Edmond Dantès by Edmund Flagg
CHAPTER XV.
THE UNKNOWN NURSE.
When the rumor that M. Dantes had been taken seriously ill was firstcirculated throughout Paris, it caused excitement in every quarter ofthe city, filling the Communists and workmen with dismay and greatlyelating their opponents.
In the midst of the excitement a strange lady, very plainly attired,but whose language and bearing gave unmistakable evidence of refinementand aristocratic associations, made her appearance one morning at theoffice of Dr. Orfila and humbly asked permission to nurse hisdistinguished patient. The physician, somewhat surprised at such arequest from such a woman, immediately grew suspicious and demanded anexplanation, when the lady informed him that she had known the sick manin his youth and was still deeply interested in his welfare. She refusedto give her name, but solemnly assured the doctor that, should he granther petition, M. Dantes on his recovery would be ready to thank him onbended knees.
Convinced at length that no harm was intended, the physician gave hispermission and the unknown lady was duly installed as nurse. Shedischarged her duties with unflagging devotion and energy, satisfyingeven the exacting Nubian, with whom she divided the watch at the bedsideof the unconscious deputy. Dr. Orfila was delighted, while Esperance andZuleika were overjoyed.
On--on--the sleeper still slumbered on! One--two--three--four quartersafter eleven tinkled in silvery numbers upon the delicate bell of theclock, yet the closed eyelids and fixed lips moved not, gave no sign;but for the light, though regular undulation of the chest, life itselfmight seem to have fled forever. Yet life was still there!
How strange the bond which connects vitality with consciousness--thebody with the soul! And yet more strange is that phase of existence inwhich the one moves on without the other. The mind sometimes is all lifewhen the body is dead, and oftener still is the body all life when themind seems gone. Mind, too, may frequently act independently, not onlyof the body, as in dreams, but, also, of consciousness and of the heart;while the body, as in somnambulism, may act altogether alone.
On--on--the slumberer breathed on, but he thought not, felt not,perceived not. A revolution, an earthquake might heave around him, butthe convulsive throes of man or of nature would have been as nothing tohim. The brow would have remained as calm and as cold, and the cheek aspale and as still, while, in all human probability, the faithful Nubianwould have sat as immovable upon his rug at the bedside of his belovedmaster, and have gazed upon him as untiringly with his dark andsleepless eye.
As the last quarter after eleven sounded, followed immediately by thehour of midnight, a small door beside the bed noiselessly opened, and afemale figure in white silently entered the room; but not so noiselesslywas the entrance effected as to escape the ear of the vigilant Ali. Heglanced hurriedly around; then, as if familiar with the apparition, andanticipating its approach, he rose, and, taking his rug to the furtherextremity of the chamber, again laid himself down, like a faithful dog,though not now to watch.
Meanwhile the lady, quietly approaching the bed, gazed long andmournfully at the slumberer's pale yet noble visage; then, kneeling, sheburied her face in her hands amid the coverings.
She was, probably, forty; yet, in the full and faultless perfection ofher form--in her graceful and yielding motions--in her statuesque bust,rounded cheek and night-black hair, she would, to the casual observer,have indicated hardly the half of that age. Her figure was tall anddignified, yet mobile as a willow; her eyes were dark and luminous, and,in their profound depths, slept a world of melancholy meaning. Her hairwas simply parted on a broad forehead, and was gathered in heavy masseslow on the neck. Her lips were full and red, and, when parted, exhibitedteeth of dazzling whiteness, while her complexion, which was very dark,was yet clear and pure as the hue of the magnolia's petal. But that facewas pale, very pale, almost as colorless as that of the quiet sleeper atits side, and upon it rested an expression of love unutterable, mingledwith the sadness of death.
Such was the unknown nurse, the Countess de Morcerf, as she again was aninmate of that apartment of which she had once, under circumstances howdifferent, been mistress; such was Mercedes, the Catalane of Marseilles,again at the side of the man whom all her life she had loved, with noneto gainsay or forbid!
