The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom, Complete - Tobias Smollett
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When the doctor appeared with the coach, he leaped into it with great
eagerness, after he had, with much difficulty, prevailed with Don Diego
to stay at home, on account of his health, which was not yet perfectly
established. The Castilian, however, would not comply with his request,
until he had obtained the Count's promise, that he should be permitted to
accompany him next night, and take that duty alternately with the
physician.
About midnight, they reached the place, where they found the sexton in
waiting, according to the orders he had received. The door was opened,
the mourner conducted to the tomb, and left, as before, to the gloom of
his own meditations. Again he laid himself on the cold ground; again he
renewed his lamentable strain; his imagination began to be heated into an
ecstasy of enthusiasm, during which he again fervently invoked the spirit
of his deceased Monimia.
In the midst of these invocations, his ear was suddenly invaded with the
sound of some few solemn notes issuing from the organ, which seemed to
feel the impulse of an invisible hand.
At this awful salutation, Melvil was roused to the keenest sense of
surprise and attention. Reason shrunk before the thronging ideas of his
fancy, which represented this music as the prelude to something strange
and supernatural; and, while he waited for the sequel, the place was
suddenly illuminated, and each surrounding object brought under the
cognisance of his eye.
What passed within his mind on this occasion is not easy to be described.
All his faculties were swallowed up by those of seeing and hearing. He
had mechanically raised himself upon one knee, with his body advancing
forwards; and in this attitude he gazed with a look through which his
soul seemed eager to escape. To his view, thus strained upon vacant
space, in a few minutes appeared the figure of a woman arrayed in white,
with a veil that covered her face, and flowed down upon her back and
shoulders. The phantom approached him with an easy step, and, lifting up
her veil, discovered (believe it, O reader!) the individual countenance
of Monimia.
At sight of these well-known features, seemingly improved with new
celestial graces, the youth became a statue, expressing amazement, love,
and awful adoration. He saw the apparition smile with meek benevolence,
divine compassion, warm and intendered by that fond pure flame which
death could not extinguish. He heard the voice of his Monimia call
Renaldo! Thrice he essayed to answer; as oft his tongue denied its
office. His hair stood upright, and a cold vapour seemed to thrill
through every nerve. This was not fear, but the infirmity of human
nature, oppressed by the presence of a superior being.
At length his agony was overcome. He recollected all his resolution,
and, in a strain of awestruck rapture, thus addressed the heavenly
visitant: "Hast thou then heard, pure spirit! the wailings of my grief?
hast thou descended from the realms of bliss, in pity to my woe? and art
thou come to speak the words of peace to my desponding soul? To bid the
wretched smile, to lift the load of misery and care from the afflicted
breast; to fill thy lover's heart with joy and pleasing hope, was still
the darling task of my Monimia, ere yet refined to that perfection which
mortality can never attain. No wonder then, blessed shade, that now,
when reunited to thy native heaven, thou art still kind, propitious, and
beneficent to us, who groan in this inhospitable vale of sorrow thou hast
left. Tell me, ah! tell me, dost thou still remember those fond hours we
passed together? Doth that enlightened bosom feel a pang of soft regret,
when thou recallest our fatal separation? Sure that meekened glance
bespeaks thy sympathy! Ah! how that tender look o'erpowers me! Sacred
Heaven! the pearly drops of pity trickle down thy cheeks! Such are the
tears that angels shed o'er man's distress!--Turn not away--Thou
beckonest me to follow. Yes, I will follow thee, ethereal spirit, as far
as these weak limbs, encumbered with mortality, will bear my weight; and,
would to Heaven! I could, with ease, put off these vile corporeal
shackles, and attend thy flight."
So saying, he started from the ground, and, in a transport of eager
expectation, at awful distance, traced the footsteps of the apparition,
which, entering a detached apartment, sunk down upon a chair, and with a
sigh exclaimed, "Indeed, this is too much!" What was the disorder of
Renaldo's mind, when he perceived this phenomenon! Before reflection
could perform its office, moved by a sudden impulse, he sprung forwards,
crying, "If it be death to touch thee, let me die!" and caught in his
arms, not the shadow, but the warm substance of the all-accomplished
Monimia. "Mysterious powers of Providence! this is no phantom! this is
no shade! this is the life! the panting bosom of her whom I have so long,
so bitterly deplored! I fold her in my arms! I press her glowing breast
to mine! I see her blush with virtuous pleasure and ingenuous love! She
smiles upon me with enchanting tenderness! O let me gaze on that
transcendent beauty, which, the more I view it, ravishes the more! These
charms are too intense; I sicken while I gaze! Merciful Heaven! is not
this a mere illusion of the brain? Was she not fled for ever? Had not
the cold hand of death divorced her from my hope? This must be some
flattering vision of my distempered fancy! perhaps some soothing dream--
If such it be, grant, O ye heavenly powers! that I may never wake."
