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passion, was accompanied by an admission of its uselessness and folly, and
it first opened her eyes to the state of her own feelings. Though she had
listened, as all of her sex will listen, even when the passion is
hopeless, to such words coming from lips they love, it was with a
self-command that enabled her to retain her own secret, and with a settled
and pious resolution to do that which she believed to be her duty to
herself, to her father, and to Sigismund. From that hour she ceased to see
him, unless under circumstances when it would have drawn suspicion on her
motives to refuse, and while she never appeared to forget her heavy
obligations to the youth, she firmly denied herself the pleasure of even
mentioning his name when it could be avoided. But of all ungrateful and
reluctant tasks, that of striving to forget is the least likely to
succeed. Adelheid was sustained only by her sense of duty and the desire
not to disappoint her father's wishes, to which habit and custom had given
nearly the force of law with maidens of her condition, though her reason
and judgment no less than her affections were both strongly enlisted on
the other side. Indeed, with the single exception of the general unfitness
of a union between two of unequal stations, there was nothing to
discredit her choice, if that may be termed choice which, after all, was
more the result of spontaneous feeling and secret sympathy than of any
other cause, unless it were a certain equivocal reserve, and a manifest
uneasiness, whenever allusion was made to the early history and to the
family of the soldier. This sensitiveness on the part of Sigismund had
been observed and commented on by others as well as by herself, and it had
been openly ascribed to the mortification of one who had been thrown, by
chance, into an intimate association that was much superior to what he was
entitled to maintain by birth; a weakness but too common, and which few
have strength of mind to resist or sufficient pride to overcome. The
intuitive watchfulness of affection, however, led Adelheid to a different
conclusion; she saw that he never affected to conceal, while with equal
good taste he abstained from obtrusive allusions to the humble nature of
his origin, but she also perceived that there were points of his previous
history on which he was acutely sensitive, and which at first she feared
must be attributed to the consciousness of acts that his clear perception
of moral truth condemned, and which he could wish forgotten. For some time
Adelheid clung to this discovery as to a healthful and proper antidote to
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her own truant inclinations, but native rectitude banished a suspicion
which had no sufficient ground, as equally unworthy of them both. The
effects of a ceaseless mental struggle, and of the fruitlessness of her
efforts to overcome her tenderness in behalf of Sigismund, have been
described in the fading of her bloom, in the painful solicitude of a
countenance naturally so sweet, and in the settled melancholy of her
playful and mellow eye. These were the real causes of the journey
undertaken by her father, and, in truth, of most of the other events
which we are about to describe.
The prospect of the future had undergone a sudden change. The color,
though more the effect of excitement than of returning health--for he tide
of life, when rudely checked, does not resume its currents at the first
breath of happiness--again brightened her cheek and imparted brilliancy to
her looks, and smiles stole easily to those lips which had long been
growing pallid with anxiety. She leaned forward from the balcony, and
never before had the air of her native mountains seemed so balmy and
healing. At that moment the subject of her thoughts appeared on the
verdant declivity, among the luxuriant nut-trees that shade the natural
lawn of Blonay. He saluted her respectfully, and pointed to the glorious
panorama of the Leman. The heart of Adelheid beat violently; she struggled
for an instant with her fears and her pride, and then, for the first time
in her life, she made a signal that she wished him to join her.
Notwithstanding the important service that the young soldier had rendered
to the daughter of the Baron de Willading, and the long intimacy which had
been its fruit, so great had been the reserve she had hitherto maintained,
by placing a constant restraint on her inclinations, though the simple
usages of Switzerland permitted greater familiarity of intercourse than
was elsewhere accorded to maidens of rank, that Sigismund at first stood
rooted to the ground, for he could not imagine the waving of the hand was
meant for him. Adelheid saw his embarrassment, and the signal was
repeated. The young man sprang up the acclivity with the rapidity of the
wind, and disappeared behind the walls of the castle.
The barrier of reserve, so long and so success fully observed by
Adelheid, was now passed, and she felt as if a few short minutes must
decide her fate. The necessity of making a wide circuit in order to enter
the court still afforded a little time for reflection, however, and this
she endeavored to improve by collecting her thoughts and recovering her
self-possession.
When Sigismund entered the knights' hall, he found the maiden still seated
near the open window of the balcony, pale and serious, but perfectly calm,
and with such an expression of radiant happiness in her countenance as he
had not seen reigning in those sweet lineaments for many painful, months.
The first feeling was that of pleasure at perceiving how well she bore the
alarms and dangers of the past night. This pleasure he expressed, with the
frankness admitted, by the habits of the Germans.
"Thou wilt not suffer, Adelheid, by the exposure on the lake!" he said,
studying her face until the tell-tale blood stole to her very temples.
"Agitation of the mind is a good antidote to the consequences of bodily
exposure. So far from suffering by what has passed, I feel stronger to-day
and better able to endure fatigue, than at any time since we came through
the gates of Willading. This balmy air, to me, seems Italy, and I see no
necessity to journey farther in search of what they said was necessary to
my health, agreeable objects and a generous sun."
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"You will not cross the St. Bernard!" he exclaimed in a tone of
disappointment.
Adelheid smiled, and he felt encouraged, though the smile was ambiguous.
Notwithstanding the really noble sincerity of the maiden's disposition,
and her earnest desire to set his heart at ease, nature, or habit, or
education, for we scarcely know to which the weakness ought to be [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]