At the rising of the sun the chebec was no longer in sight.
Peyrou waited with impatience1 the arrival of the young seaman2 who was accustomed to relieve his watch.
He was anxious to warn Raimond V. of the wicked designs he attributed to the Bohemian.
About two o’clock, Peyrou was astonished to see Mile, des Anbiez, accompanied by Stephanette.
Reine approached him with evident embarrassment3.
Without sharing the superstitious4 ideas of the inhabitants of the gulf5, in reference to the watchman on Cape6 l’Aigle, she felt irresistibly7 impelled8 to consult him upon a subject which she could not think of without sadness. The young girl had received new evidences of the remembrance cherished by Erebus, through the same unknown and mysterious way.
All her efforts, and all of Stephanette’s, had proved unavailing in discovering the source of these strange communications.
Through an unpardonable obstinacy9, and a foolish love of the marvellous, Reine had concealed10 everything from her father and Honorat.
Honorat had left Maison-Forte, in a fit of jealousy11 as painful as it was unreasonable12.
On the evening of the day the overseers of the port held their session, Reine, as she knelt before her praying-desk, had found a rosary of sandalwood of the most marvellous workmanship.
The clasp by which it was to be attached to her belt again bore the enamelled imprint13 of the little dove of which we have spoken,—the symbol of the remembrance and the love of the unknown.
Since the singing of the Bohemian, Reine’s imagination, excited beyond degree, had indulged in a thousand dreams concerning the adventurous14 life of the young emir, as the vagabond had named him.
Either by design or chance, the singer had left his guzla in Reine’s apartment, after the departure of Honorat de Berrol.
The young girl, curious to see the face of the unknown again, took the guitar and opened the medallion, and, to her great surprise, the portrait, insecurely fastened, came off in her hands.
Dame15 Dulceline entered. Reine blushed, closed the medallion and hid the portrait in her bosom16, intending to restore it to its place. Evening came, and Stephanette, without informing her mistress, returned the guitar to the Bohemian. The lid of the medallion was fastened, and neither the singer nor the servant discovered the absence of the picture.
The next day Reine sent for the Bohemian in order to return the portrait to him. He had disappeared, the flight of the pigeon demanding his attention.
Reine had the courage to break the crystal vase, and to burn the miniature on vellum, but she had not the courage to destroy the portrait or the rosary that she found in her oratory17.
In spite of her struggles, in spite of her prayers, in spite of her resolve to forget the events of the day in the rocks of Ollioules, the memory of the unknown took possession of her heart more and more.
The songs of the Bohemian on the young emir, whom he called Erebus, had profoundly moved her feelings.
Those contrasts of courage and kindness, of power and pity, recalled to her mind the singular combination of audacity18 and timidity which had impressed her in the scene which transpired19 in the gorges20 of Ollioules.
She counted on the restitution21 of the portrait as the first step to another conversation with the Singer about the emir.
Unfortunately, the Bohemian had disappeared.
To the great astonishment22 of the inmates23 of Maison-Forte, he did not return in the evening. Raimond V., who liked him, ordered his men who guarded the bridge to be prepared to lower it when the Bohemian appeared, notwithstanding the regulations of the castle.
Morning came, and still the vagabond was absent. They supposed that, after drinking, he had fallen asleep in some tavern24 of La Ciotat. They were still more astonished not to find the two pigeons in the cage where he kept them ordinarily closely confined.
Greatly disturbed by these strange happenings, which had been transpiring25 for some time, Reine, half through curiosity and half through conviction, finally yielded to the entreaties26 of Stephanette, who had the most wonderful ideas of the watchman’s abilities and knowledge, and decided27 to consult the old seaman on the mysteries of which Maison-Forte was the theatre.
So many extraordinary things had been told of Master Peyrou’s predictions, that Reine, although little given to superstition28, felt the influence of the general opinion.
She was going to interrogate29 Peyrou, when, to her amazement30, he accosted31 her with a question about the Bohemian.
“Mademoiselle, did the vagabond enter Maison-Forte last night?” said Peyrou, quickly.