"O gentle youth!" replied the beauteous orphan, still clasped in his
embrace, "what joy now fills the bosom of Monimia, at this triumph of thy
virtue and thy love? When I see these transports of thy affection, when
I find thee restored to that place in my esteem and admiration, which
thou hadst lost by the arts of calumny and malice--this is a meeting
which my most sanguine hopes durst not presage!"
So entirely were the faculties of Renaldo engrossed in the contemplation
of his restored Monimia, that he saw not the rest of the company, who
wept with transport over this affecting scene. He was therefore amazed
at the interposition of Madam Clement, who, while the shower of
sympathetic pleasure bedewed her cheeks, congratulated the lovers upon
this happy event, crying, "These are the joys which virtue calls her
own." They also received the compliments of a reverend clergyman, who
told Monimia, she had reaped, at last, the fruits of that pious
resignation to the will of Heaven, which she had so devoutly practised
during the term of her affliction. And, lastly, they were accosted by
the physician, who was not quite so hackneyed in the ways of death, or so
callous to the finer sensations of the soul, but that he blubbered
plentifully, wile he petitioned Heaven in behalf of such an accomplished
and deserving pair.
Monimia taking Madam Clement by the hand, "Whatever joy," said she,
"Renaldo derives from this occasion, is owing to the bounty, the
compassion, and maternal care of this incomparable lady, together with
the kind admonitions and humanity of those two worthy gentlemen."
Melvil, whose passions were still in agitation, and whose mind could not
yet digest the incidents that occurred, embraced them all by turns; but,
like the faithful needle, which, though shaken for an instant from its
poise, immediately regains its true direction, and points invariably to
the pole, he soon returned to his Monimia; again he held her in his arms,
again he drank enchantment from her eyes, and thus poured forth the
effusions of his soul:--"Can I then trust the evidence of sense? And art
thou really to my wish restored? Never, O never did thy beauty shine
with such bewitching grace, as that which now confounds and captivates my
view! Sure there is something more than mortal in thy looks!--Where hast
thou lived?--where borrowed this perfection?--whence art thou now
descended?--Oh! I am all amazement, joy, and fear!--Thou wilt not leave
me!--No! we must not part again. By this warm kiss! a thousand times
more sweet than all the fragrance of the East! we nevermore will part.
O! this is rapture, ecstasy, and what no language can explain!"
In the midst of these ejaculations, he ravished a banquet from her
glowing lips, that kindled in his heart a flame which rushed through
every vein, and glided to his marrow. This was a privilege he had never
claimed before, and now permitted as a recompense for all the penance he
had suffered. Nevertheless, the cheeks of Monimia, who was altogether
unaccustomed to such familiarities, underwent a total suffusion; and
Madam Clement discreetly relieved her from the anxiety of her situation,
by interfering in the discourse, and rallying the Count upon his
endeavours to monopolise such a branch of happiness.
"O my dear lady!" replied Renaldo, who by this time had, in some measure,
recovered his recollection, "forgive the wild transports of a fond lover,
who hath so unexpectedly retrieved the jewel of his soul! Yet, far from
wishing to hoard up his treasure, he means to communicate and diffuse his
happiness to all his friends. O my Monimia! how will the pleasure of
this hour be propagated! As yet thou knowest not all the bliss that is
reserved for thy enjoyment!--Meanwhile, I long to learn by what
contrivance this happy interview hath been effected. Still am I ignorant
how I was transported into this apartment, from the lonely vault in which
I mourned over my supposed misfortune!"
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
THE MYSTERY UNFOLDED--ANOTHER RECOGNITION, WHICH, IT IS TO BE HOPED, THE
READER COULD NOT FORESEE.
