Zanoni — Edward Bulwer-Lytton
your property, — perhaps your life? You might come off cheaply by a ransom of half your fortune. You smile indignantly! Well, put common-sense out of the question; take your own view of the matter. You are to undergo an ordeal which Mejnour himself does not profess to describe as a very tempting one. It may, or it may not, succeed: if it does not, you are menaced with the darkest evils; and if it does, you cannot be better off than the dull and joyless mystic whom you have taken for a master. Away with this folly; enjoy youth while it is left to you; return with me to England; forget these dreams; enter your proper career; form affections more respectable than those which lured you awhile to an Italian adventuress. Attend to your fortune, make money, and become a happy and distinguished man. This is the advice of sober friendship; yet the promises [ hold out to you are fairer than those of Mejnour.” “Mervale,” said Glyndon, doggedly, “I cannot, if I would, yield to your wishes. A power that is above me urges me on; I cannot resist its influence. I will proceed to the last in the strange career I have commenced. Think of me no more. Follow yourself the advice you give to me, and be happy.” “This is madness,” said Mervale; “ your health is already failing; you are so changed I should scarcely know you. Come; I have already had your name entered in my passport; in another hour I shall be gone, and you, boy that you are, will be left, without a friend, to the deceits of your own fancy and the machinations of this relentless mountebank,” “Enough,” said Glyndon, coldly; “ you cease to be an effective counsellor when you suffer your prejudices to be thus evident. I have already had ample proof,”
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added the Englishman, and his pale cheek grew more pale, “ of the power of this man, — if man he be, which TI sometimes doubt, — and, come life, come death, I will not shrink from the paths that allure me. Farewell, Mervale; if we never meet again, — if you hear, amidst our old and cheerful haunts, that Clarence Glyndon sleeps the last sleep by the shores of Naples, or amidst yon distant hills, say to the friends of our youth, ‘ He died worthily, as thousands of martyr-students have died before him, in the pursuit of knowledge.’ ” He wrung Mervale’s hand as he spoke, darted from his side, and disappeared amidst the crowd. By the corner of the Toledo he was arrested by Nicot. “Ah, Glyndon! I have not seen you this month. Where have you hid yourself? Have you been absorbed in your studies?” “ Yes.” “T am about to leave Naples for Paris. Will you accompany me? ‘Talent of all order is eagerly sought for there, and will be sure to rise.” “T thank you; I have other schemes for the present.” “So laconic! — what ails you? Do you grieve for the loss of the Pisani? Take example by me. I have already consoled myself with Bianca Sacchini, — a handsome woman, enlightened, no prejudices. A valuable creature I shall find her, no doubt. But as for this Zanoni! ” “ What of him?” “If ever I paint an allegorical subject, I will take his likeness as Satan. Ha, ha! a true painter’s revenge, —eh? And the way of the world, too! When we can do nothing else against a man whom we hate, we can at least paint his effigies as the Devil’s. Seriously, though: I abhor that man.”
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“Wherefore? ” “ Wherefore! Has he not carried off the wife and the dowry I had marked for myself! Yet, after all,” added Nicot, musingly, “had he served instead of injured me, I should have hated himallthesame. His very form, and his very face, made me at once envy and detest him. I feel that there is something antipathetic in our natures. I feel, too, that we shall meet again, when Jean Nicot’s hate may be less impotent. We, too, cher confrére, — we, too, may meet again! Vive la République! Ito my new world!” “And Ito mine. Farewell! ” That day Mervale left Naples; the next morning Glyndon also quitted the City of Delight alone, and on horseback. He bent his way into those picturesque but dangerous parts of the country which at that time were infested by banditti, and which few travellers dared to pass, even in broad daylight, without a strong escort. A road more lonely cannot well be conceived than that on which the hoofs of his steed, striking upon the fragments of rock that encumbered the neglected way, woke a dull and melancholy echo. Large tracts of waste land, varied by the rank and profuse foliage of the South, lay before him; occasionally a wild goat peeped down from some rocky crag, or the discordant cry of a bird of prey, startled in its sombre haunt, was heard above the hills. These were the only signs of life; not a human being was met, — not a hut was visible. Wrapped in his own ardent and solemn thoughts, the young man continued his way, till the sun had spent its noonday heat, and a breeze that announced the approach of eve sprung up from the unseen ocean which lay far distant to his right. It was then that a turn in the road brought before him one of those long, desolate, gloomy
