Part 25 (1/2)
No sooner did he receive this information than he took his leave abruptly, with pros of that gentle favoured with a private audience, ”When I tell you,” said he, ”that my name is Renaldo Count de Melvil, you will know me to be the most unfortunate of e of my worthy friend Joshua, the fatal veil was re darkened by the artifices of incredible deceit, and my own incurable misery fully presented to my view If you were acquainted with the unhappy fair, who hath fallen a victim to s which I now feel in recollecting her fate If you have cos, you will not refuse to conduct me to the spot where the dear remains of Monimia are deposited; there let me enjoy a full banquet of woe; there let me feast that worm of sorrow that preys upon my heart For such entertainment have I revisited this (to me) ill-omened isle; for this satisfaction I intrude upon your condescension at these unseasonable hours; for to such a degree of impatience is my affliction whetted, that no slumber shall assail mine eyelids, no peace reside within my bosom, until I shall have adored that earthly shrine where my Monimia lies! Yet would I know the circuel to minister to her distress?
were her last ence, to insults; left in the power of that inhuman villain who betrayed us both? Sacred Heaven! why did Providence wink at the triu listened with complacency to this effusion, replied, ”It is my profession, it is e of your feelings, because I know the value of your loss I attended the incoh acquainted with her story to conclude that she fell a sacrifice to an unhappy , effected and fomented by that traitor who abused your mutual confidence”
He then proceeded to inform him of all the particulars which we have already recorded, touching the destiny of the beauteous orphan, and concluded with telling him he was ready to yield hirant The circumstances of the tale had put Renaldo's spirits into such co but interjections and unconnected words When Fathoitation, started fro, ”Monster! fiend! but we shall one day meet”
When he was made acquainted with the benevolence of the French lady, he exclaimed, ”O heaven-born charity and corace sent hither to ate the tortures of life! where shall I find her, to offer upheard the conclusion of the detail, he embraced the relater, as the kind benefactor of Monimia, shed a flood of tears in his boso him to the solitary place where now she rested fro the transports of his grief were such as could not be opposed, complied with his request, attended him in the vehicle, and directed the coachman to drive to a sequestered field, at some distance from the city, where stood the church, within whose awful aisle this scene was to be acted The sexton being suratification, after the physician had communed with him apart, and explained the intention of Renaldo's visit
During this pause the soul of Melvil ound up to the highest pitch of enthusiastic sorrow The uncoht, the solemn silence, and lonely situation of the place, conspired with the occasion of his coes of his fancy, to produce a real rapture of gloomy expectation, which the whole world would not have persuaded him to disappoint The clock struck twelve, the owl screeched from the ruined battleht of a gli lover to a dreary aisle, and sta lady lies interred”
Melvil no sooner received this inti his lips to the hallowed earth, ”Peace,” cried he, ”to the gentle tenant of this silent habitation” Then turning to the bystanders, with a bloodshot eye, said, ”Leave rief is too delicate to admit the company even of my friends The rites to be perforht alone”
The doctor, alarmed at this declaration, which he was afraid ian to repent of having been accessory to the visit, atte him obstinately determined, called in the assistance of the sexton and coacho, to force Renaldo fro his friend was then very unfit for co, ”You need not be afraid that he will obey the dictates of despair; his religion, his honour will baffle such temptations; he hath promised to reserve his life for the occasions of his friend; and he shall not be disappointed in his present aim” In order to corroborate this peree, he unsheathed his sword, and the others retreating at sight of his weapon, ”Count,” said he, ”enjoy your grief in full transport; I will screen you froh at the hazard of hastly vault, I atch tillin the porch, and meditate upon the ruin of ly prevailed upon the physician to retire, after he had satisfied the sexton, and ordered the coachman to return by break of day
Renaldo, thus left alone, prostrated hirave, and poured forth such lae hearer He called aloud upon Monimia's name, ”Are these the nuptial joys to which our fate hath doo hopes, that intercourse divine, that raptured admiration, in which so many hours insensibly elapsed? where now are those attractions to which I yielded up laddened each beholder, and shone the planets of my happiness and peace!
