Margrave

“ Could I have told to any man the effect produced on me in the museum, he would have considered me a liar or a madman. And in Sir Philip's accusations against Margrave, there was nothing tangible,—nothing that could bear repetition. Those accusations, if analyzed, vanished into air. What did they imply?—that Margrave was a magician, a monstrous prodigy, a creature exceptional to the ordinary conditions of humanity. ”

“ CHAPTER XXIX. I did not see Margrave the following day, but the next morning, a little after sunrise, he walked into my study, according to his ordinary habit.
"So you know something about Sir Philip Derval?" said I. "What sort of a man is he?"
"Hateful!" cried Margrave; and then checking himself, burst out into his merry laugh. "Just like my exaggerations! I am not acquainted with anything to his prejudice. I came across his track once or twice in the East. Travellers are always apt to be jealous of each other." ”

“ To them Margrave's arts of enchantment are reduced to those idiosyncrasies of temperament on which the disciples of Mesmer build up their theories,—exaggerated, in much, by my own superstitions; aided, in part, by such natural, purely physical magic as, explored by the ancient priest-crafts, is despised by the modern philosophies, and only remains occult because Science delights no more in the slides of the lantern which fascinated her childhood with simulated phantoms. To them Margrave is, perhaps, an enthusiast, but, because an enthusiast, not less an impostor. ”

“ Jane Margrave pleaded. “Can't you trust me? It's very hard—to come like this. Can't you understand that? I'm trying to do the best I can?”
Lady Flavia glanced down at the gloved, tightly-clenched hands and answered patiently. “You and I are at cross-purposes, Mrs. Margrave. If anything has happened to your husband, I should be frightfully unhappy—like every one who knows and loves him. ”

“ Insensibly “Andy” had become Andrew. And she had become Andrew Margrave's wife.
The people were cheering. They were enormously pleased that Andrew Margrave should have chosen to come down among them. Their jaded and disillusioned imaginations, surfeited with national saviors who had proved themselves personal boosters, fastened eagerly on a man who had succeeded without shame or reproach in becoming richer than any of them. He had been wise and far-seeing for himself, but he had been wise and far-seeing for the whole community as well. They grudged him nothing. ”

“ Cleverer than I am. There must be some way. I don't mind what happens to me. I'm nobody. I've no life that matters to any one. I would do anything—anything—”
“But what have I to do with all this—?”
Jane Margrave swayed a little, like a short, stumpy tree in a bitter wind, “My dear—you're going away with him.” ”

“ There I saw Margrave quietly seated before the manuscript of my Ambitious Work, which lay open on the rude table, just as I had left it, in the midst of its concluding summary.
“I have taken the license of former days, you see,” said Margrave, smiling, “and have hit by chance on a passage I can understand without effort. But why such a waste of argument to prove a fact so simple? In man, as in brute, life once lost is lost forever; and that is why life is so precious to man.” ”

“ The knowledge that Margrave had gained of my abode, of my affliction, or of the innermost thoughts in my mind, it surely demanded no preternatural aids to acquire. An Old Bailey attorney could have got at the one, and any quick student of human hearts have readily mastered the other. In fine, Margrave, thus rationally criticised, is no other prodigy (save in degree and concurrence of attributes simple, though not very common) than may be found in each alley that harbours a fortune-teller who has just faith enough in the stars or the cards to bubble himself while he swindles his victims ”

“ We descended the hillock, and met it on the way,—a sable litter, borne by four men, in unfamiliar Eastern garments; two other servitors, more bravely dressed, with yataghans and silver-hilted pistols in their belts, preceded this sombre equipage. Perhaps Margrave divined the disdainful thought that passed through my mind, vaguely and half-unconsciously; for he said, with a hollow, bitter laugh that had replaced the lively peal of his once melodious mirth,—
"A little leisure and a little gold, and your raw colonist, too, will have the tastes of a pacha." ”