The French lady then explained the whole mystery of Monimia's death, as a
stratagem she had concerted with the clergyman and doctor, in order to
defeat the pernicious designs of Fathom, who seemed determined to support
his false pretensions by dint of perjury and fraud, which they would have
found it very difficult to elude. She observed, that the physician had
actually despaired of Monimia's life, and it was not till after she
herself was made acquainted with the prognostic, that she wrote the
letter to Renaldo, which she committed to the care of Madam Clement, with
an earnest entreaty, that it should not be sent till after her decease.
But that lady, believing the Count had been certainly abused by his
treacherous confidant, despatched the billet without the knowledge of
Monimia, whose health was restored by the indefatigable care of the
physician, and the sage exhortations of the clergyman, by which she was
reconciled to life. In a word, the villany of Fathom had inspired her
with some faint hope that Renaldo might still be innocent; and that
notion contributed not a little to her cure.
The letter having so effectually answered their warmest hopes, in
bringing back Renaldo such a pattern of constancy and love, the
confederates, in consequence of his enthusiastic sorrow, had planned this
meeting, as the most interesting way of restoring two virtuous lovers to
the arms of each other; for which purpose the good clergyman had pitched
upon his own church, and indulged them with the use of the vestry, in
which they now were presented with a small but elegant collation.
Melvil heard this succinct detail with equal joy and admiration. He
poured forth the dictates of his gratitude to the preservers of his
happiness.--"This church," said he, "shall henceforth possess a double
share of my veneration; this holy man will, I hope, finish the charitable
work he has begun, by tying those bands of our happiness, which nought
but death shall have power to unbind." Then turning to that object which
was the star of his regard, "Do I not overrate," said he, "my interest
with the fair Monimia?" She made no verbal reply; but answered by an
emphatic glance, more eloquent than all the power of rhetoric and speech.
This language, which is universal in the world of love, he perfectly well
understood, and, in token of that faculty, sealed the assent which she
had smiled, with a kiss imprinted on her polished forehead.
In order to dissipate these interesting ideas, which, by being too long
indulged, might have endangered his reason, Madam Clement entreated him
to entertain the company with a detail of what had happened to him in his
last journey to the empire, and Monimia expressed a desire of knowing, in
particular, the issue of his contest with Count Trebasi, who, she knew,
had usurped the succession of his father.
Thus solicited, he could not refuse to gratify their curiosity and
concern. He explained his obligations to the benevolent Jew; related the
steps he had taken at Vienna for the recovery of his inheritance;
informed them of his happy rencontre with his father-in-law; of his
sister's deliverance, and marriage; of the danger into which his life had
been precipitated by the news of Monimia's death; and, lastly, of his
adventure with the banditti, in favour of a gentleman, who, he afterwards
understood, had been robbed in the most base and barbarous manner by
Fathom. He likewise, to the astonishment of all present, and of his
mistress in particular, communicated some circumstances, which shall
appear in due season.
Monimia's tender frame being quite fatigued with the scene she had acted,
and her mind overwhelmed with the prosperous tidings she had heard, after
having joined the congratulations of the company, on the good fortune of
her Renaldo, begged leave to retire, that she might by repose recruit her
exhausted spirits; and the night being pretty far spent, she was
conducted by her lover to Madam Clement's coach, that stood in waiting,
in which also the rest of the company made shift to embark, and were
carried to the house of that good lady, where, after they were invited to
dine, and Melvil entreated to bring Don Diego and the Jew along with
them, they took leave of one another, and retired to their respective
lodgings in a transport of joy and satisfaction.
As for Renaldo, his rapture was still mixed with apprehension, that all
he had seen and heard was no more than an unsubstantial vision, raised by
some gay delirium of a disordered imagination. While his breast
underwent those violent, though blissful emotions of joy and admiration,
his friend the Castilian spent the night in ruminating over his own
calamities, and in a serious and severe review of his own conduct. He
compared his own behaviour with that of the young Hungarian, and found
himself so light in the scale, that he smote his breast with violence,
exclaiming in an agony of remorse:
"Count Melvil has reason to grieve; Don Diego to despair. His
misfortunes flow from the villany of mankind; mine are the fruit of my
own madness. He laments the loss of a mistress, who fell a sacrifice to
the perfidious arts of a crafty traitor. She was beautiful, virtuous,
accomplished, and affectionate; he was fraught with sensibility and love.
