A solitude3 had suddenly spread itself around them. It perhaps symbolized4 a peculiar5 character in the relation of these two, insulating them, and building up an insuperable barrier between their life-streams and other currents, which might seem to flow in close vicinity. For it is one of the chief earthly incommodities of some species of misfortune, or of a great crime, that it makes the actor in the one, or the sufferer of the other, an alien in the world, by interposing a wholly unsympathetic medium betwixt himself and those whom he yearns6 to meet.
Owing, it may be, to this moral estrangement,—this chill remoteness of their position,—there have come to us but a few vague whisperings of what passed in Miriam’s interview that afternoon with the sinister7 personage who had dogged her footsteps ever since the visit to the catacomb. In weaving these mystic utterances8 into a continuous scene, we undertake a task resembling in its perplexity that of gathering9 up and piecing together the fragments ora letter which has been torn and scattered10 to the winds. Many words of deep significance, many entire sentences, and those possibly the most important ones, have flown too far on the winged breeze to be recovered. If we insert our own conjectural11 amendments12, we perhaps give a purport13 utterly14 at variance15 with the true one. Yet unless we attempt something in this way, there must remain an unsightly gap, and a lack of continuousness and dependence16 in our narrative17; so that it would arrive at certain inevitable18 catastrophes19 without due warning of their imminence20.
Of so much we are sure, that there seemed to be a sadly mysterious fascination21 in the influence of this ill-omened person over Miriam; it was such as beasts and reptiles22 of subtle and evil nature sometimes exercise upon their victims. Marvellous it was to see the hopelessness with which being naturally of so courageous23 a spirit she resigned herself to the thraldom24 in which he held her. That iron chain, of which some of the massive links were round her feminine waist, and the others in his ruthless hand,—or which, perhaps, bound the pair together by a bond equally torturing to each,—must have been forged in some such unhallowed furnace as is only kindled25 by evil passions, and fed by evil deeds.
Yet, let us trust, there may have been no crime in Miriam, but only one of those fatalities26 which are among the most insoluble riddles27 propounded28 to mortal comprehension; the fatal decree by which every crime is made to be the agony of many innocent persons, as well as of the single guilty one.
It was, at any rate, but a feeble and despairing kind of remonstrance30 which she had now the energy to oppose against his persecution31.
“You follow me too closely,” she said, in low, faltering32 accents; “you allow me too scanty33 room to draw my breath. Do you know what will be the end of this?” “I know well what must be the end,” he replied.
“Tell me, then,” said Miriam, “that I may compare your foreboding with my own. Mine is a very dark one.”
“There can be but one result, and that soon,” answered the model. “You must throw off your present mask and assume another. You must vanish out of the scene: quit Rome with me, and leave no trace whereby to follow you. It is in my power, as you well know, to compel your acquiescence34 in my bidding. You are aware of the penalty of a refusal.”
“Not that penalty with which you would terrify me,” said Miriam; “another there may be, but not so grievous.” “What is that other?” he inquired. “Death! simply death!” she answered. “Death,” said her persecutor35, “is not so simple and opportune36 a thing as you imagine. You are strong and warm with life. Sensitive and irritable37 as your spirit is, these many months of trouble, this latter thraldom in which I hold you, have scarcely made your cheek paler than I saw it in your girlhood. Miriam,—for I forbear to speak another name, at which these leaves would shiver above our heads,—Miriam, you cannot die!”
“Might not a dagger38 find my heart?” said she, for the first time meeting his eyes. “Would not poison make an end of me? Will not the Tiber drown me?”
“It might,” he answered; “for I allow that you are mortal. But, Miriam, believe me, it is not your fate to die while there remains39 so much to be sinned and suffered in the world. We have a destiny which we must needs fulfil together. I, too, have struggled to escape it. I was as anxious as yourself to break the tie between us,—to bury the past in a fathomless40 grave,—to make it impossible that we should ever meet, until you confront me at the bar of Judgment41! You little can imagine what steps I took to render all this secure; and what was the result? Our strange interview in the bowels42 of the earth convinced me of the futility43 of my design.”
“Ah, fatal chance!” cried Miriam, covering her face with her hands.
“Yes, your heart trembled with horror when you recognized me,” rejoined he; “but you did not guess that there was an equal horror in my own!”