“ Her imagination impressed her with the illusion that through your love for her you were threatened with a great peril. What seemed the levity of her desertion was the devotion of self-sacrifice. And, in her strange, dream-led wanderings, do not think that she was conscious of the fascination you impute to this mysterious Margrave: in her belief it was your own guardian angel that guided her steps, and her pilgrimage was ordained to disarm the foe that menaced you, and dissolve the spell that divided her life from yours! ”

“ I pass’d thro’ Bareith [37] , where I had the Honour of paying my Respects to the Margrave and the Margravine, who receiv’d me with all the Complaisance possible: The Margrave is a tall handsome Man, and serv’d in the last Wars with very great Distinction: This Prince is fond of Pleasure and Magnificence, for which Reason his Court is one of the most numerous and splendid in Germany ”

“ Scarcely had she uttered these words before Margrave exclaimed, "Behold how the Rose of the alchemist's dream enlarges its blooms from the folds of its petals! I shall live, I shall live!"
I looked, and the liquid which glowed in the caldron had now taken a splendor that mocked all comparisons borrowed from the luster of gems. In its prevalent color it had, indeed, the dazzle and flash of the ruby; but out from the mass of the molten red, broke coruscations of all prismal hues, shooting, shifting, in a play that made the wavelets themselves seem living things, sensible of their joy. ”

“ I also felt a curiosity no less eager, but more, in spite of myself, intermingled with fear, to learn all that Sir Philip had to communicate of the past history of Margrave. I could but suppose that the young man must indeed be a terrible criminal, for a person of years so grave, and station so high, to intimate accusations so vaguely dark, and to use means so extraordinary, in order to enlist my imagination rather than my reason against a youth in whom there appeared none of the signs which suspicion interprets into guilt. ”

“ So would the mystics of old explain what perplexes me. Am I sure that the mystics of old duped them selves or their pupils? This, then, this slight wand, light as a reed in my grasp, this, then, was the instrument by which Margrave sent his irresistible will through air and space, and by which I smote himself, in the midst of his tiger-like wrath, into the helplessness of a sick man's swoon! Can the instrument at this distance still control him; if now meditating evil, disarm and disable his purpose? ”

“ It was the signal.
"Take your weapon, Gilbert," said Mortimer, placing the carbine in Margrave's hand. "Augustus Horton is my cousin—you are my friend. I dare not pray for the safety of either, at the cost of the other's death. The moonlit heavens are shining down upon us, and the eye of Providence watches the struggle. Farewell!"
They clasped each other's hands once more in silence. Then Gilbert Margrave dashed forward through the brushwood, and disappeared in the dell below. ”

“ Art thou useless and powerless now when I need thee most? Go! Let the world be one funeral pyre! What to ME is the world? My world is my life! Thou knowest that my last hope is here—that all the strength left me this night will die down, like the lamps in the circle, unless the elixir restore it. Bold friend, spurn that sorceress away. Hours yet ere those flames can assail us! A few minutes more, and life to your Lilian and me!"
Thus having said, Margrave turned from us, and cast into the caldron the last essence yet left in his empty coffer. ”

“ Nature, on the surface so loving and so gentle, is full of terror in her deeps when our thought descends into their abyss!"
Strahan now joined us with a party of country visitors. "Margrave is the man to show you the beauties of this park," said he. "Margrave knows every bosk and dingle, twisted old thorn-tree, or opening glade, in its intricate, undulating ground."
Margrave seemed delighted at this proposition; and as he led us through the park, though the way was long, though the sun was fierce, no one seemed fatigued. ”

“ The poor thing knows no better. And what a graceful beautiful thing this was!
The fascination—I can give it no other name—which Margrave exercised, was not confined to me; it was universal,—old, young, high, low, man, woman, child, all felt it. Never in Low Town had stranger, even the most distinguished by fame, met with a reception so cordial, so flattering. His frank confession that he was a natural son, far from being to his injury, served to interest people more in him, and to prevent all those inquiries in regard to his connections and antecedents which would otherwise have been afloat. ”

