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1— Voilà qui devient sérieux, dit monsieur Becker ; Minna n’a jamais menti. — Monsieur Becker, reprit Wilfrid, je vous affirme que Séraphîta exerce sur moi des pouvoirs si extraordinaires, que je ne sais aucune expression qui puisse en donner une idée. Elle m’a révélé des choses que moi seul je puis connaître. — Somnambulisme ! dit le vieillard. D’ailleurs, plusieurs effets de ce genre sont rapportés par Jean Wier comme des phénomènes fort explicables et jadis observés en Égypte. — Confiez-moi les œuvres théosophiques de Swedenborg, dit Wilfrid, je veux me plonger dans ces gouffres de lumière, vous m’en avez donné soif. Monsieur Becker tendit un volume à Wilfrid, qui se mit à lire aussitôt. Il était environ neuf heures du soir. La servante vint servir le souper. Minna fit le thé. Le repas fini, chacun d’eux resta silencieusement occupé, le pasteur à lire le Traité des Incantations, Wilfrid à saisir l’esprit de Swedenborg, la jeune fille à coudre en s’abîmant dans ses souvenirs. Ce fut une veillée de Norwége, une soirée paisible, studieuse, pleine de pensées, des fleurs sous de la neige. En dévorant les pages du prophète, Wilfrid n’existait plus que par ses sens intérieurs. Parfois, le pasteur le montrait d’un air moitié sérieux, moitié railleur à Minna qui souriait avec une sorte de tristesse. Pour Minna, la tête de Séraphîtüs lui souriait en planant sur le nuage de fumée qui les enveloppait tous trois. Minuit sonna. La porte extérieure fut violemment ouverte. Des pas pesants et précipités, les pas d’un vieillard effrayé, se firent entendre dans l’espèce d’antichambre étroite qui se trouvait entre les deux portes.
2Puis, tout à coup, David se montra dans le parloir. — Violence ! violence ! s’écria-t-il. Venez ! venez tous ! Les Satans sont déchaînés ! ils ont des mitres de feu. Ce sont des Adonis, des Vertumnes, des Sirènes ! ils le tentent comme Jésus fut tenté sur la montagne. Venez les chasser. — Reconnaissez-vous le langage de Swedenborg ? le voilà pur, dit en riant le pasteur. Mais Wilfrid et Minna regardaient avec terreur le vieux David qui, ses cheveux blancs épars, les yeux égarés, les jambes tremblantes et couvertes de neige, car il était venu sans patins, restait agité comme si quelque vent tumultueux le tourmentait. — Qu’est-il arrivé ? lui dit Minna. — Eh ! bien, les Satans espèrent et veulent le reconquérir. Ces mots firent palpiter Wilfrid.
3— Voici près de cinq heures qu’elle est debout, les yeux levés au ciel, les bras étendus ; elle souffre, elle crie à Dieu. Je ne puis franchir les limites, l’enfer a posé des Vertumnes en sentinelle. Ils ont élevé des murailles de fer entre elle et son vieux David. Si elle a besoin de moi, comment ferai-je ? Secourez-moi ! venez prier ! Le désespoir de ce pauvre vieillard était effrayant à voir. — La clarté de Dieu la défend ; mais si elle allait céder à la violence ? reprit-il avec une bonne foi séductrice. — Silence ! David, n’extravaguez pas ! Ceci est un fait à vérifier. Nous allons vous accompagner, dit le pasteur, et vous verrez qu’il ne se trouve chez vous ni Vertumnes, ni Satans, ni Sirènes. — Votre père est aveugle, dit tout bas David à Minna.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1‘‘Somnambulism!’’ cried the old man. ‘‘Various cases of that kind are reported by Jean Wier as phenomena easy to account for, and known of old in Egypt.”’ ‘*Gend me the theosophical works of Swedenborg,’’ said Wilfrid. ‘‘L long to plunge into those lakes of light; you have made me thirst for them.”’ Pastor Becker handed a volume to Wilfrid, who immediately began to read. It was about nine o’clock in the evening. The maid had just brought in the supper, and Minna made the tea. The meal ended, all three sat silently occupied; the pastor read Jean Wier’s ‘‘Treatise on Demonology’’; Wilfrid lost himself in the study of Swedenborg; Minna sewed and dreamed over her recollections. It was a thoroughly Norwegian scene, a peaceful, studious evening, full of thought—a flower under the snow. Wilfrid, as he read the writings of the prophet, was alive only to his inward senses. Now and again the pastor, with a halfserious, half-ironical gesture, pointed him out to Minna, who smiled rather sadly. To Minna, Seraphitus smiled down upon them, floating above the cloud of tobacco smoke in which they were wrapped. Midnight struck. Suddenly the outer door was violently pushed open; heavy but hasty steps, the steps of a terrified old man, were heard in the sort of small hall between the two doors. Then David burst into the room. ‘“*Wiolence! Violence!’’ he cried. ‘‘Come! all of you, SERAPHITA 89
2come! The Satans are unchained; they wear mitres of flame! Adonis, Vertumnus, the Sirens! They are tempting her as Jesus was tempted on the mountain. Come and drive them out.”’ ‘Do you recognize the language of Swedenborg, pure and unmixed ?”’ said the pastor, laughing. But Wilfrid and Minna were gazing in terror at old David, who, with streaming hair and wild eyes, his legs trembling, and covered with snow, stood shaking as if he were buffeted by a stormy wind. ‘*What has happened ?”’ asked Minna. ““Well, the Satans hope and purpose te conquer her.’’ The words made Wilfrid’s heart beat. ‘For nearly five hours she has been standing up with her eyes raised to heaven, her arms uplifted; she is in torment; she calls upon God. I cannot cross the line; hell has set Vertumni to guard it. They have raised a barrier of iron between her and her old David. If she wants me, what can[ do? Help me! Come and pray!” The poor old man’s despair was terrible to behold. ‘The glory of God protects her; but if she were to yield to violence?’’ he said, with persuasive good faith. ‘*Silence, David, do not talk so wildly. These are facts 9 to be verified.—We will go with you,”’ said the pastor, ‘tand you will see that there are neither Vertumni in the house, nor Satans, nor Sirens.”’ ‘Your father is blind,’’ David whispered to Minna.
3Wilfrid, on whom his first reading of a treatise by Swedenborg, hasty as it had been, had produced a powerful effect, was already in the passage putting on his snowshoes. Minna was ready ina moment. They rushed off to the Swedish castle, leaving the two old men to follow. 90 BALZAC’S WORKS “Do you hear that cracking ?’’ said Wilfrid. “The ice is moving in the fiord,’’ said Minna; ‘‘the spring will soon be here.”’ Wilfrid said no more. When they were in the courtyard, they both felt that they had no right, no strength, to enter the house. ‘‘What do you think of her?’’ asked Wilfrid. ‘‘What a blaze of light!’’ cried Minna, standing in front of the drawing-room window. ‘‘There he is—great God! and how beautiful! Oh, my Seraphitus, take me to thee!’’ The girl’s outcry was inward and inaudible. She saw Seraphitus standing lightly shrouded in an opal-tinted mist, which was diffused for a short distance all about the apparently phosphorescent body. ‘‘How lovely she is!’’ was Wilfrid’s mental exclamation. Pastor Becker now came up with David; he saw his daughter and the stranger in front of the window, came close to them, looked into the room, and said— ‘“Well, David, she is saying her prayers.”’ ‘But try to go in, sir.”’ ‘“Why disturb her when she is praying?’’ replied the pastor.
Our translation, period-faithful. Citable as our translation, never as the source.
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