按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
a multitude; a people up; abroad; with colours and arms;
enthusiasm and song;with song; with enthusiasm; with colours
and arms! And who could guess that that martial movement was
one; not of war; but massacre;Frenchmen against Frenchmen? For
there are two parties in Marseilles;and ample work for Jourdan
Coupe…tete! But this; the Englishman; just arrived; a stranger
to all factions; did not as yet comprehend。 He comprehended
nothing but the song; the enthusiasm; the arms; and the colours
that lifted to the sun the glorious lie; 〃Le peuple Francais;
debout contre les tyrans!〃 (Up; Frenchmen; against tyrants!)
The dark brow of the wretched wanderer grew animated; he gazed
from the window on the throng that marched below; beneath their
waving Oriflamme。 They shouted as they beheld the patriot Nicot;
the friend of Liberty and relentless Hebert; by the stranger's
side; at the casement。
〃Ay; shout again!〃 cried the painter;〃shout for the brave
Englishman who abjures his Pitts and his Coburgs to be a citizen
of Liberty and France!〃
A thousand voices rent the air; and the hymn of the Marseillaise
rose in majesty again。
〃Well; and if it be among these high hopes and this brave people
that the phantom is to vanish; and the cure to come!〃 muttered
Glyndon; and he thought he felt again the elixir sparkling
through his veins。
〃Thou shalt be one of the Convention with Paine and Clootz;I
will manage it all for thee!〃 cried Nicot; slapping him on the
shoulder: 〃and Paris〃
〃Ah; if I could but see Paris!〃 cried Fillide; in her joyous
voice。 Joyous! the whole time; the town; the airsave where;
unheard; rose the cry of agony and the yell of murderwere joy!
Sleep unhaunting in thy grave; cold Adela。 Joy; joy! In the
Jubilee of Humanity all private griefs should cease! Behold;
wild mariner; the vast whirlpool draws thee to its stormy bosom!
There the individual is not。 All things are of the whole! Open
thy gates; fair Paris; for the stranger…citizen! Receive in your
ranks; O meek Republicans; the new champion of liberty; of
reason; of mankind! 〃Mejnour is right; it was in virtue; in
valour; in glorious struggle for the human race; that the spectre
was to shrink to her kindred darkness。〃
And Nicot's shrill voice praised him; and lean Robespierre
〃Flambeau; colonne; pierre angulaire de l'edifice de la
Republique!〃 (〃The light; column; and keystone of the
Republic。〃〃Lettre du Citoyen P; Papiers inedits trouves chez
Robespierre;〃 tom 11; page 127。)smiled ominously on him from
his bloodshot eyes; and Fillide clasped him with passionate arms
to her tender breast。 And at his up…rising and down…sitting; at
board and in bed; though he saw it not; the Nameless One guided
him with the demon eyes to the sea whose waves were gore。
BOOK VI。
SUPERSTITION DESERTING FAITH。
Why do I yield to that suggestion; Whose horrid image doth unfix
my hair。Shakespeare
CHAPTER 6。I。
Therefore the Genii were painted with a platter full of garlands
and flowers in one hand; and a whip in the other。Alexander
Ross; 〃Mystag。 Poet。〃
According to the order of the events related in this narrative;
the departure of Zanoni and Viola from the Greek isle; in which
two happy years appear to have been passed; must have been
somewhat later in date than the arrival of Glyndon at Marseilles。
It must have been in the course of the year 1791 when Viola fled
from Naples with her mysterious lover; and when Glyndon sought
Mejnour in the fatal castle。 It is now towards the close of
1793; when our story again returns to Zanoni。 The stars of
winter shone down on the lagunes of Venice。 The hum of the
Rialto was hushed;the last loiterers had deserted the Place of
St。 Mark's; and only at distant intervals might be heard the oars
of the rapid gondolas; bearing reveller or lover to his home。
But lights still flitted to and fro across the windows of one of
the Palladian palaces; whose shadow slept in the great canal; and
within the palace watched the twin Eumenides that never sleep for
Man;Fear and Pain。
〃I will make thee the richest man in all Venice; if thou savest
her。〃
〃Signor;〃 said the leech; 〃your gold cannot control death; and
the will of Heaven; signor; unless within the next hour there is
some blessed change; prepare your courage。〃
Hoho; Zanoni! man of mystery and might; who hast walked amidst
the passions of the world; with no changes on thy brow; art thou
tossed at last upon the billows of tempestuous fear? Does thy
spirit reel to and fro?knowest thou at last the strength and
the majesty of Death?
He fled; trembling; from the pale…faced man of art;fled through
stately hall and long…drawn corridor; and gained a remote chamber
in the palace; which other step than his was not permitted to
profane。 Out with thy herbs and vessels。 Break from the
enchanted elements; O silvery…azure flame! Why comes he not;
the Son of the Starbeam! Why is Adon…Ai deaf to thy solemn call?
It comes not;the luminous and delightsome Presence! Cabalist!
are thy charms in vain? Has thy throne vanished from the realms
of space? Thou standest pale and trembling。 Pale trembler! not
thus didst thou look when the things of glory gathered at thy
spell。 Never to the pale trembler bow the things of glory: the
soul; and not the herbs; nor the silvery…azure flame; nor the
spells of the Cabala; commands the children of the air; and THY
soul; by Love and Death; is made sceptreless and discrowned!
At length the flame quivers;the air grows cold as the wind in
charnels。 A thing not of earth is present;a mistlike; formless
thing。 It cowers in the distance;a silent Horror! it rises; it
creeps; it nears theedark in its mantle of dusky haze; and
under its veil it looks on thee with its livid; malignant eyes;
the thing of malignant eyes!
〃Ha; young Chaldean! young in thy countless ages;young as when;
cold to pleasure and to beauty; thou stoodest on the old Fire…
tower; and heardest the starry silence whisper to thee the last
mystery that baffles Death;fearest thou Death at length? Is
thy knowledge but a circle that brings thee back whence thy
wanderings began! Generations on generations have withered since
we two met! Lo! thou beholdest me now!〃
〃But I behold thee without fear! Though beneath thine eyes
thousands have perished; though; where they burn; spring up the
foul poisons of the human heart; and to those whom thou canst
subject to thy will; thy presence glares in the dreams of the
raving maniac; or blackens the dungeon of despairing crime; thou
art not my vanquisher; but my slave!〃
〃And as a slave will I serve thee! Command thy slave; O
beautiful Chaldean! Hark; the wail of women!hark; the sharp
shriek of thy beloved one! Death is in thy palace! Adon…Ai
comes not to thy call。 Only where no cloud of the passion and
the flesh veils the eye of the Serene Intelligence ca