Margravine

“ But considered merely as the autobiography of a clever and charming woman, they are no less interesting, and even those who care nothing for eighteenth-century politics, and look upon history itself as an unattractive form of fiction, cannot fail to be fascinated by the Margravine’s wit, vivacity and humour, by her keen powers of observation, and by her brilliant and assertive egotism. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Madame the Margravine, besides a charming Person, has a sparkling Wit and a solid Judgment, which she has taken care to cultivate by great reading, and maintains by a Piety and Charity truly Christian. There is in all her Actions such Politeness, and so much Good-nature, as gain her the hearts of all Persons. ”

“ She infused new life into that dull German Court; she organised a theatre in a disused coach-house, and wrote little plays for it; she had a garden laid out in the English style, under her direction, at the Margrave's palace of Triesdorf, near Anspach; she founded a little academy for the encouragement of literature and the arts, and found means to amuse even the unamusable Margravine. Finally, she stole away the heart of the Margrave from his grey-haired Egeria, and wrote to her husband, with whom she still corresponded, that she was to be "treated as a sister." ”

“ Gleamed many a precious gemstone casting afar its sheen
Forth of their costly vesture—ah, fair were they to be seen!
Forward the guests came riding; from selle sprang they to the earth,—
What knightly grace and courteous showed they of Burgundian birth!
There were six-and-thirty maidens, and many a dame beside.
Fair to all heart’s desiring were the women lovely-eyed
That with many a valiant warrior to meet the strangers came:
Yea, fairest greeting was tendered of noble damsel and dame.
Then the Margravine welcomed the princes with the kiss of courtesy,
The like did also her daughter. ”

“ The young Margravine, who is the Daughter of the Prince de Schwartzenbourg, has no Authority, because tho' naturally obliging and civil she durst not put her good Qualities in practice, because the Margravine Dowager reproaches her that she does not know how to carry it like a Sovereign; by which means this poor Princess is oblig'd to be proud against her Inclination. If you were to see her302 you wou'd be charm'd with her; for she is tall and handsome, of a lively fair Complexion, but not languid, and has a very noble Air. ”

“ When one has enjoyed the privilege of intimacy with really great ladies like them, one is all the more apt to notice the difference.... Is that you, Baron? Returned so soon? But you shouldn't come bursting in like this without asking for an audience. That is quite against my rules!"
"Your Majesty will, I feel sure, pardon the intrusion when you hear my tidings," said the Baron. "I have the honour to inform your Majesty that your high-born friends, the Grand Duchess of Gleneagles and the Margravine of Muscombe, are now in the Palace!"
"The—the Duchess? And the Marchioness?" cried the Queen. ”

“ Suetonius has written of the strange madness that comes on kings, but even in his melodramatic chronicles there is hardly anything that rivals what the Margravine has to tell us. Here is one of her pictures of family life at a Royal Court in the last century, and it is not by any means the worst scene she describes:
On one occasion, when his temper was more than usually bad, he told the Queen that he had received letters from Anspach, in which the Margrave announced his arrival at Berlin for the beginning of May. ”

“ I saw, as I moved with bruised limbs to the place, close by the lips of the dying magician, the flash of the rubylike essence spilled on the sward, and, meteor-like, sparkling up from the torn tufts of herbage.
I now reached Margrave's side. Bending over him as the Veiled Woman bent, and as I sought gently to raise him, he turned his face, fiercely faltering out, "Touch me not, rob me not! YOU share with me! Never, never! These glorious drops are all mine! Die all else! I will live, I will live!" ”

“ Margot, I have for leader one of the noblest young men God ever created. It was a happy day for me when, through my father’s name, I was appointed to serve under such an one. Sad it is that a soldier’s life takes me far from thee, but I shall come again, sweet cousin, to find thee safe and sheltered beside the Missaguash, far from the cruel priest. The family to whom Jean Jacques was to carry thee are known by me, and will protect and cherish thee.
“Ah, Gabriel,” said Margot to herself, the tears upon her cheeks, “well is it that so much is hid from thee.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 whole mind of Margrave seemed to have undergone change since I last saw him; more rich in idea, more crafty even in candour, more powerful, more concentred. As we see in our ordinary experience, that some infirmity, threatening dissolution, brings forth more vividly the reminiscences of early years, when impressions were vigorously stamped, so I might have thought that as Margrave neared the tomb, the memories he had retained from his former existence, in a being more amply endowed, more formidably potent, struggled back to the brain ”

“ Margrave becomes identified with the Louis Grayle of whom you had previously heard an obscure and, legendary tale, and all the anomalies in his character are explained by his being that which you had contended, in your physiological work, it was quite possible for man to be,—namely, mind and body without soul! You were startled by the monster which man would be were your own theory possible ”

“ But Margrave’s eyes, hungrily gazing round every spot from which the ore was disburied, could not detect the substance of which he alone knew the outward appearance. I had begun to believe that, even in the description given to him of this material, he had been credulously duped, and that no such material existed, when, coming back from the bed of the watercourse, I saw a faint yellow gleam amidst the roots of a giant parasite plant, the leaves and blossoms of which climbed up the sides of the cave with its antediluvian relics. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The gilt French chairs were strewn with a fantastic prettiness It was like a stage boudoir. And Jane Margrave stood in the midst like the intruder she had become in life. But now she was not shamed by her intrusion. She stood deliberately, She asked no quarter of her surroundings. She was an alien who had done with pitiful attempts at conciliation and was going back to her own people.
NOR did Lady Flavia, hovering for an instant on the threshold, considering her with a faintly quizzical surprise, shake her from her new self-confidence. She knew that she was at a disadvantage. ”

“ 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. ”

“ You can do no good. He won't listen. He will only hate you—hate you—”
But she held on doggedly. The road grew rougher and petered out into a sheep-track that climbed steeply alongside the dark shining water. Liquid silver fell through the moonlight, and furtive life slid rustling in and out of the heather. Mrs. Margrave's breath came sharp and hard. She did not know why she kept on. If she had met Andrew now, she would only have stared at him, exhausted, tongue-tied, and ashamed. ”

“ Margrave! Moderate your intimacy with him; and especially after you are married. There is in that stranger, of whom so little is known, a something which I cannot comprehend,—a something that captivates and yet revolts. I find him disturbing my thoughts, perplexing my conjectures, haunting my fancies,—I, plain woman of the world! Lilian is imaginative; beware of her imagination, even when sure of her heart. Beware of Margrave. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”

“ At the name of Margot, Gabriel loosed the man, covered his eyes with his hands and sank into a chair.
“Ah, Margot!” he groaned.
“Yes, Margot, I say again. Thou wilt let me go, and thou wilt swear that thou knowest of a truth that I overstayed my time, and was drowned in the marshes hurrying hither in the darkness of the night, that thou didst strive to save me and failed. The salt marshes receive the dead, and cover them kindly. All this thou dost know, and my good character also. Who will doubt the word of a brave soldier?” ”