Francesca Carrara

“ Every kind feeling in Francesca's heart rose to the surface; and she was just about to lean forward and speak, when a servant on horseback, leading another horse, rode up. Evelyn snatched the bridle hastily, flung himself on the steed, which pranced as if as impatient as himself, plunged the spurs in its side, and darted off like a man who strives to fly even from his very thoughts; while Francesca watched the rapidly receding figure in mute amazement.
There is something peculiarly attractive to a woman in any display of strong emotion, though she has herself no part in it. ”

“ Francesca felt as if life had suddenly lost its interest; yet it was not the lover that she regretted, but the love. Never more could the future be one vague but delicious hope; never more could she turn away disbelieving from the tale of treachery and inconstancy; never more take refuge in the depths of her own imagination, and find comfort in her own belief of perfect love. ”

“ Liking Francesca warmly herself, it seemed the most natural thing in the world that others should like her too. It never would have entered into her head, that the Queen hourly saw, with more and more suspicion, her sister's influence increasing, and that she calculated on Francesca's attraction as a passing lure to Louis. The friendless Italian was a much safer person than the niece of the all-powerful minister, whose ambition would not stop but at the throne. Francesca might be allowed to detach him from Mademoiselle Mancini, and could then be easily flung aside. ”

“ My beloved Francesca, our destiny is now in our own hands. I can no longer offer the fair halls and the broad lands of the once honoured house of Evelyn; my portion is an obscure home in a foreign country; but if love tried by years, by utter hopelessness, by what seemed change in yourself, and which yet but became more deep and more intense,—if such love can be security for your future, that future, Francesca, you will entrust to my care. ”

“ We read in the aërial struggle the prophecy of our own fate; and as the night-black canopy spreads over the horizon, so darkly does destiny close around ourselves.
Francesca's eye dwelt involuntarily on the graves beside. "Sad witnesses to human happiness!" thought she, and quickened her steps. She needed the relief of Evelyn's presence to banish the melancholy forebodings that came thronging fast to her mind. ”

“ About midnight he slept, exhausted with his own violence—slept beside the extended corse!
It was a fearful vigil that Francesca kept, for the office of watching in the chamber of death she had taken upon herself. How often, during her young life, had she looked upon the face of the dead!—it was now almost more familiar than the living. Again she marked the still repose, the calm, cold hue, the superhuman beauty, the look which is not of this world, here strongly contrasted by the troubled countenance of Lord Avonleigh. Sleep lacked the quiet of death. ”

“ Poor Francesca might seem the offering to Fortune made for the rest of the party. Every word of her father's cut her to the heart. The very fact of her childhood and her youth having passed without being the object of that near and deep affection, made her exaggerate its happiness, as we ever exaggerate the unknown. And now that she found herself, and by no fault of her own, an object of indifference, nay, of dislike, where she had so long gathered up her hopes, cruel indeed was the disappointment. ”

“ Terror dwells amid the works of man, not amid the works of nature. We tremble beside the tomb—we shrink from the icy vapour of the charnel-house—the foot walks unsteadily over the stones placed above the dead; but the green grass and dewy flowers create no fear. Francesca felt mournful, not timid, as she watched the uncertain moonlight break from the huge black clouds which sailed across the heavens. With slow and reluctant step she forced herself to return into the chapel; for in her hurry she had brought her lamp with her, whose assistance she no longer needed. ”

“ Francesca, you are beautiful; but, oh! not beautiful like your mother; the shadow is on your brow, and the sadness in your smile, which tells of sorrow; and in your loveliness is the association of pain. But hers was joyous and fresh as the morning. No care had ever furrowed that smooth white brow; no tears, save those of gentle pity, had ever fallen from those clear and glad eyes. You are pale; but her cheek was the brilliant rose, untouched by the noontide sun—unstained by the heavy shower. ”

