114
MEMOIES OF A PHYSICIAN.
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Balsamo, then from Balsamo his glance wandered to
Lorenza's corpse.
He resembled, at these moments, one of those savage
animals which the huntsman finds in the morning
caught in the trap by the leg, and which he stirs for a
long time with his foot without making them turn their
heads, but who. when he pricks them wrth his hunting-
knife, or with the bayonet of his fowling-piece, ob-
liquely raise their bloodshot eyes, throwing on him a
look of hatred, vengeance, reproach, and surprise.
" Is it possible," said this look, so expressive even in
its atony, "is it credible that so many misfortunes, so
many shocks, should overwhelm me, caused by such
an insignificant being as the man I see kneeling there
a few yards from me, at the feet of such a vulgar ob-
ject as that dead woman? Is it not a reversion of na-
ture, an overturning of science, a cataclysm of rea-
son, that the gross student should have deceived the
skilful master? Is it not monstrous that the grain of
sand should have arrested the wheel of the supurb
chariot, so rapid in its almost unlimited power, in its
immortal flight?"
As for Balsamo—stunned, heart-broken, without
voice or motion, almost without life—no human
thought had yet dawned amid the dark vapors of his
brain.
Lorenza!   his Lorenza!   His wife, his idol, doubly
Erecious to him as his revealing angel and his love—
orenza, his delight and his glory, the present and the
future, his strength and faith—Lorenza, all he loved,
all he wished for, all he desired in this world—Lorenza
was lost to him forever 1
He did not weep, he did not groan, he did not even
sigh.
He was scarcely surprised at the dreadful misfortune
which had befallen him. He was like one of those
poor wretches whom an inundation surprises in their
bed, in the midst of darkness. They dream that the
water gains upon them, they awake, they open their
eyes and see a roaring billow breaking over their head,
while they have not even time to utter a cry in their
passage from life to death.
During three hours Balsamo felt himself buried in
the deepest abyss of the tomb. In his overwhelming
. grief, he looked upon what had happened to him as
one of the dark dreams which torment the dead in the
eternal silent night of the sepulchre.
From him there no longer existed Althotas, and with
him all hatred and revenge had vanished. For him
there no longer existed Lorenza, and with her all life,
all love had fled. All was sleep, night, nothingness!
Thus the hours glided past, gloomily, silently, heavily,
in this chamber where the blood congealed and the
lifeless form grew rigid.
Suddenly amidst the deathlike silence a bell sounded
thrice.
Fritz, doubtless, was aware that his master was with
Althotas, for the bell sounded in the room itself.
But although it sounded three times with an inso-
lently strange noise, the sound died away in space.
Balsamo did not raise his head.
In a few moments, the same tinkling, only louder this
time, sounded again; but, like the first, it could not
arouse Balsamo from his torpor.
Then at a measured interval, but not so far from the
second as it had been from the first, the angry bell a
third time made the room resound with multiplied
echoes of its wailing and impatient sounds.
Balsamo did not start, but slowly raised his head and
interrogated the empty space before him with the cold
solemnity of a corpse rising from the tomb.
The bell never ceased ringing.
At last his increasing energy awoke him to partial
consciousness. The unfortunate husband took his hand
from the hand of the corpse. All the heat had left his
body without passing into his lifeless bride's.
" Some important news or some great danger," mut-
tered Balsamo to himself. "May it prove a great
danger!"
And he rose to his feet.
"But why should I reply to this summons?" con-
tinued he, aloud, without heeding the gloomy sound of
his words echoing beneath the sombre vault of this
funereal chamber; "can anything in this world hence-
forth interest or alarm me?"
Then, as if in reply, the bell struck its iron tongue so
rudely against its brazen sides, that the clapper broke
and fell upon a glass retort, which flew in pieces with
a metallic sound, and scattered the fragments upon the
floor.
Balsamo resisted no longer ; besides, it was important
that none, not even Fritz, should come to seek him
where he was.