Doubtless his heart must have deeply suffered; his behaviour denotes the
keenness of his woe; his eyes are everflowing fountains of tears; his
bosom the habitation of sighs; five hundred leagues hath he measured in a
pilgrimage to her tomb; nightly he visits the dreary vault where she now
lies at rest; her solitary grave is his couch; he converses with darkness
and the dead, until each lonely aisle re-echoes his distress. What would
be his penance, had he my cause! were he conscious of having murdered a
beloved wife and darling daughter! Ah wretch!--ah cruel homicide!--what
had those dear victims done to merit such a fate? Were they not ever
gentle and obedient, ever aiming to give thee satisfaction and delight?
Say, that Serafina was enamoured of a peasant; say, that she had
degenerated from the honour of her race. The inclinations are
involuntary; perhaps that stranger was her equal in pedigree and worth.
Had they been fairly questioned, they might have justified, at least
excused, that conduct which appeared so criminal; or had they owned the
offence, and supplicated pardon--O barbarous monster that I am! was all
the husband--was all the father extinguished in my heart? How shall my
own errors be forgiven, if I refused to pardon the frailties of my own
blood--of those who are most dear to my affection? Yet nature pleaded
strongly in their behalf!--My heart was bursting while I dismissed them
to the shades of death. I was maddened with revenge! I was guided by
that savage principle which falsely we call honour.
"Accursed phantom! that assumes the specious title, and misleads our
wretched nation! Is it then honourable to skulk like an assassin, and
plunge the secret dagger in the heart of some unhappy man, who hath
incurred my groundless jealousy or suspicion, without indulging him with
that opportunity which the worst criminal enjoys? Or is it honourable to
poison two defenceless women, a tender wife, an amiable daughter, whom
even a frown would almost have destroyed?--O! this is cowardice,
brutality, hell-born fury and revenge! Heaven hath not mercy to forgive
such execrable guilt. Who gave thee power, abandoned ruffian! over the
lives of those whom God hath stationed as thy fellows of probation;--over
those whom he had sent to comfort and assist thee; to sweeten all thy
cares, and smooth the rough uneven paths of life? O! I am doomed to
never-ceasing horror and remorse! If misery can atone for such enormous
guilt, I have felt it in the extreme. Like an undying vulture it preys
upon my heart;--to sorrow I am wedded; I hug that teeming consort to my
soul;--never, ah! never shall we part; for soon as my fame shall shine
unclouded by the charge of treason that now hangs over it, I will devote
myself to penitence and woe. A cold, damp pavement shall be my bed; my
raiment shall be sackcloth; the fields shall furnish herbage for my food;
the stream shall quench my thirst; the minutes shall be numbered by my
groans; the night be privy to my strains of sorrow, till Heaven, in pity
to my sufferings, release me from the penance I endure. Perhaps the
saints whom I have murdered will intercede for my remission."
Such was the exercise of grief, in which the hapless Castilian consumed
the night; he had not yet consigned himself to rest, when Renaldo
entering his chamber, displayed such a gleam of wildness and rapture on
his countenance, as overwhelmed him with amazement; for, till that
moment, he had never seen his visage unobscured with woe. "Pardon this
abrupt intrusion, my friend," cried Melvil, "I could no longer withhold
from your participation, the great, the unexpected turn, which hath this
night dispelled all my sorrows, and restored me to the fruition of
ineffable joy. Monimia lives!--the fair, the tender, the virtuous
Monimia lives, and smiles upon my vows! This night I retrieved her from
the grave. I held her in these arms; I pressed her warm delicious lips
to mine! Oh, I am giddy with intolerable pleasure!"
Don Diego was confounded at this declaration, which he considered as the
effects of a disordered brain. He never doubted that Renaldo's grief had
at length overpowered his reason, and that his words were the effects of
mere frenzy. While he mused on this melancholy subject, the Count
composed his features, and, in a succinct and well-connected detail,
explained the whole mystery of his happiness, to the inexpressible
astonishment of the Spaniard, who shed tears of satisfaction, and
straining the Hungarian to his breast, "O my son," said he, "you see what
recompense Heaven hath in store for those who pursue the paths of real
virtue; those paths from which I myself have been fatally misled by a
faithless vapour, which hath seduced my steps, and left me darkling in
the abyss of wretchedness. Such as you describe this happy fair, was
once my Serafina, rich in every grace of mind and body which nature could
bestow. Had it pleased Heaven to bless her with a lover like Renaldo!
but no more, the irrevocable shaft is fled. I will not taint your
enjoyment with my unavailing sighs!"