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your property, — perhaps your life? You might come off cheaply by a ransom of half your fortune. You smile indignantly! Well, put common-sense out of the question; take your own view of the matter. You are to undergo an ordeal which Mejnour himself does not profess to describe as a very tempting one. It may, or it may not, succeed: if it does not, you are menaced with the darkest evils; and if it does, you cannot be better off than the dull and joyless mystic whom you have taken for a master. Away with this folly; enjoy youth while it is left to you; return with me to England; forget these dreams; enter your proper career; form affections more respectable than those which lured you awhile to an Italian adventuress. Attend to your fortune, make money, and become a happy and distinguished man. This is the advice of sober friendship; yet the promises [ hold out to you are fairer than those of Mejnour.” “Mervale,” said Glyndon, doggedly, “I cannot, if I would, yield to your wishes. A power that is above me urges me on; I cannot resist its influence. I will proceed to the last in the strange career I have commenced. Think of me no more. Follow yourself the advice you give to me, and be happy.” “This is madness,” said Mervale; “ your health is already failing; you are so changed I should scarcely know you. Come; I have already had your name entered in my passport; in another hour I shall be gone, and you, boy that you are, will be left, without a friend, to the deceits of your own fancy and the machinations of this relentless mountebank,” “Enough,” said Glyndon, coldly; “ you cease to be an effective counsellor when you suffer your prejudices to be thus evident. I have already had ample proof,”
ZANONI. y AT |
added the Englishman, and his pale cheek grew more pale, “ of the power of this man, — if man he be, which TI sometimes doubt, — and, come life, come death, I will not shrink from the paths that allure me. Farewell, Mervale; if we never meet again, — if you hear, amidst our old and cheerful haunts, that Clarence Glyndon sleeps the last sleep by the shores of Naples, or amidst yon distant hills, say to the friends of our youth, ‘ He died worthily, as thousands of martyr-students have died before him, in the pursuit of knowledge.’ ” He wrung Mervale’s hand as he spoke, darted from his side, and disappeared amidst the crowd. By the corner of the Toledo he was arrested by Nicot. “Ah, Glyndon! I have not seen you this month. Where have you hid yourself? Have you been absorbed in your studies?” “ Yes.” “T am about to leave Naples for Paris. Will you accompany me? ‘Talent of all order is eagerly sought for there, and will be sure to rise.” “T thank you; I have other schemes for the present.” “So laconic! — what ails you? Do you grieve for the loss of the Pisani? Take example by me. I have already consoled myself with Bianca Sacchini, — a handsome woman, enlightened, no prejudices. A valuable creature I shall find her, no doubt. But as for this Zanoni! ” “ What of him?” “If ever I paint an allegorical subject, I will take his likeness as Satan. Ha, ha! a true painter’s revenge, —eh? And the way of the world, too! When we can do nothing else against a man whom we hate, we can at least paint his effigies as the Devil’s. Seriously, though: I abhor that man.”
p. 252
“Wherefore? ” “ Wherefore! Has he not carried off the wife and the dowry I had marked for myself! Yet, after all,” added Nicot, musingly, “had he served instead of injured me, I should have hated himallthesame. His very form, and his very face, made me at once envy and detest him. I feel that there is something antipathetic in our natures. I feel, too, that we shall meet again, when Jean Nicot’s hate may be less impotent. We, too, cher confrére, — we, too, may meet again! Vive la République! Ito my new world!” “And Ito mine. Farewell! ” That day Mervale left Naples; the next morning Glyndon also quitted the City of Delight alone, and on horseback. He bent his way into those picturesque but dangerous parts of the country which at that time were infested by banditti, and which few travellers dared to pass, even in broad daylight, without a strong escort. A road more lonely cannot well be conceived than that on which the hoofs of his steed, striking upon the fragments of rock that encumbered the neglected way, woke a dull and melancholy echo. Large tracts of waste land, varied by the rank and profuse foliage of the South, lay before him; occasionally a wild goat peeped down from some rocky crag, or the discordant cry of a bird of prey, startled in its sombre haunt, was heard above the hills. These were the only signs of life; not a human being was met, — not a hut was visible. Wrapped in his own ardent and solemn thoughts, the young man continued his way, till the sun had spent its noonday heat, and a breeze that announced the approach of eve sprung up from the unseen ocean which lay far distant to his right. It was then that a turn in the road brought before him one of those long, desolate, gloomy
p. 253
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