Upon that pale and motionless countenance she gazed long and deeply,and, oh! the world of memory that passed through her mind!--the worldof thought and feeling that centred in that fixed gaze! At length,clasping her hands upon her forehead, her eyes streaming with tears, shebowed her face upon the bed, from which she had just raised it, and longseemed absorbed in prayer.
Roused from this position by some movement of the slumberer, she startedup and watched him.
The shaded rays of the dim and distant lamp threw a faint glimmering oflight upon the pale countenance, but the quick eye of loveinstantaneously detected a change. A slight flush was mounting thecheek, and gentle perspiration was distilling upon the brow, while asmile played on the mouth. Suddenly, as she gazed, those pallid lipsmoved. Astonished, she listened.
"Marseilles! beautiful Marseilles!" said the sleeper. "Home of myboyhood, home of my heart. I come!" Then quickly and sternly came theorder, "Let go the anchor--furl the sails--mate, take charge of theship!" Then the tones changed, and a joyful light shot over the face asthe lips exclaimed, "Now for my father! now for my love! Mercedes!Mercedes!"
Amazed, the fair watcher retained her position, and gazed and listenedso silently and breathlessly that the quick and audible beatings of herheart might have been numbered.
"Mine--mine at last!" continued the dreamer. "The marriage-feast--themarriage-feast!" But instantly the expression of the voice and thecountenance altered. The light of joy was shrouded in clouds."Arrest--arrest me?" was the exclamation--"me! at my marriage-feast! Adungeon for me! Mercedes! Mercedes! My love--my wife! Oh! God! it is theChateau d'If! Despair--despair!"
Shocked, terrified at the terrible energy of these words, and theexpression of unutterable woe that rested on the countenance of thesleeper, the affrighted woman, who comprehended but too well the fearfulsignificance of the abrupt and disjointed syllables, hastily arose as ifto rouse the slumberer from his dream or to call on the Nubian for aid.
But, before she could carry the purpose into execution, the aspect ofthe Deputy's visage again had changed. A dark frown settled on the brow,a spirit of fixed resolve contracted the firm lip and dilated thenostril, and the word, "Vengeance--vengeance!" in whispers scarcelyaudible, but repeatedly and rapidly pronounced, was heard.
A longer silence than before succeeded. At length another change sweptover the face, and the words, "Free--free--I am free!" burst from thelips; then they murmured, "Treasure untold! wondrouswealth!--diamonds--pearls--rubies--ingots of gold! The mad abbe's dreamwas reality!" Again the countenance darkened. "Fourteen years in adungeon for no crime!--a father dead of starvation!--a bride the brideof the fiend who has done all this--and he a peer of France--and hisfriends a millionaire of Paris and the Procureur du Roi!Vengeance--vengeance--vengeance!" There was a pause, and the dreamerexultingly continued, "It is done! The peer of France is a disgracedsuicide! The Procureur du Roi is a madman! The banker is a bankrupt!"The dreamer again paused, and his countenance once more changed. "Alas!alas! man is not God! 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord!'The innocent suffer with the guilty. To avenge a wrong has beensacrificed a life, and only misery has been the recompense! No more--nomore--no more of this! Man and man's happiness be henceforth the aim! Tothat be devoted wealth untold!"
The lips ceased to move. Gradually the high excitement of the featurespassed away and was succeeded by an expression of sadness and love."Haydee--gone--gone to a better world. Mercedes--Mercedes--oh! does shelove me yet? The long lost idol of my heart!--the adored angel of mylife!--come! come! come!"
As the dreamer spoke, he spread wide his arms; when his eyes opened, andhis long slumbering senses returned, Mercedes, his own Mercedes, was,indeed, clasped to his breast.
"Mercedes! Mercedes?
"Thine--thine--forever!" was the reply, and she clasped his feeble formto her heart as she would have clasped that of a child.