Albert Smith

“ That fearful aggravation which woman can exert with such crushing power,—that frigid and apparently insensible demeanour, the colder in proportion as the heart she has drawn into her toils is anguished and convulsed, was driving Gaudin to distraction. ‘Marie!’ he again cried, ‘do you not believe in the love which I bear for you?’
‘It is not love, Sainte-Croix,’ at length she replied. ‘A liaison like ours has little love to nourish its continuance; passion and jealousy can be its only ties of endurance, and sooner or later it must end in misery. ”

“ Our secrets are too terrible for both to be free at once. You should not have let me know that you thought me in your power.’
‘Has every notion of honour departed from you?’ asked Exili.
‘Honour!’ replied Sainte-Croix, with a short contemptuous laugh; ‘honour! and between such as we have become! How could you expect honour to influence me, when we have so long despised it—when it is but a bubble name with the petty gamesters of the world—the watchword of cowardice fearing detection?’
There was a halt in the progress of the carriage as it now arrived at the outer gate of the Bastille. ”

“ I should be sorry to come in upon an old attachment. This lady can still be yours.’
‘Heed her not, Marie,’ cried Sainte-Croix, after a powerful effort to master his feelings. ‘I had no other motive in concealing this from you than the wish to spare you. Believe in me still. This has been madness—infatuation—call it what name you will, but you are the only one I ever loved.’
And he advanced towards the Marchioness; whilst Louise, pale as death, gasped forth hurriedly—
‘This is indeed cruel; but even now you have yet to learn what woman can put up with from affection. ”

“ There is still time to make amends for all that has occurred. I do not speak for myself, for all those feelings have passed; but for you alone. Repent, and be happy,—for happy now you are not.’
The Good and Evil Angels
Gaudin made no reply, but his bosom heaved rapidly, betraying his internal emotion. Once he turned towards Louise Gauthier as if to speak: the words died on his tongue.
‘This is idle talk,’ said the Marchioness, as she drew Sainte-Croix to her side. ‘If you would not be taken for our accomplice, girl, you will keep silent as to what you have heard. ”

“ Chavagnac has promised me my revenge at De Lauzun’s.’
‘You have rich jewels, too, about you,’ continued Exili, peering at him with a fearful expression. ‘The carcanet, I see, has been redeemed, and becomes you well. That diamond clasp is a fortune in itself.’
The gaze of the physician grew every moment more peculiar, as he gazed at Gaudin’s rich attire.
‘Beware!’ cried Sainte-Croix; ‘if you touch one, I will hew you down as I would a dog. Not one of them is mine. They belong to the Marchioness of Brinvilliers.’
‘Nay,’ replied Exili, changing his tone, ‘I did but admire them. ”

“ Where did you get it?’
‘It matters little to you,’ replied Gaudin; ‘suffice it to say it is my own.’
‘And you did not read your arrest on its surface?’
‘I have kept it merely as a charm,’ answered Gaudin.
‘Then you have abused its power,’ continued Exili. ‘Listen! do you hear the night wind howling round the towers of the Bastille and rushing down the chimney of our apartment? To common ears it is but the wind—a viewless thing that comes and goes, hurrying on around the world until its force is spent and it dies in nothingness. ”

“ Beauty is their own.
Plan! Plan! Plan! Rataplan!
III.
Soaring thoughts our minds entrance,
Now we seem to spurn the ground.
See,—the lights begin to dance,
Whirling madly round and round.
Still the goblet drain,
Buvons!
Till each blazing vein
Trinquons!
Sends fresh blood in sparkling flood
To the reeling brain.
Plan! Plan! Plan! Rataplan!
‘Your voice ought to make your fortune, Philippe,’ said Sainte-Croix, who appeared to know the student intimately.
‘Pardieu! it does me little service. Theria, there, who cannot sing a note, keeps all the galanteries to himself. Ho! Maître Camille! ”

“ THE FLIGHT OF MARIE TO LIÉGE—PARIS—THE GIBBET OF MONTFAUCON Midnight was sounded upon the heavy bell of the Bastille by the sentinel on guard but a few minutes before the Marchioness of Brinvilliers—terrified, breathless, and, in spite of her hurry, shivering in her light dress beneath the intense cold—arrived at the Hôtel d’Aubray. There were no signs of life in that quarter of Paris, for the inhabitants had long retired to rest; a faint light, gleaming from the front windows of Marie’s residence upon the snow that covered the thoroughfare, alone served to guide her to the door. ”

“ Be satisfied with the crime—by committing which both our souls are lost—as a sufficient safeguard of our future attachment; if you will take no more human assurance. Believe in me, if not from truth, from mutual guilt, and reign my sole, adored one.’
Subdued by his overcharged feelings, his head fell upon the lap of the Marchioness as he uttered the foregoing words with wild and impassioned energy, and he burst into tears. It is a strange sight, that of a man weeping: and when Marie saw a man like Gaudin de Sainte-Croix thus overcome and at her feet, she was for the moment affected. ”

“ Then bandaging her eyes with a small scarf, he retired.
The sun was shining brightly; and at this moment its rays fell upon the glittering blade of a long sword which the headsman had hitherto kept concealed under his garment. Pirot saw it, and his heart sank within him—so much so, that his utterance was choked, and Marie, by whose side he was kneeling, demanded why he had thus finished his prayer. And then, as if aware of the cause, she exclaimed rapidly—
‘Holy Virgin, pray for me, and forgive me! I abandon my body, which is but dust, to the earth. ”