“Why would not the weight of earth above our heads have crumbled44 down upon us both, forcing us apart, but burying us equally?” cried Miriam, in a burst of vehement45 passion. “O, that we could have wandered in those dismal46 passages till we both perished, taking opposite paths in the darkness, so that when we lay down to die, our last breaths might not mingle47!”
“It were vain to wish it,” said the model. “In all that labyrinth48 of midnight paths, we should have found one another out to live or die together. Our fates cross and are entangled49. The threads are twisted into a strong cord, which is dragging us to an evil doom50. Could the knots be severed51, we might escape. But neither can your slender fingers untie52 these knots, nor my masculine force break them. We must submit!”
“Pray for rescue, as I have,” exclaimed Miriam. “Pray for deliverance from me, since I am your evil genius, as you mine. Dark as your life has been, I have known you to pray in times past!”
At these words of Miriam, a tremor53 and horror appeared to seize upon her persecutor, insomuch that he shook and grew ashy pale before her eyes. In this man’s memory there was something that made it awful for him to think of prayer; nor would any torture be more intolerable than to be reminded of such divine comfort and succor54 as await pious55 souls merely for the asking; This torment56 was perhaps the token of a native temperament57 deeply susceptible58 of religious impressions, but which had been wronged, violated, and debased, until, at length, it was capable only of terror from the sources that were intended for our purest and loftiest consolation59. He looked so fearfully at her, and with such intense pain struggling in his eyes, that Miriam felt pity.
And now, all at once, it struck her that he might be mad. It was an idea that had never before seriously occurred to her mind, although, as soon as suggested, it fitted marvellously into many circumstances that lay within her knowledge. But, alas60! such was her evil fortune, that, whether mad or no, his power over her remained the same, and was likely to be used only the more tyrannously, if exercised by a lunatic.
“I would not give you pain,” she said, soothingly61; “your faith allows you the consolations62 of penance63 and absolution. Try what help there may be in these, and leave me to myself.”
“Do not think it, Miriam,” said he; “we are bound together, and can never part again.” “Why should it seem so impossible?” she rejoined. “Think how I had escaped from all the past! I had made for myself a new sphere, and found new friends, new occupations, new hopes and enjoyments64. My heart, methinks, was almost as unburdened as if there had been no miserable65 life behind me. The human spirit does not perish of a single wound, nor exhaust itself in a single trial of life. Let us but keep asunder66, and all may go well for both.” “We fancied ourselves forever sundered,” he replied. “Yet we met once, in the bowels of the earth; and, were we to part now, our fates would fling us together again in a desert, on a mountain-top, or in whatever spot seemed safest. You speak in vain, therefore.”
“You mistake your own will for an iron necessity,” said Miriam; “otherwise, you might have suffered me to glide67 past you like a ghost, when we met among those ghosts of ancient days. Even now you might bid me pass as freely.”
“Never!” said he, with unmitigable will; “your reappearance has destroyed the work of years. You know the power that I have over you. Obey my bidding; or, within a short time, it shall be exercised: nor will I cease to haunt you till the moment comes.”
“Then,” said Miriam more calmly, “I foresee the end, and have already warned you of it. It will be death!”
“Do you imagine me a murderess?” said she, shuddering69; “you, at least, have no right to think me so!”
“Yet,” rejoined he, with a glance of dark meaning, “men have said that this white hand had once a crimson70 stain.” He took her hand as he spoke71, and held it in his own, in spite of the repugnance72, amounting to nothing short of agony, with which she struggled to regain73 it. Holding it up to the fading light (for there was already dimness among the trees), he appeared to examine it closely, as if to discover the imaginary blood-stain with which he taunted74 her. He smiled as he let it go. “It looks very white,” said he; “but I have known hands as white, which all the water in the ocean would not have washed clean.”
“It had no stain,” retorted Miriam bitterly, “until you grasped it in your own.”
The wind has blown away whatever else they may have spoken.
They went together towards the town, and, on their way, continued to make reference, no doubt, to some strange and dreadful history of their former life, belonging equally to this dark man and to the fair and youthful woman whom he persecuted75. In their words, or in the breath that uttered them, there seemed to be an odor of guilt29, and a scent76 of blood. Yet, how can we imagine that a stain of ensanguined crime should attach to Miriam! Or how, on the other hand, should spotless innocence77 be subjected to a thraldom like that which she endured from the spectre, whom she herself had evoked78 out of the darkness! Be this as it might, Miriam, we have reason to believe, still continued to beseech79 him, humbly80, passionately81, wildly, only to go his way, and leave her free to follow her own sad path.