“ Then said the Margrave, “Thou hast two knights for thy liegemen, and I have more. Thou canst fare across the Rhine with honour. I will not leave thee longer here among the Burgundians. I have five hundred men and also my kinsmen. These shall serve thee here, and at home likewise, and do thy bidding. I will do it also, and will never shame me when thou mindest me on my word. Bid them fetch thee forth thy horse-gear, for thou wilt never rue Rudeger’s counsel, and tell it to the maidens that thou takest with thee. Many a chosen knight will meet us on the road.” ”

“ To those of my readers who may seek with Julius Faber to explore, through intelligible causes, solutions of the marvels I narrate, Margrave’s confession may serve to explain away much that my own superstitious beliefs had obscured. To them Margrave is evidently the son of Louis Grayle. The elixir of life is reduced to some simple restorative, owing much of its effect to the faith of a credulous patient: youth is so soon restored to its joy in the sun, with or without an elixir. ”

“ The nurse says, 'Forbear!' Do you say, 'Adventure'?"
"Peace!" exclaimed Margrave, stamping his foot on the ground. "I take no counsel from either; it is for me to resolve, for you to obey, and for him to aid. Night is come, and we waste it; move on."
The woman made no reply, nor did I. He took my arm and walked back to the hut. The barbaric escort followed. When we reached the door of the building, Margrave said a few words to the woman and to the litter bearers. They entered the hut with us. Margrave pointed out to the woman his coffer, to the men the fuel stowed in the outhouse. ”

“ With loving white hands clasping to his heart his belovèd press;
Even Giselher the young prince!—how brief was their happiness!
{p. 230}
Then spake once more the Margrave: “O kings of lineage high,
What time to the realm Burgundian returning ye pass hereby,
Then will I give you my daughter, even as is meet and right,
To bear her with you to the home-land.” Unto this their troth did they plight.
The tumult of feasting and joyance at last must have an end;
And then did the new-wed maiden to her bridal-chamber wend,
And the guests through the castle rested and slept till the day shone clear. ”

“ There is one of their fires," said Margrave, as they approached the oak grove. The party verged their course, and, in a few moments, were within a hundred yards of the camp, concealed almost entirely by the thick wood through which they were passing. Here they paused.
"The darkness favors us!" remarked Margrave. "The moon which was shining so brightly last night, is now entirely obscured by thick clouds. We must wait until after tattoo, and then enter the camp in different directions."
"No—me alone!" replied Fall-leaf. "You—you—me, go—all get kill—no help Alibamo! Me go now! I get kill—you go. ”

“ Who could have told you?"
"The movements of men so distinguished need never take us by surprise. I knew he was in Paris the other day. It is natural eno' that he should come here. I was prepared for his coming."
Margrave here turned away towards the window, which he threw open and looked out.
"There is a storm in the air," said he, as he continued to gaze into the night.
Was it possible that Margrave was so wholly unconscious of what had passed in the museum as to include in oblivion even the remembrance of Sir Philip Derval's presence before he had been rendered insensible, or laid asleep? ”

“ Everybody's for Andrew Margrave.”
“You've helped him so much, Lady Flavia. He told me you had worked harder than any one.”
“Did he? I'm so glad. I did all I could. It's one's duty to get the best men for the country, isn't it?” ”

“ He carried her bag for her, leaving the station to its own devices.
“There's only one place where a body can stay here,” he said. 'Not many visitors come this way. Just a fisherman now and again and a pair of sweethearts maybe.”
He laughed to himself, and Mrs. Margrave plodded at his side along the white, mysterious road. She thought wearily that she and Andrew had been sweethearts once. But that was a long time ago. He had gone on and left her.
The little inn tucked itself snugly between the low, gray-stone cottages. Jane Margrave was very tired, and the warm lights made her long for rest. ”

“ They were very sorry for Andrew Margrave.
“He was just a bank clerk,” one of them said. “I suppose it seemed right enough at the time.”
“But he must have known. Even the people. who knew him then knew that he would come to something.”
“Tn a way I like an early marriage. But an ambitious man ought to wait until he finds his level.”
“And then their having no children—”
“That must be the hardest. Building all that for nobody.”
Jane Margrave closed her eyes for a moment. The secret charm of her small, thin face was quenched like a little flame by a gust of wind. She looked old and wan. ”