cold! cold and withered are those lips that swelled with love, and far outblushed the daue, whose eloquence had power to lull the pangs of misery and care! no more shall my attention be ravished with the music of that voice, which used to thrill in soft vibrations to my soul! O sainted spirit! O unspotted shade of her whom I adored; of her whose ret; of her whose ie will be the last idea that forsakes this hapless bosority and love; now dost thou behold the anguish that I feel If the pure essence of thy nature will pere this wretched youth with sonal of thy notice, with some token of thy approbation? wilt thou assume a medium of embodied air, in se in this dreary tomb, and speak the words of peace to h but for one shorteyes! vouchsafe one smile! Renaldo will be satisfied; Renaldo's heart will be at rest; his grief no lide with equal current to his latest hour! Alas! these are the raving of my delirious sorrow!
Monimia hears not my complaints; her soul, sublimed far, far above all sublunary cares, enjoys that felicity of which she was debarred on earth
In vain I stretch these eyes, environed with darkness undistinguishi+ng and void No object meets my view; no sound salutes h these vaulted caves of death”
In this kind of exclaht, not without a certain species of woful enjoyment, which the soul is often able to conjure up fro intruded on his privacy, he could scarce believe it was the light of day, so fast had fleeted thethus disburdened, and his iratified, he becao was equally pleased and astonished at the air of serenity hich he caoodness and attachment He frankly owned, that his mind was now more at ease than he had ever found it, since he first received the fatal intimation of his loss; that a few such feasts would entirely moderate the keen appetite of his sorrohich he would afterwards feed with less precipitation
He also imparted to the Castilian the plan of a ned for the incoo was so much struck with the description, that he solicited his advice in projecting another, of a different nature, to be erected to the hter, should he ever be able to re-establish himself in Spain
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
HE RENEWS THE RITES OF SORROW, AND IS ENTRANCED
While they amused themselves with this sort of conversation, the physician returned with the coach, and accompanied them back to their inn, where he left theain at noon, and conduct Renaldo to the house of Madaerly desired to be introduced
The appointinable punctuality on both sides Melvil had arrayed hiood lady in the like habit, assuoodness of her heart was manifest in her countenance; the sensibility of the youth discovered itself in a flood of tears, which he shed at her appearance His sensations were too full for utterance; nor was she, for soive him welcome While she led him by the hand to a seat, the drops of syth she broke silence, saying, ”Count, we must acquiesce in the dispensations of Providence; and quiet the transports of our grief, with a full assurance that Monimia is happy”
This name was the key that unlocked the faculty of his speech ”I uish of my heart with that consolation
But say, huenerosity that hapless orphan was indebted for the last peaceful moment she enjoyed upon earth; say, in all your acquaintance with huhters of men, in all the exercise of your charity and beneficence, did you ever observe such sweetness, purity, and truth; such beauty, sense, and perfection, as that which was the inheritance of her whose fate I shall for ever deplore?”--”She was, indeed,” replied the lady, ”the best and fairest of our sex”
This was the beginning of a conversation touching that lovely victim, in the course of which he explained those wicked arts which Fathom practised to alienate his affections fro hints and false insinuations by which that traitor had aspersed the unsuspecting lover, and soiled his character in the opinion of the virtuous orphan The intelligence he obtained on this occasion added indignation to his grief The whole mystery of Monimia's behaviour, which he could not before explain, now stood disclosed before hiress of that infernal plan which had been laid for their mutual ruin; and his soul was inflaeance, that he would have taken his leave abruptly, in order to set on foot an is, that he ht exterminate such a monster of iniquity from the face of the earth But he was restrained by Madaave hieance of Heaven; for she had traced him in all the course of his fortune, from his first appearance in the medical sphere to his total eclipse She represented the villain as a wretch altogether unworthy of his attention She said, he was so covered with infaainst hi away some stain of dishonour; that he was, at present, peculiarly protected by the law, and sheltered frorace