun themselves in the rays of knowledge. Therefore we accepted you among the spirits of the alliance, and--”
”And made great promises, of which not one has been fulfilled. Where is the t.i.tle of countess, the influence, position, honor, and dignity, which you prophesied to me?”
”Where are the deeds you promised to perform, the witnesses of your fidelity and devotion?” he thunderingly demanded. ”You have dared to rebel against the holy alliance! Your short-sighted spirit presumes to mock those eyes which perceive that you are straying away!
Beware--Wilhemine, beware! I came to-day to warn you, when I return it will be to punish you. Turn, oh turn while there is yet time! Submit your will to the Fathers, as you have sworn to do! The promised reward will not fail, and Wilhelmine Enke will become a countess, a princess, and the most distinguished and powerful will bow before her. The Fathers demand of you repentance, and renunciation of the worst enemies of the Rosicrucians. Members, and even chiefs and pioneers of the Illuminati and Freemasons are welcomed at your house.”
”Why should they not be?” asked she, smiling. ”They are happy, cheerful spirits, void of mysteries, and do not torture people with mysticisms.
They have but one aim, a great and glorious one, to free the mind from superst.i.tion and hypocrisy. They encounter with open countenance the false devotees who would force men into spiritual servitude, that they may become the slaves of their will. You call them 'Illuminati,' while they have undertaken to illuminate the minds with the beams of knowledge which the Rosicrucians obscure in a mystical fog.”
”Unhappy one, do you dare to say that to me?” cried Cagliostro, menacingly.
”Yes,” she responded, keeping her large, brown eyes firmly fixed upon Cagliostro's angry face. ”That I dare to repeat to you, and I would also remark that we are not in the mystical a.s.sembly of the Rosicrucians, and your familiar 'Du' is out of place. I belong to the Illuminati, and mingle with the freethinkers. They have not, indeed, promised me t.i.tles, honors, or dignities, but they have amused me, have driven ennui from the house, and instead of mysticisms, brought me poesy, and instead of the invisible holy church, the Greek temple. It is possible my life may not be a G.o.dly one, but it is as happy as the G.o.ds, and that is something in this tedious world.”
”I regard you with astonishment,” said Cagliostro, ”for I recognize in your countenance that the devil has won you over to his power, and in you he speaks with the bold insolence of the sinful. Subdue, unhappy child, your rash speech, that the Fathers may not hear of it, and crush you in their wrath.”
”I do not fear their thunderbolts, permit me to tell you. We are in Prussia; the great king watches over all his subjects; neither the Romish Church nor the Rosicrucians can obscure the light of knowledge.
He will not suffer a ghost, sneaking in the dark, to exercise power here, and he will not refuse the protection to me which is accorded to the least of his subjects. I do not fear you, and I will tell you the truth entire, I believe you to be a hypocrite and a charlatan, who--”
”Miserable one!” interrupted Cagliostro, as he furiously rushed to her, seizing her by the arm--”cease, unhappy one, or your life is forfeited to the invisible avengers!”
Wilhelmine shook her head, and encountered his flaming eyes with a proud glance. ”I repeat your own words--cease, or your life will be forfeited!
Perhaps you think I do not know what happened to you in Mittau, where you were recognized as a charlatan, who fooled the poor creatures into the belief of his miraculous acts, which consisted in lightening their purses to the benefit of his own. You were obliged to flee from Mitlau in the night, to save yourself, your treasures, and wonderful man-traps, and the beautiful Lorenza Feliciana. Beware! The Empress of Russia had a certain Joseph Balsamo pursued, who had practised great deception, and people pretend that he resembles Count Cagliostro. The Empress Catherine is a good friend and ally of the King of Prussia, and if the happy idea should occur to me to propose seeking the necromancer here, the Great Kophta might come a miserable end.”
”On the contrary, it would only be a welcome occasion for the Great Kophta to reveal himself, and hurl his despicable, malicious enemy into the dust at his feet,” replied Cagliostro, calmly. ”Try it, you faithless, fallen daughter of the Invisibles--try to unloose the pack of my enemies, to recognize that all their yelling and barking does not trouble the n.o.ble stag to whom G.o.d has given the whole world for His forestward that He should rule therein. I have listened to you unto the end, and I regard your invectives and accusations as not worthy of a reply or justification, and I laugh at your menaces. But I warn you, Wilhelmine Enke, defy not the Invisibles, and offend not the Holy Fathers, by your continued resistance. Turn, misguided child of sin--turn while there is yet time! In their name I offer you a last chance, their forbearance is without bounds, and their mercy long enduring.”
”I neither desire your forbearance nor mercy,” cried she, proudly. ”I will have no companions.h.i.+p with my enemies, and the Rosicrucians are such, for Bischofswerder and Woellner both hate me, and would put me aside. There is no reconciliation where only hostility is possible.”
”The heavenly listen not to the voices of the earthly, and prove themselves, the most n.o.ble when the least deserved. They will protect and watch over you, even against your will, and never will they be deaf to your cry for aid in the hour of Here is a token of their grace toward you. Take this ring--do you recognize it?”
Wilhelmine regarded it attentively. ”This is the ring which I gave at the tribute-altar instead of gold, which you desired.”
”The Invisibles sent it to you to-day as the precious pledge of their favor. You shall keep it, and wear it as a token of their heavenly forbearance, and when you turn back from the erroneous ways into which the Illuminati have led you, send it to the circle of Berlin directors, either Bischofswerder or Wollner, and they will come to your rescue.