“No; my father is much concerned about him. They think that he must have spent the night drinking in some tavern in La Ciotat.”
“That would be astonishing,” added Stephanette, “for the poor fellow seems to be of exemplary sobriety.”
“This poor fellow,” exclaimed the watchman, “is a spy of the pirates.”
“He!” exclaimed Reine.
“Yes, he, himself, mademoiselle; a chebec was cruising a part of the night in view from the gulf, waiting, no doubt, for a signal from this vagabond to disembark.”
In a few words the watchman acquainted Reine with the adventure of the pigeon, informing her on what indisputable grounds he suspected the Bohemian of having communication with the pirates; showed her the satchel32 and letter, and gave them to her, that the baron33 might have the writing translated by one of the brother monks34 in La Ciotat, who, having been a slave in Tunis for a long time, was familiar with Arabic.
When she learned the odious35 suspicions which attached to the Bohemian, without accounting36 to herself for her fear, Reine dared not confide37 the object of her visit to the watchman.
Stephanette looked at her mistress, utterly38 confounded, and cried:
“Our Lady! who would have believed that this unbeliever, who sang so well, could be such an abominable39 scoundrel? And to think I pitied him enough to give him a flame-coloured ribbon! Ah, my dear mistress, and the portrait of—”
Reine by an imperious sign forbade Stephanette to continue.
“Good-bye, good watchman,” said Mlle, des Anbiez, “I am going back to Maison-Forte at once, to warn my father to be on his guard.”
“Do not forget, Stephanette, to send Luquin Trinquetaille here. I must make arrangements with him to have one more young watchman,” said Peyrou. “I have not slept the whole night. This dangerous knave40 is perhaps wandering about these rocks, and may come and assassinate41 me at the setting of the moon. The pirates are somewhere in the gulf, hidden in some one of the coves42 where they often ambuscade, to wait for their prey43; for, alas44! our coasts are not protected.”
“Be easy, Master Peyrou, Luquin is coming with his two cousins; just tell him that you are watching for the Bohemian, and he will not delay to come as fast as his long legs can bring him. And to think I gave a ribbon to a pirate!” added Stephanette, clasping her hands. “Perhaps he is one of those brigands45 who ravaged46 all this coast last year.”
“Go, go, my girl, and hurry. I must confer with the captain about a little cruise he can undertake even to-day with his polacre. We must warn the consuls47 to arm some fishing-boats immediately, with sure and determined48 men. We must give the alarm all along the shore, arm the entrance into the gulf, which is defended only by the cannon49 of Maison-Forte, and be prepared for any surprise, for these brigands rush on the coast like a hurricane. So Luquin must come on the instant Do you hear, Stephanette? The safety of the city depends on it.”
“Be easy, Master Peyrou, although it breaks my heart to know that my poor Luquin is going to run such danger. I love him too much to advise him to be a coward.”
During this rapid conversation between the watchman and her servant, Reine, lost in deep reverie, had descended50 a few steps of the path which conducted to the platform upon which stood the sentry-box.
This path, which was very steep, wound around the outside of the promontory51, and formed at this spot a sort of comice, whose projection52 reached considerably53 over the base of this immense wall of rocks, more than three hundred feet above the level of the sea.
A young girl less habituated to walks and to mountain climbing would have feared to venture on this narrow passage. From the side of the sea, its only parapet was a few asperities54 of rock, more or less pronounced. Reine, accustomed to brave these perils55 from her infancy56, thought nothing of danger. The emotion that agitated57 her since her interview with the watchman absorbed her entirely58.
Her gait, sometimes slow, sometimes hurried, seemed to share the nature of her tumultuous emotions.
Stephanette soon joined her. Surprised at the pallor of her mistress, she was about to ask the cause of it, when Reine said to her, in an altered voice, with a gesture which did not admit of a reply, “Walk in front of me, Stephanette, do not concern yourself whether I follow you or not.”
Stephanette preceded her mistress at once, directing her steps in all haste toward Maison-Forte.
The agitation59 of Reine des Anbiez was extreme. The relations which seemed to exist between the Bohemian and the unknown were too evident for her not to have the most painful suspicions of this young man whom the vagabond called the emir.