“ Ah, Francesca! we could have been very happy to have dwelt beloved within those walls, with no wider circle of usefulness than our own tenantry, and our hopes bounded by our daily horizon."
His path now led into the deeper recesses of the wood—silent and solitary depths of shade, known but by few. His passing parted the near branches, and startled the deer from their slumber amid the wild flowers. He could see the timid creatures darting away, the moonlight glittering on their horns, till they vanished amid the darker shade which rested on the far-off and hidden dells. ”

“ Some go for the sake of their jewels—others, for themselves; and at the close of the festival, how few come away but worn out with lassitude and discontent!
Poor Francesca set out with these feelings. She had none of those pleasant, vague hopes which know not what they ask or what they seek, but which give such buoyancy and such gladness to youth. True, that her broken engagement with Evelyn was a relief; but it had been dearly bought, at the price of many illusions—of gratified vanity, of agreeable expectation, and an emotion the deepest and the tenderest that life can ever know. ”

“ Uncertain of what Robert Evelyn might now feel towards her—sometimes almost tempted, for his sake, to wish that he might have changed—it will easily be supposed that Francesca's most treasured secret never passed her lips—ah! the solitude but added to its strength. Deep, unutterably deep, is the love treasured in the hidden heart, on which the eye never looks, and of which no tongue ever tells. ”

“ The danger of the palace was too imminent for neglect; and leaving the body, beside which Francesca was kneeling, Guido again ascended the steps of the tower; but the smoke had nearly dispersed, the blaze on the hearth was flickering and faint, while the pale moonlight shone quietly into that room of disappointment and death, as it had a thousand times shone on its lonely and deluding pursuits. Again he descended; and the same reddening pine-boughs that had lit his own and Francesca's countenance, in all the animation of their late discourse, now lighted the ghastly features of the dead. ”

“ The next day I marked, before he spoke, that Carrara's brow was gloomy. Alas! he had only words of reproach and refusal to tell me. But he bade me plead my cause for myself.
A delicious sensation overpowered every other when I first told Beatrice I loved her—my own words sounded so musically sweet;—ah, they bore the magic of her name! But she was cold—even unkind. Her temper, irritated by long indulgence in regret, could not brook being disturbed from the mournful solace of remembrance;—to awaken her to the present seemed cruel; to lead her on to the future impossible! ”

“ Still and dark were the glades which she had to pass, and a low moaning wind complained amid the branches: it was the great voice of Nature breathing in articulate murmurs that sorrow which is the universal soul of all existing things. And yet the air was soft and warm, and filled with that aromatic sweetness which belongs to early spring.
Francesca let her cloak fall from her head, to enjoy the pleasure of breathing the fragrance unimpeded; as the cool breeze came so refreshingly to her fevered temples. How beautiful she looked as the moon light fell around her ”

“ CHAPTER XXIII.
"That early love that longest haunts the heart,
Bringing back youth and home!"
The glittering bracelet, every precious stone on its golden circle lighted with the morning sunshine, was the first thing that caught Francesca's sight when she awoke. Up she sprang; for at once the remembrance of its destination flashed upon her mind. She dressed hastily, as she wished to be at home again before Madame de Mercœur had risen. ”

“ At the word "child," Francesca raised her eyes to his face, and smiled through her tears—so delightful to her unaccustomed ear were the expressions of affection. "My dearest father!" exclaimed she; and at that moment what a security of future happiness seemed around her! A parent's love and a parent's care were indeed a guarantee against misfortune. Was not her fate now in his hands?
Lord Avonleigh soon recovered his self-possession. He had those elegant and finished manners which are prepared for any thing except emotion. He led Francesca to talk of herself and of her past life ”

“ And again Marie hid her face in her hands, while Francesca was too oppressed to speak: she remembered the terror that had been upon her previous to Guide's death.
"We will not talk of it," she whispered, in a faint voice; "there are mysteries on which it is not good to dwell. I feel deep within my inmost heart, that now his rest is dreamless and unbroken."
For a little while longer they sat in silence, when suddenly the Comtesse, whose burst of passionate agony had subsided into almost unconscious weeping, snatched up a handful of the wild flowers on the grave—they were wet with her tears. ”

