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第85章

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mitigated; had perhaps only served to rivet the fascinated chains

in which he bound her heart and senses; but which now; as

Glyndon's awful narrative filled her with contagious dread; half

unbound the very spells they had woven before;Viola started up

in fear; not for HERSELF; and clasped her child in her arms!



〃Unhappiest one!〃 cried Glyndon; shuddering; 〃hast thou indeed

given birth to a victim thou canst not save?  Refuse it

sustenance;let it look to thee in vain for food!  In the grave;

at least; there are repose and peace!〃



Then there came back to Viola's mind the remembrance of Zanoni's

night…long watches by that cradle; and the fear which even then

had crept over her as she heard his murmured half…chanted words。

And as the child looked at her with its clear; steadfast eye; in

the strange intelligence of that look there was something that

only confirmed her awe。  So there both Mother and Forewarner

stood in silence;the sun smiling upon them through the

casement; and dark by the cradle; though they saw it not; sat the

motionless; veiled Thing!



But by degrees better and juster and more grateful memories of

the past returned to the young mother。  The features of the

infant; as she gazed; took the aspect of the absent father。  A

voice seemed to break from those rosy lips; and say; mournfully;

〃I speak to thee in thy child。  In return for all my love for

thee and thine; dost thou distrust me; at the first sentence of a

maniac who accuses?〃



Her breast heaved; her stature rose; her eyes shone with a serene

and holy light。



〃Go; poor victim of thine own delusions;〃 she said to Glyndon; 〃I

would not believe mine own senses; if they accused ITS father!

And what knowest thou of Zanoni?  What relation have Mejnour and

the grisly spectres he invoked; with the radiant image with which

thou wouldst connect them?〃



〃Thou wilt learn too soon;〃 replied Glyndon; gloomily。  〃And the

very phantom that haunts me; whispers; with its bloodless lips;

that its horrors await both thine and thee!  I take not thy

decision yet; before I leave Venice we shall meet again。〃



He said; and departed。





CHAPTER 6。VI。



Quel est l'egarement ou ton ame se livre?

La Harpe; 〃Le Comte de Warwick;〃 Act 4; sc。 4。



(To what delusion does thy soul abandon itself?)



Alas; Zanoni! the aspirer; the dark; bright one!didst thou

think that the bond between the survivor of ages and the daughter

of a day could endure?  Didst thou not foresee that; until the

ordeal was past; there could be no equality between thy wisdom

and her love?  Art thou absent now seeking amidst thy solemn

secrets the solemn safeguards for child and mother; and

forgettest thou that the phantom that served thee hath power over

its own gifts;over the lives it taught thee to rescue from the

grave?  Dost thou not know that Fear and Distrust; once sown in

the heart of Love; spring up from the seed into a forest that

excludes the stars?  Dark; bright one! the hateful eyes glare

beside the mother and the child!



All that day Viola was distracted by a thousand thoughts and

terrors; which fled as she examined them to settle back the

darklier。  She remembered that; as she had once said to Glyndon;

her very childhood had been haunted with strange forebodings;

that she was ordained for some preternatural doom。  She

remembered that; as she had told him this; sitting by the seas

that slumbered in the arms of the Bay of Naples; he; too; had

acknowledged the same forebodings; and a mysterious sympathy had

appeared to unite their fates。  She remembered; above all; that;

comparing their entangled thoughts; both had then said; that with

the first sight of Zanoni the foreboding; the instinct; had

spoken to their hearts more audibly than before; whispering that

〃with HIM was connected the secret of the unconjectured life。〃



And now; when Glyndon and Viola met again; the haunting fears of

childhood; thus referred to; woke from their enchanted sleep。

With Glyndon's terror she felt a sympathy; against which her

reason and her love struggled in vain。  And still; when she

turned her looks upon her child; it watched her with that steady;

earnest eye; and its lips moved as if it sought to speak to her;

but no sound came。  The infant refused to sleep。  Whenever she

gazed upon its face; still those wakeful; watchful eyes!and in

their earnestness; there spoke something of pain; of upbraiding;

of accusation。  They chilled her as she looked。  Unable to

endure; of herself; this sudden and complete revulsion of all the

feelings which had hitherto made up her life; she formed the

resolution natural to her land and creed; she sent for the priest

who had habitually attended her at Venice; and to him she

confessed; with passionate sobs and intense terror; the doubts

that had broken upon her。  The good father; a worthy and pious

man; but with little education and less sense; one who held (as

many of the lower Italians do to this day) even a poet to be a

sort of sorcerer; seemed to shut the gates of hope upon her

heart。  His remonstrances were urgent; for his horror was

unfeigned。  He joined with Glyndon in imploring her to fly; if

she felt the smallest doubt that her husband's pursuits were of

the nature which the Roman Church had benevolently burned so many

scholars for adopting。  And even the little that Viola could

communicate seemed; to the ignorant ascetic; irrefragable proof

of sorcery and witchcraft; he had; indeed; previously heard some

of the strange rumours which followed the path of Zanoni; and was

therefore prepared to believe the worst; the worthy Bartolomeo

would have made no bones of sending Watt to the stake; had he

heard him speak of the steam…engine。  But Viola; as untutored as

himself; was terrified by his rough and vehement eloquence;

terrified; for by that penetration which Catholic priests;

however dull; generally acquire; in their vast experience of the

human heart hourly exposed to their probe; Bartolomeo spoke less

of danger to herself than to her child。  〃Sorcerers;〃 said he;

〃have ever sought the most to decoy and seduce the souls of the

young;nay; the infant;〃 and therewith he entered into a long

catalogue of legendary fables; which he quoted as historical

facts。  All at which an English woman would have smiled; appalled

the tender but superstitious Neapolitan; and when the priest left

her; with solemn rebukes and grave accusations of a dereliction

of her duties to her child; if she hesitated to fly with it from

an abode polluted by the darker powers and unhallowed arts;

Viola; still clinging to the image of Zanoni; sank into a passive

lethargy which held her very reason in suspense。



The hours passed:  night came on; the house was hushed; and

Viola; slowly awakened from the numbness and torpor which had

usurped her faculties; tossed to and fro on her couch; restless

and perturbed。  The stillness became intolerable; yet more

intolerable the sound that alone broke it; the voice of the

clock; knelling moment after moment to its grave。  The moments;

at last; seemed themselves to find voice;to gain shape。  She

thought she beheld them springing; wan and fairy…like; from the

womb of darkness; and ere they fell again; extinguished; into

that womb; their grave; their low small voices murmured; 〃Woman;

we report to eternity all that is done in time!  What shall we

report of thee; O guardian of a new…born soul?〃  She became

sensible that her fancies had brought a sort of partial delirium;

that she was in a state between sleep and waking; when suddenly

one thought became more predominant than the rest。  The chamber

which; in that and every house they had inhabited; even that in

the Greek isles; Zanoni had set apart to a solitude on which none

might intrude; the threshold of which even Viola's step was

forbid to cross; and never; hitherto; in that sweet repose of

confidence which belongs to contented 

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