Many circumstances, which had not impressed her at the time, now made Reine believe that the Bohemian was an emissary of the unknown. No doubt it was the vagabond who had placed in her chamber60 the various objects which had caused her so much surprise. Adopting this hypothesis, there was, however, one objection which presented itself to her mind,—she had found the crystal vase and the miniature on vellum before the arrival of the vagabond.
Suddenly a ray of light entered her mind; she remembered that one day, in order to display his agility61 to Stephanette, the Bohemian had descended to the terrace by the balcony, upon which opened the window of her oratory, and that he had remounted by the same way. Another time he had slid down from the terrace on the rocks, which lined the shore, and had remounted from the rocks to the terrace, by the aid of the asperities of the wall and the plants which had taken root there.
Although he arrived for the first time at the castle with the recorder, might not this vagabond, before that day, have been hidden in the environage of La Ciotat? Could he not have entered Maison-Forte twice during the night, then, to avoid suspicion, returned in the recorder’s train, as if he had met it by chance?
These thoughts, reinforced by recent observations, soon assumed incontrovertible certainty in the mind of Reine. The stranger and his two companions were, without doubt, pirates, who, with false names and false credentials62, had given out that they were Muscovites, and had thus imposed upon the credulity of the Marshal of Vitry.
The first idea of Reine, then,—an idea absolute and imperious,—was to forget for ever the man upon whom rested such terrible suspicion.
Religion, duty, and the will of her father were so many insurmountable and sacred obstacles which the young girl could not think of braving.
Up to that time, her youthful and lively imagination had found inexhaustible nourishment63 in the strange adventure of the rocks of Ollioules.
All the chaste64 dreams of her young girlhood were, so to speak, concentrated and realised in the person of Erebus, that unknown one, brave and timid at the same time, audacious and charming, who had saved the life of her father.
She could not help being touched by the delicate and mysterious persistence66 with which Erebus had always tried to recall himself to her memory. Doubtless she had never heard the voice of this stranger; doubtless she was ignorant of his mind and character, whether or not they responded to the graces of his person. But in these long reveries in which a young girl thinks of him who has fascinated her, does she not invest him with the most excellent qualities? does she not make him say all that she desires to hear?
Thus had Reine thought of Erebus. First she wished to banish67 him from her thought, but, unfortunately, to yield to a sentiment against which we have struggled is only to render it all the more powerful and irresistible68.
Reine then loved Erebus, perhaps unconsciously, when the watchman’s fatal revelation showed the object of her love in such unattractive colours.
The grandeur69 of the sacrifice that she was required to make enlightened her as to the power of the affection with which she had, so to speak, played until the fatal moment arrived.
For the first time this sudden revelation taught her the depth of her love.
Impenetrable mysteries of the human heart! During the first phases of this mysterious love she had regarded her marriage with Honorat as possible.
From the moment in which she knew who the unknown one was, from that moment she felt that, notwithstanding the voice of duty ordered her to forget him, the memory of Erebus would henceforth dominate her whole existence, and she could never marry the chevalier.
She recognised the truth with terror, that, notwithstanding her efforts to master her feelings, her heart belonged to her no longer, and she was incapable70 of deceiving Honorat.
She wished to make a last sacrifice, to give up the rosary and portrait which she possessed71, imposing72 this resolution upon herself as a sort of expiation73 of her reserve and reticence74 toward her father.
The young girl suffered much before she was able to fulfil this resolution.
In this mental struggle, Reine was walking on the edge of the comice formed by the rocks above the beach on which the waves of the sea were breaking.
She wore over her dress a sort of brown mantle75 with a hood65 turned up on the shoulders. This hood allowed her bare head to be seen, as well as her long brown curls that floated in the wind. Her countenance76 had an expression of sweet and resigned melancholy77; sometimes, however, her blue eyes shone with a new brightness, and she lifted up her noble, beautiful head with an expression of wounded pride.
She loved passionately78, but without hope, and she was going to throw to the winds the feeble tokens of this impossible love.
At her feet, far, far below her, broke the raging waves of the sea.