“ There needs but one for your weak and ill-judging sex—the fair face of the young cavalier, and perchance a few honeyed words, soon throw aside all restraints of duty, age, and of decency. Mr. Evelyn was your lover?"
"Sir," said Francesca, raising her eyes, "the meanest hind in yonder field is an object of as much interest to me; I had no motive but compassion; and I do now deem myself justified in aiding a fellow-creature to escape from a violent and dreadful death." ”

“ Francesca felt the indifference by which she was surrounded overpowering in its depression. If it be sad to go where there is no welcome, it is equally sad to part where there is no farewell. Hopes and regrets are the sweetest links of existence—we pine to attach and be attached; and Francesca felt both angry and ashamed that the tears should stand in her eyes, while parting from those who cared so little at parting with her. ”

“ Moreover, the lover and the friend ask very different foundations for their confidence. The one invests all things with the poetry with which himself is imbued; the other, of necessity, examines into their truth. Again—love cares not for distinctions; but friendship cannot exist without equality.
Francesca, too, was suffering under the embarrassment of singularity. Alive only to the happiness of again meeting her friends, she had not thought of her own appearance; and she was painfully aware that her Italian costume was a complete contrast to the garb of the other ladies present. ”

“ Francesca and Guido, accustomed to be their own heralds in the lonely Italian palace, were startled by the sudden contrast of the many domestics and the numberless visitors who choked up the passages and the ante-room. The chamber into which they were ushered was filled with people; but both the Duchesse and Marie came forward and received them with every mark of kindness and affection. But Francesca's eye was quick to remark that Mademoiselle Mancini's manner to Guido was wholly changed. ”

“ How often in the silence of the midnight hour, when he turned upon the feverish bed of his unrest, and watched the stars shine through the lattice, while he longed to mingle with their rays, and casting away the wearied and painful body, be free and spiritual as the pure element which they lighted—how often, even then, would Francesca's pale and sorrowful face rise before him, and create the vain desire to live a little longer for her sake! ”

“ Her mouth is yet red with the blow of the vindictive Queen; but her eye, if sad, is calm, and her cheek, though pale, is resolved. The dark cup is in her hand—she has turned aside from the dagger—it is too cruel a weapon for her gentle clasp.
Francesca, who knew not the story, gazed eagerly on the last compartment. It is a little chapel, where the mourners are ranged, torch in hand, and at the altar the robed priests are chanting: the service for a departed soul. An old man stands near, but his face is buried in his cloak ”

“ Then the ringing of the bells in the distance became so irritating—they kept perpetually distracting her mind. At length the peals ceased—dinner attracted even the ringers—and the stillness was now unbroken. But the one painful idea which had taken possession of Francesca's imagination haunted her.
"Alas!" murmured the lonely girl, "others have kindred and friends, with whom gaiety becomes indeed pleasure, for it is shared. Many a happy circle will gather together to-day, exchange hopes, and lay up recollections for months to come. ”

“ Francesca had been so long accustomed to have every thought spring from the heart to the lip, that the restraint so familiar to those with whom she had of late associated, oppressed and chilled her. Reserve and distrust seemed equally painful and unnatural; it was too soon for the pride of art, which supports so many through winding and rugged pathways. ”

“ It will readily be supposed, that Carrara and myself could scarcely spend night after night together, and not speak of our mutual circumstances. 'I have been most unfortunate,' said he, one winter evening, when we had drawn close to the pine-boughs, whose flickering light illuminated his worn and pallid face at intervals: 'I have ever limited my desires, yet, even into that narrow limit, disappointment has entered,—I have lived in humble and quiet loneliness, and still misfortune has come from afar to seek me! ”