He walked therefore with steady step to the spring,
Sressed it, and placed himself upon the trap, which
escehded slowly and deposited him in the chamber of
furs.
As he passed the sofa, he brushed against the scarf
which had fallen from Lorenza's shoulders when the
pitiless old man, impassable as death itself, had carried
her off in his arms.
This contact, more living seemingly than Lorenza
herself, sent an icy shudder through Balsamo's veins.
He took the scarf and kissed it, using it to stifle the
cries which burst from his heaving breast.
Then he proceeded to open the door of the staircase.
On the topmost steps stood Fritz, all pale and breath-
less, holding a torch m one hand, and lft the other the
cord of the* bell, which, in his terror and impatience,
he continued to pull convulsively. On seeing his
master, he uttered a cry of satisfaction, followed by
one of surprise and fear. But Balsamo, ignorant of
the cause of this double cry, replied only by a mute
Interrogation.
Fritz did not speak, but he ventured—he, usually so
respectful—to take his master's hand, and lead him to
the large Venetian mirror that ornamented the man-
tel-piece at the back of which was the passage into
Lorenza's apartment.
"Oh! look, your Excellency," said he, showing him
his own image in the glass.
Balsamo shuddered. Then a smile—one of those
deadly smiles which spring from infinite and incurable
grief—flitted over his lips. He had understood the
cause of Fritz's alarm.
Balsamo had grown twenty years older in an hour.
There was no more brightness in his eyes, no more
color in his cheek; an expression of dullness and stupe-
faction overspread his features; a bloody foam fringed
his lips; a large spot of blood stained the whiteness of
his cambric shirt.
Balsamo looked at himself in the glass for a moment
without being able to recognize himself, then he de-
terminedly fixed his eyes upon the strange person re-
flected in the mirror.
"Yes, Fritz," said he, "youare right."
Then remarking the anxious look of his faithful
servant:
" But why did you call me?" inquired he.
"Ohl Master, for them."
"For them?"
"Y"es."
" Whom do you mean by them, "
" Excellency," whispered Fritz, putting his mouth
close to his master's ear, "the five masters."
Balsamo shuddered.
" All?" asked he.
" Yes, all."
" And they are here?"
"Here."
"Alone?"
", No ; each has an armed servant waiting in the court-
yard."
" They came together?"
"Yes, Master, together, and they were getting im-
Îiatient, that is why I rang so many tames and so vio-
ently."
Balsamo, without even concealing the spot of blood
beneath the folds of his frill, without attempting to re-
pair the disorder of his dress, began to descend the
stairs, after having asked Fritz if his guests had in-
stalled themselves in the salon or in thelarge study.
" In the salon, Excellency," replied Fritz, following
his master.
Then at the foot of the stairs, venturing to stop Bal-
samo, he asked—
" Has your Excellency no orders to give me?"
" None, Fritz.'
" Excellency-----" stammered Fritz.
" Well?" asked Balsamo, with infinite gentleness.
" Will your Excellency go unarmed?"
"Unarmed? yes."
" Even without your sword?"
" And why should I take my sword, Fritz?"
"I do not know," said the faithful servant, casting
down his eyes, "but I thought—I believed—I feared-----"
" It is well, Fritz—you may go."
Fritz moved away a few steps in obedience to the or-
der he had received, but returned.
" Did you not hear?" asked Balsamo.   •
" Excellency, I merely wished to tell you that your
double-barrelled pistols are in the ebony case upon the
gilt stand."
" Go, I tell you!" replied Balsamo.
And he entered the salon.
Chapter   CXXX.—The Judgement.
Fritz was quite right: Balsamo's guests had not
entered the Bue Saint Claude with a pacific display
nor with a benevolent exterior.
Five horsemen escorted the travelling carriage in
which the masters had come; five men with a haughty
and sombre mien, armed to the teeth, had closed the
outer gate arid were guarding it whilst appearing to
await their master's return.
A coachman and two footmen on the carriage seat
concealed under their overcoats each a small hanger
and a musket. It had much more the air of a war-
like expedition than a peaceful visit, these people's
appearance in the Bue Saint Claude.
