Zanoni — Edward Bulwer-Lytton
and mystery of the ordeal. Resolve is the first success. Rejoice, for the exorcism is sure! Thou art not of those who, denying a life to come, are the victims of the Inexorable Horror.
Oh, when shall men learn, at last, that if the Great Religion inculcates so rigidly the necessity of FAITH, it is not alone that FaiTH leads to the world to be; but that without faith there is no excellence in this, — faith in something wiser, happier, diviner, than we see on earth! —the artist calls it the Ideal, —the priest, Faith. The Ideal and Faith are one and the same. Return, O wanderer, return!
Feel what beauty and holiness dwell in the Customary and the Old.
Back to thy gateway glide, thou Horror! and calm, on the childlike heart, smile again, O azure Heaven, with thy night and thy morning star but as one, though under its double name of Memory and Hope! ” As he thus spoke, Zanoni laid his hand gently on the burning temples of his excited and wondering listener; and presently a sort of trance came over him: he imagined that he was returned to the home of his infancy; that. he was in the small chamber where, over his early slumbers, his mother had watched and prayed.
There it was, — visible, palpable, solitary, unaltered. In the recess, the homely bed; on the walls, the shelves filled with holy books; the very easel on which he had first sought to call the ideal to the canvas, dust-covered, broken, in the corner.
Below the window lay the old churchyard: he saw it green in the distance, the sun glancing through the yew-trees; he saw the tomb where father and mother lay united, and the spire pointing up to heaven, the symbol of the hopes of those who consigned the ashes to the dust; in his ear rang the bells, pealing, as on a Sabbath day. Far fled all the visions of anxiety and awe that had haunted and convulsed ;* youth, boyhood, child-
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hood came back tohim with innocent desires and hopes; he thought he fell upon his knees to pray, He woke, — he woke in delicious tears, he felt that the Phantom was fled forever. He looked round, — Zanoni was gone. On the table lay these lines, the ink yet wet: —
“T will find ways and means for thy escape. At nightfall, as the clock strikes nine, a boat shall wait thee on the river before this house ; the boatman will guide thee to a retreat where thou mayst rest in safety till the Reign of Terror, which nears its close, be past. Think no more of the sensual love that lured, and wellnigh lost thee. It betrayed, and would have destroyed. Thou wilt regain thy land in safety, —long years yet spared to thee to muse over the past, and to redeem it, For thy future, be thy dream thy guide, and thy tears thy baptism.”
The Englishman obeyed the injunctions of the letter, and found their truth.
p. 482
CHAPTER X.
Quid mirare meas tot in uno corpore formas ? 1 — PRoPERT,
ZANONI TO MEJNOUR.
“SHE is in one of their prisons, — their inexorable prisons. It is Robespierre’s order,—I have tracked the cause to Glyndon. ‘This, then, made that terrible connection between their fates which I could not unravel, but which (till severed as it now is) wrapped Glyndon himself in the same cloud that concealed her. In prison, —in prison !— it is the gate of the grave! Her trial, and the inevitable execution that follows such trial, is the third day from this. The tyrant has fixed all his schemes of slaughter for the 10th of Thermidor. While the deaths of the unoffending strike awe to the city, his satellites are to massacre his foes. There is but one hope left, —that the Power which now dooms the doomer, may render me an instrument to expedite his fall. But two days left, — two days! In all my wealth of time I see but two days; all beyond, — darkness, solitude. I may save her yet. The tyrant shall fall the day before that which he has set apart for slaughter! For the first time I mix among the broils and stratagems of men, and my mind leaps up from my despair, armed and eager for the contest.”
A crowd had gathered round the Rue St. Honoré; a young man was just arrested by the order of Robespierre. He was known to be in the service of Tallien, that hostile leader in the Convention, whom the tyrant had
1 Why wonder that I have so many forms in a single body ?
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and mystery of the ordeal. Resolve is the first success. Rejoice, for the exorcism is sure! You are not of those who, denying a life to come, are the victims of the Inexorable Horror. Oh, when shall men learn, at last, that if the Great Religion inculcates so rigidly the necessity of FAITH, it is not alone that FaiTH leads to the world to be; but that without faith there is no excellence in this, — faith in something wiser, happier, diviner, than we see on earth! —the artist calls it the Ideal, —the priest, Faith. The Ideal and Faith are one and the same. Return, O wanderer, return! Feel what beauty and holiness dwell in the Customary and the Old. Back to your gateway glide, you Horror! and calm, on the childlike heart, smile again, O azure Heaven, with your night and your morning star but as one, though under its double name of Memory and Hope! ” As he thus spoke, Zanoni laid his hand gently on the burning temples of his excited and wondering listener; and presently a sort of trance came over him: he imagined that he was returned to the home of his infancy; that. he was in the small chamber where, over his early slumbers, his mother had watched and prayed. There it was, — visible, palpable, solitary, unaltered. In the recess, the homely bed; on the walls, the shelves filled with holy books; the very easel on which he had first sought to call the ideal to the canvas, dust-covered, broken, in the corner. Below the window lay the old churchyard: he saw it green in the distance, the sun glancing through the yew-trees; he saw the tomb where father and mother lay united, and the spire pointing up to heaven, the symbol of the hopes of those who consigned the ashes to the dust; in his ear rang the bells, pealing, as on a Sabbath day. Far fled all the visions of anxiety and awe that had haunted and convulsed ;* youth, boyhood, child-
p. 481
hood came back tohim with innocent desires and hopes; he thought he fell upon his knees to pray, He woke, — he woke in delicious tears, he felt that the Phantom was fled forever. He looked round, — Zanoni was gone. On the table lay these lines, the ink yet wet: —
“T will find ways and means for your escape. At nightfall, as the clock strikes nine, a boat shall wait you on the river before this house ; the boatman will guide you to a retreat where you mayst rest in safety till the Reign of Terror, which nears its close, be past. Think no more of the sensual love that lured, and wellnigh lost you. It betrayed, and would have destroyed. You will regain your land in safety, —long years yet spared to you to muse over the past, and to redeem it, For your future, be your dream your guide, and your tears your baptism.”
The Englishman obeyed the injunctions of the letter, and found their truth.
p. 482
CHAPTER X.
Quid mirare meas tot in uno corpore formas ? 1 — PRoPERT,
ZANONI TO MEJNOUR.
“SHE is in one of their prisons, — their inexorable prisons. It is Robespierre’s order,—I have tracked the cause to Glyndon. ‘This, then, made that terrible connection between their fates which I could not unravel, but which (till severed as it now is) wrapped Glyndon himself in the same cloud that concealed her. In prison, —in prison !— it is the gate of the grave! Her trial, and the inevitable execution that follows such trial, is the third day from this. The tyrant has fixed all his schemes of slaughter for the 10th of Thermidor. While the deaths of the unoffending strike awe to the city, his satellites are to massacre his foes. There is but one hope left, —that the Power which now dooms the doomer, may render me an instrument to expedite his fall. But two days left, — two days! In all my wealth of time I see but two days; all beyond, — darkness, solitude. I may save her yet. The tyrant shall fall the day before that which he has set apart for slaughter! For the first time I mix among the broils and stratagems of men, and my mind leaps up from my despair, armed and eager for the contest.”
A crowd had gathered round the Rue St. Honoré; a young man was just arrested by the order of Robespierre. He was known to be in the service of Tallien, that hostile leader in the Convention, whom the tyrant had
1 Why wonder that I have so many forms in a single body ?
p. 483
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