Melvil assured this disconsolate father, that no pleasure, no avocation
should ever so entirely engross his mind, but that he should still find
an hour for sympathy and friendship. He communicated the invitation of
Madam Clement, and insisted upon his compliance, that he might have an
opportunity of seeing and approving the object of his passion. "I can
refuse nothing to the request of Count de Melvil," replied the Spaniard,
"and it were ungrateful in me to decline the honour you propose. I own
myself inflamed with a desire of beholding a young lady, whose
perfections I have seen reflected in your sorrow; my curiosity is,
moreover, interested on account of that humane gentlewoman, whose
uncommon generosity sheltered such virtue in distress; but my disposition
is infectious, and will, I am afraid, hang like a damp upon the general
festivity of your friends."
Melvil would take no denial, and having obtained his consent, repaired to
the house of Joshua, whose countenance seemed to unbend gradually into a
total expression of joy and surprise, as he learned the circumstances of
this amazing event. He faithfully promised to attend the Count at the
appointed hour, and, in the meantime, earnestly exhorted him to take some
repose, in order to quiet the agitation of his spirits, which must have
been violently hurried on this occasion. The advice was salutary, and
Renaldo resolved to follow it.
He returned to his lodgings, and laid himself down; but, notwithstanding
the fatigue he had undergone, sleep refused to visit his eyelids, all his
faculties being kept in motion by the ideas that crowded so fast upon his
imagination. Nevertheless, though his mind continued in agitation, his
body was refreshed, and he arose in the forenoon with more serenity and
vigour than he had enjoyed for many months. Every moment his heart
throbbed with new rapture, when he found himself on the brink of
possessing all that his soul held dear and amiable; he put on his gayest
looks and apparel; insisted upon the Castilian's doing the same honour to
the occasion; and the alteration of dress produced such an advantageous
change in the appearance of Don Diego, that when Joshua arrived at the
appointed hour, he could scarce recognise his features, and complimented
him very politely on the improvement of his looks.
True it is, the Spaniard was a personage of a very prepossessing mien and
noble deportment; and had not grief, by increasing his native gravity, in
some measure discomposed the symmetry of his countenance, he would have
passed for a man of a very amiable and engaging physiognomy. They set
out in the Jew's coach for the house of Madam Clement, and were ushered
into an apartment, where they found the clergyman and physician with that
lady, to whom Don Diego and the Hebrew were by Melvil introduced.
Before they had seated themselves, Renaldo inquired about the health of
Monimia, and was directed to the next room by Madam Clement, who
permitted him to go thither, and conduct her to the company. He was not
slow of availing himself of this permission. He disappeared in an
instant, and, during his short absence, Don Diego was strangely disturbed
The blood flushed and forsook his cheeks by turns; a cold vapour seemed
to shiver through his nerves; and at his breast he felt uncommon
palpitation. Madam Clement observed his discomposure, and kindly
inquired into the cause; when he replied, "I have such an interest in
what concerns the Count de Melvil, and my imagination is so much
prepossessed with the perfections of Monimia, that I am, as it were,
agonised with expectation; yet never did my curiosity before raise such
tumults as those that now agitate my bosom."
He had scarce pronounced these words, when the door, reopening, Renaldo
led in this mirror of elegance and beauty, at sight of whom the
Israelite's countenance was distorted into a stare of admiration. But if
such was the astonishment of Joshua, what were the emotions of the
Castilian, when, in the beauteous orphan, he beheld the individual
features of his long-lost Serafina!
His feelings are not to be described. The fond parent, whose affection
shoots even to a sense of pain, feels not half such transport, when he
unexpectedly retrieves a darling child from the engulfing billows or
devouring flame. The hope of Zelos had been totally extinguished. His
heart had been incessantly torn with anguish and remorse, upbraiding him
as the murderer of Serafina. His, therefore, were the additional
transports of a father disburdened of the guilt of such enormous
homicide. His nerves were too much overpowered by this sudden
recognition, to manifest the sensation of his soul by external signs. He
started not, nor did he lift an hand in token of surprise; he moved not
from the spot on which he stood; but, riveting his eyes to those of the
lovely phantom, remained without motion, until she, approaching with her
lover, fell at his feet, and clasping his knees, exclaimed, "May I yet
call you father?"