Thus they strayed onward82 through the green wilderness83 of the Borghese grounds, and soon came near the city wall, where, had Miriam raised her eyes, she might have seen Hilda and the sculptor84 leaning on the parapet. But she walked in a mist of trouble, and could distinguish little beyond its limits. As they came within public observation, her persecutor fell behind, throwing off the imperious manner which he had assumed during their solitary85 interview. The Porta del Popolo swarmed86 with life. The merry-makers, who had spent the feast-day outside the walls, were now thronging87 in; a party of horsemen were entering beneath the arch; a travelling carriage had been drawn88 up just within the verge89, and was passing through the villainous ordeal90 of the papal custom-house. In the broad piazza91, too, there was a motley crowd.
But the stream of Miriam’s trouble kept its way through this flood of human life, and neither mingled92 with it nor was turned aside. With a sad kind of feminine ingenuity93, she found a way to kneel before her tyrant94 undetected, though in full sight of all the people, still beseeching95 him for freedom, and in vain.
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1
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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2
follower
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| n.跟随者；随员；门徒；信徒 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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symbolized
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| v.象征，作为…的象征( symbolize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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yearns
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| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的第三人称单数 ) | |
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7
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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utterances
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| n.发声( utterance的名词复数 )；说话方式；语调；言论 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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conjectural
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| adj.推测的 | |
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amendments
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| （法律、文件的）改动( amendment的名词复数 )； 修正案； 修改； （美国宪法的）修正案 | |
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purport
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| n.意义，要旨，大要；v.意味著，做为...要旨，要领是... | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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variance
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| n.矛盾，不同 | |
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dependence
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| n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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catastrophes
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| n.灾祸( catastrophe的名词复数 )；灾难；不幸事件；困难 | |
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imminence
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| n.急迫，危急 | |
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fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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reptiles
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| n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
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courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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thraldom
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| n.奴隶的身份，奴役，束缚 | |
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kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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fatalities
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| n.恶性事故( fatality的名词复数 )；死亡；致命性；命运 | |
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riddles
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| n.谜（语）( riddle的名词复数 )；猜不透的难题，难解之谜 | |
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propounded
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| v.提出（问题、计划等）供考虑[讨论]，提议( propound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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remonstrance
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| n抗议，抱怨 | |
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persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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faltering
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| 犹豫的，支吾的，蹒跚的 | |
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33
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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acquiescence
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| n.默许；顺从 | |
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persecutor
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| n. 迫害者 | |
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opportune
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| adj.合适的，适当的 | |
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irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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dagger
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| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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fathomless
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| a.深不可测的 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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42
bowels
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| n.肠，内脏，内部；肠( bowel的名词复数 )；内部，最深处 | |
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futility
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| n.无用 | |
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44
crumbled
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| （把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏 | |
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vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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mingle
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| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
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labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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49
entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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51
severed
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| v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂 | |
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52
untie
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| vt.解开，松开；解放 | |
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53
tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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succor
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| n.援助，帮助；v.给予帮助 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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56
torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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57
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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58
susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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59
consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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60
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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consolations
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| n.安慰，慰问( consolation的名词复数 )；起安慰作用的人（或事物） | |
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penance
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| n.（赎罪的）惩罪 | |
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enjoyments
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| 愉快( enjoyment的名词复数 )； 令人愉快的事物； 享有； 享受 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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glide
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| n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝 | |
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fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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70
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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71
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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72
repugnance
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| n.嫌恶 | |
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73
regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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74
taunted
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| 嘲讽( taunt的过去式和过去分词 )； 嘲弄； 辱骂； 奚落 | |
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75
persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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76
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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77
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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78
evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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beseech
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| v.祈求，恳求 | |
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humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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81
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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82
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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83
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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84
sculptor
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| n.雕刻家，雕刻家 | |
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85
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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86
swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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87
thronging
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的现在分词 ) | |
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88
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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89
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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90
ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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piazza
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| n.广场；走廊 | |
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92
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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93
ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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95
beseeching
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| adj.恳求似的v.恳求，乞求（某事物）( beseech的现在分词 ) | |
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