It was for this reason that the nocturnal invasion
of these terrible men, the forcible taking possession of
the hotel, had inspired the German with an unspeak-
able terror. He had at first attempted to refuse
entrance to the whole party when he had seen the
escort through the wicket, and had suspected them
to be armed; but the all-powerful signals they had
used—that irresistible testimony of the right of the
new comers—had left him no option. Scarcely were
they masters of the place, than the strangers, like
skilful generals, posted themselves at each outlet of
the house, taking no pains to dissemble their hostiie
intentions.
The pretended valets in the court-yard and in the
passages, the pretened masters in the salon, seemed
to Fritz to bode no good; therefore he had broken
the bell.
Balsamo, without displaying any astonishment, with-
out making any preparation, enteredthe room, which
Fritz had lighted up in honor of these, as it was his
duty to do towards all guests who visited the house.
His five visitors were seated upon chairs around the
room, but not one rose when he appeared.
He, as master of the house, having looked at them,
bowed politely; then only did they rise and gravely re-
turn his salute.
Balsamo took a chair in front of them, without no-
ticing or seeming to notice the strange order of their
position. In fact, the five arm-chairs formed a semi-
circle like to those of the ancient tribunals, with a pres-
ident supported by two assessors, and with Balsamo's
chair placed in front of that of the president, and occu-
pying the place accorded to the accused in a council
or preetorium.
Balsamo did not speak first, as in other circumstances
he would have done; he looked around without seeing
any object clearly—still affected by a kind of painful
drowsiness, which had remained after the shock.
"It seems, brother, that you have understood our
errand," said the president, or rather he who occupied
the centre seat; "yet you delayed to come, and we
were already deliberating if we should send to seek
you."
¦  "I do not understand your errand," said Balsamo,
calmly.
" I should not have imagined so, from seeing you take
the position and attitude of an accused before us."
"An accused?" stammered Balsamo, vacantly,
shrugging his shoulders. " I do not understand you."
' " We will soon make you understand us, Not a diffi-
cult task, if I may believe your pale cheeks, your va-
cant eyes, and trembling voice. One would think you
did not hear. "
" Oh, yes, I hear," replied Balsamo, shaking his
head, as if to banish the thoughts which oppressed it.
"Do you remember, brother," continued the presi-
dent, " that in its last communication the superior com-
mittee warned you against a treasonable attempt med-
itated by one of the great ones of the order?"
" Perhaps so—yes—I do not deny it."
" You reply as a disordered and troubled conscience
might be expected to do; but rouse yourself—be not
oast down—reply with that clearness and precision
which your terrible position requires. Eeply to my
questions with the certainty that we are open to con.
viction, for we have neither prejudice nor hatred in this
matter.   We are the law; it does not pronounce a var-
oiot until the evidence is heard."
B.iisamo made no reply.
" I repeat it, Balsamo, and my warning once give»,
let it be to you like  the warning which combatant»
five to each other before commencing their struggle
will attack you with just but powerful weapons; de-
fend yourself 1"
The assistants, seeing Balsamo's indifference and im-
perturbable demeanor, looked at each other with aston-
ishment, and then again turned their eyes upon the
president.
" You have heard me, Balsamo, have you not?" re-
peated the latter.
Balsamo made a sign of the head in the affirmative.
"Like well-meaning and loyal brother, I have warned
you, and given you a hint of the aim of my question- i
ings. You are warned, guard yourself; I am about to
commence again.
" After this announcement," continued the presi-
dent, " the association appointed five of its members
to watch in Paris the proceedings of the man who was
pointed out to us as a traitor. Now our revelations are
not subject to error. We gather them, as you yourself
know, either from devoted agents, from the aspect of
events, or from infallible symptoms and signs among
the mysterious combinations which nature has as yet
revealed to us alone! Now one of us had a vision re-
specting you; we know that he has never been de-
ceived, we were upon our guard, and watched you."