She drew the rosary from her bosom, looked at it a moment with bitterness, pressed it to her heart, then, extending her white and delicate hand above the abyss, she held it motionless a moment, and the rosary fell into the waves below.
She tried to follow it with her eyes, but the edge of the cornice was too sharp to allow her a view.
She sighed profoundly, took the portrait of the unknown, and contemplated79 it a long time in sad admiration80. Nothing could be purer or more enchanting81 than the features of Erebus; his large brown eyes, soft and proud at the same time, reminded her of the look, full of purity and dignity, which he cast upon Raimond V. after having saved his life. The smile of this portrait, full of serenity82, had nothing of that satirical smile and bold expression which had so startled her on the eventful day.
For a few moments she struggled with her resolution, then reason asserted her empire; blushing, she pressed her lips to the medallion, then on the brow of the portrait, and then—threw it suddenly into space.
This painful sacrifice accomplished83, Reine felt less oppressed; she believed that she would have committed a wrong in preserving these memorials of a foolish love.
Then she felt free to abandon herself to the thoughts locked in the depths of her heart.
She walked a long time on the beach, absorbed in these thoughts.
On returning to Maison-Forte she learned that Raimond V. had not yet returned from the chase.
Night was fast falling, and Reine, followed by Stephanette, entered her apartment What was her amazement, her terror—
She found on the table the portrait and rosary that two hours before she had thrown into the depths of the sea.
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1
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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4
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9
obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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10
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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12
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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13
imprint
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| n.印痕，痕迹；深刻的印象；vt.压印，牢记 | |
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14
adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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15
dame
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| n.女士 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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17
oratory
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| n.演讲术；词藻华丽的言辞 | |
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audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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19
transpired
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| （事实，秘密等）被人知道( transpire的过去式和过去分词 )； 泄露； 显露； 发生 | |
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20
gorges
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| n.山峡，峡谷( gorge的名词复数 )；咽喉v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的第三人称单数 )；作呕 | |
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21
restitution
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| n.赔偿；恢复原状 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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24
tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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transpiring
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| （事实，秘密等）被人知道( transpire的现在分词 )； 泄露； 显露； 发生 | |
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26
entreaties
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| n.恳求，乞求( entreaty的名词复数 ) | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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interrogate
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| vt.讯问，审问，盘问 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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31
accosted
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| v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的过去式和过去分词 )；跟…搭讪；（乞丐等）上前向…乞讨；（妓女等）勾搭 | |
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32
satchel
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| n.(皮或帆布的)书包 | |
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33
baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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accounting
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| n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表 | |
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37
confide
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| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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40
knave
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| n.流氓；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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41
assassinate
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| vt.暗杀，行刺，中伤 | |
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42
coves
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| n.小海湾( cove的名词复数 )；家伙 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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44
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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45
brigands
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| n.土匪，强盗( brigand的名词复数 ) | |
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46
ravaged
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| 毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
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47
consuls
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| 领事( consul的名词复数 )； （古罗马共和国时期）执政官 （古罗马共和国及其军队的最高首长，同时共有两位，每年选举一次） | |
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48
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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49
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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50
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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51
promontory
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| n.海角；岬 | |
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52
projection
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| n.发射，计划，突出部分 | |
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53
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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54
asperities
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| n.粗暴( asperity的名词复数 )；（表面的）粗糙；（环境的）艰苦；严寒的天气 | |
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55
perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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56
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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57
agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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58
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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59
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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60
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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61
agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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62
credentials
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| n.证明，资格，证明书，证件 | |
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63
nourishment
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| n.食物，营养品；营养情况 | |
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64
chaste
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| adj.贞洁的；有道德的；善良的；简朴的 | |
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65
hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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66
persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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67
banish
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| vt.放逐，驱逐；消除，排除 | |
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68
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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69
grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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70
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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71
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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73
expiation
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| n.赎罪，补偿 | |
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reticence
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| n.沉默，含蓄 | |
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75
mantle
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| n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红 | |
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76
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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78
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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79
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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80
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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81
enchanting
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| a.讨人喜欢的 | |
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82
serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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83
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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