Part 44 (2/2)
He bent his white head over his digging again, and Von Glauben was for a moment silent, vaguely amazed and stupefied by this sudden declaration of a past crime.
”You should not say 'tricked,' my friend!” he at last ventured to remark; ”Prince Humphry is an honest lad;--he means to keep his word!”
Ronsard looked up, his eyes gleaming with fury.
”Keep his word? Bah! How can he? Who in this wide realm will give him the honourable liberty to keep his word? Will he acknowledge Gloria as his wife before the nation?--she a foundling and a castaway? Will he make her his future queen? Not he! He will forsake her, and live with another woman, in sin which the law will sanctify!”
He went on planting the rose-tree, then,--dropping his spade,--tossed up his head and hands with a wild gesture.
”What, and who is this G.o.d who so ordains our destiny!” he exclaimed; ”For surely this is His work,--not mine! Hidden away from all the world with my life's secret buried in my soul, I, without wife, or children or friends, or any soul on earth to care whether I lived or died, was sent an angel comforter;--the child I rescued from the sea! 'Gloria, Gloria in excelsis Deo!' the choristers sang in the church when I found her! I thought it true! With her,--in every action, in every thought and word, I strove,--and have faithfully striven,--to atone for my past crime;--for I was forced through others to kill that king! When proved guilty of the deed, I was told by my a.s.sociates to a.s.sume madness,--a mere matter of acting,--and, being adjudged as insane, I was sent with other criminals on a convict s.h.i.+p, bound for a certain coast-prison, where we were all to be kept for life. The s.h.i.+p was wrecked off the rocks yonder, and it was reported that every soul on board went down, but I escaped--only I,--for what inscrutable reason G.o.d alone knows!
Finding myself saved and free, I devoted my life to hard work, and to doing all the good I could think of to atone--to atone--always to atone!
Then the child was sent to me; and I thought it was a sign that my penance was accepted; but no!--no!--the compensating curse falls,--not on me,--not on me, for if only so, I would welcome it--but on Her!--the child of my love--the heart of my heart!--on Her!”
He turned away his face, and a hard sob broke from his labouring chest.
Von Glauben laid a gentle, protective hand on his shoulder.
”Ronsard, be a man!” he said in a kind, firm voice; ”This is the first time you have told me your true history--and--I shall respect your confidence! You have suffered much--equally you have loved much! Doubt not that you are forgiven much. But why should you a.s.sume, or foresee unhappiness for Gloria? Why talk of a curse where perhaps there is only an intended blessing? Is she unhappy, that you are thus moved?”
Ronsard furtively dashed away the tears from his eyes.
”She? Gloria unhappy? No,--not yet! The delights of spring and summer have met in her smile,--her eyes, her movements! It was she herself who told me all! If he had told me, I would have killed him!”
”Eminently sensible!” said Von Glauben, recovering his usual phlegmatic calm; ”You would have killed the man she loves best in the world. And so with perfect certainty you would have killed her as well,--and probably yourself afterwards. A perfect slaughterhouse, like the last scene in Hamlet, by the so admirable Shakespeare! It is better as it is. Life is really very pleasant!”
He sniffed the perfumed air,--listened with appreciation to the trilling of a bird swinging on a bough of apple-blossom above him, and began to feel quite easy in his mind. Half his mission was done for him, Prince Humphry having declared himself in his true colours. ”I always said,”
mused the Professor, ”that he was a very honest young man! And I think he will be honest to the end.” Aloud he asked:
”When did you know the truth?”
”Some days since,” replied Ronsard. ”He--Gloria's husband--I can as yet call him by no other name--came suddenly one evening;--the two went out together as usual, and then--then my child returned alone. She told me all,--of the disguise he had a.s.sumed--and of his real ident.i.ty--and I--well! I think I was mad! I know I spoke and acted like a madman!”
”Nay, rather say like a philosopher!” murmured Von Glauben with a humorous smile; ”Remember, my good fellow, that there is no human being who loses self-control more easily and rapidly than he who proclaims the advantage of keeping it! And what did Gloria say to you?”
Ronsard looked up at the tranquil skies, and was for a moment silent.
Then he answered.
”Gloria is--just Gloria! There is no woman like her,--there never will be any woman like her! She said nothing at all while I raged and swore;--she stood before me white and silent,--grand and calm, like some great angel. Then when I cursed _him,_--she raised her hand, and like a queen she said: 'I forbid you to utter one word against him!' I stood before her mute and foolish. 'I forbid you!' She,--the child I reared and nurtured--menaced me with her 'command' as though I were her slave and servant! You see I have lost her!--she is not mine any more--she is _his_--to be treated as he wills, and made the toy of his pleasure! She does not know the world, but I know it! I know the misery that is in store for her! But there is yet time--and I will live to avenge her wrong!”
”Possibly there will be no wrong to avenge,” said Von Glauben composedly; ”But if there is, I have no doubt you would kill another king!” Ronsard turned pale and shuddered. ”It is stupid work, killing kings,” went on the Professor; ”It never does any good; and often increases the evil it was intended to cure. Your studies in philosophy must have taught you that much at least! As for your losing Gloria,--you lost her in a sense when you gave her to her husband. It is no use complaining now, because you find he is not the man you took him for.
The mischief is done. At any rate you are bound to admit that Gloria has, so far, been perfectly happy; she will be happy still, I truly believe, for she has the secret of happiness in her own beautiful nature. And you, Ronsard, must make the best of things, and meet fate with calmness. To-day, for instance, I am here by the King's command,--I bear his orders,--and I have come for Gloria. They want her at the Palace.”
Ronsard stepped out of his flower-border, and stood on the greensward amazed, and indignantly suspicious.
”They want her at the Palace!” he repeated; ”Why? What for? To do her harm? To make her miserable? To insult and threaten her? No, she shall not go!”
”Look here, my friend,” said the Professor with mild patience; ”You have--for a philosopher--a most unpleasant habit of jumping to wrong conclusions! Please endeavour to compose the tumult in your soul, and listen to me! The King has sent for Gloria, and I am instructed to take charge of her, and escort her to the presence of their Majesties. No insult, no threat, no wrong is intended. I will bring her back again safe to you immediately the audience is concluded. Be satisfied, Ronsard! For once 'put your trust in princes,' for her husband will be there,--and do you think he would suffer her to be insulted or wronged?”
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