Balsamo listened without giving the least sign of im-
patience or even of intelligence. The president con-
tinued:
" It was not an easy task to watch a man such as you.
You enter everywhere; your mission is to have a foot-
ing wherever your enemies have a residence or any
power whatever. You have at your disposal all your
natural resources—which are immense—and which the
association entrusts to you to make its cause triumph-
ant. For a long time we hovered in a sea of doubt
when we saw enemies visit you, such as a Bichelieu, a
Dubarry, a Eohan. Moreover, at the last assembly in
the Bue Platriere you made a long speech full of clever
paradoxes, which led us to imagine that you were play-
ing a part in flattering and associating with this incor-
rigible race, which it is our duty to exterminate from
the face of the earth. For a long time we respected
the mystery of your behavior, hoping for a happy re-
sult; but at last the illusion was dispelled."
Balsamo never stirred and his features were fixed
and motionless, insomuch that the president became
impatient
"Three days ago," said he, "five lettres-de-cachet
were issued. They had been demanded from the king-
by M. de Sartines; they were filled as soon as signed,,
and tbe same day were presented to five of our princi-
pal agents, our most faithful and devoted brothers
residing in Paris. All five were arrested ; two were
taken to the Bastile, where they are kept in the most
profound secrecy ; two are at Vincennes, m the oubliette,;
one in the most noisome cell in Bicetre. Did you know
this circumstance?"
" No, " said Balsam o.
"That is strange after what we know of your rela-
tions with the lofty ones of the kingdom.   But there is
something stranger still."
Balsamo listened.
" To enable M. de Sartines to arrest these five faith-
ful friends he must have had the only paper which
contains the names of the victims in his possession. '
This paper was sent to you by the supreme council in
1769, and to you it was assigned to receive the new
members and immediately invest them with the rami
which the supreme council assigned them,"
Balsamo expressed by a gesture that he did not recol-
lect the circumstance.
" 1 shall assist your memory.   The five persons in
question were represented by five Arabic characters;,
and these characters, in the paper you received, cor-
responded with the names and initials of the  new
brothers."
" Be it so," said Balsamo.
" You acknowledge it?"
"I acknowledge whatever you please."
The president looked at his assessors, as if to order
them to take a note of this confession.
" Well," continued he, " on this paper—the only one,
remember, which could have compromised the brothers
—there was a sixth name.   Do you remember it?"
Balsamo made no reply.
" The name was—the Count de Fenix."
"Agreed," said Balsamo.
" Then why—if the names of the five brothers figured
in five lettres-de-catchet—vfhy was yours respected,
caressed, and favorably received at court and in the
ante-chambers of ministers? if our brothers merited
prison, you merited it also. What have you to reply?"
"Nothing."
" Ahl I can guess by your objection. You may say
that the police had by private means discovered the
names of the obscurer brethren, but that it was
obliged to respect yours as an ambassador and a
powerful man. You may even say that they did not
suspect this name."
"I shall say nothing."
" Your pride outlives your honor. These names the
police could only have discovered by reading the con-
fidential note which the supreme council had sent you;
and this is the way it was seen. You kept it in a coffer.
Is that true?"
"It is."
" One day a woman left your house carrying the
coffer under her arm. She was seen by our agents and
followed to the hotel of the lieutenant of police in the
Faubourg St. Germain. We might have arrested the
evil at its source; for if we had stopped the woman and
taken the coffer from her, everything would have been
safe and sure. But we obeyed the rules of our consti-
tution, which command us to respect the secret means
by which some members serve the cause, even when
these means have the appearance of treason or impru-
dence."
Balsamo seemed to approve of this assertion, but
with a gesture so little marked, that had it not been
for his previous immobility, it would have been un-
noticed.
" This woman reached the lieutenant of police," said
the president; " she gave him the coffer; and aU was
discovered.   Is this true?"
" Perfectly true."
The president rose.
" Who was this woman?" he exclaimed—" beautiful,
impassioned, devotedly attached to you body and soul,
tenderly loved by you—as spiritual as subtle—as cun-