CHAPTER XXXI

THREATS

Madame de Hansfeld was in a dire perplexity. Her husband had insisted that she should set out next day for Germany, and it was therefore absolutely necessary for her to renounce M. de Morville, necessarily detained at Paris by the failing health of his mother.

Paula's estrangement from the prince had become aversion--profound hatred; and she thought the feeling almost excusable in consequence of the whims and harsh proceedings of her husband. The last blow he inflicted upon her was most distressing of all--to force her to leave Paris at the very moment when her passion for De Morville, so long hidden, so long struggled with, was becoming as propitious as she could have hoped for.

When Iris disclosed to her mistress that the prince very often went to Pierre Raimond's under a feigned name, in order to meet Madame de Brévannes, she had greatly excited Paula's ire against Bertha, as she felt assured that it was in order to keep up the _incognito_ that favoured his love the more easily that the prince insisted on her quitting Paris.

After deep reflection, Paula believed that she had discovered a chance of effectual refusal to depart, even in the very passion of her husband for Madame de Brévannes.

In spite of the prince's order, Madame de Hansfeld had not announced her intended departure to any person, nor had she made any preparation for the journey, hoping that, perchance, her husband would renounce his first determination. As to his threats of revealing his wife's crimes, and abandoning her to the justice of society, Paula had only considered that as a further proof of Arnold's aberration of mind.

Until now, the different attacks of what she called the _derangement_ of De Hansfeld had inspired her with as much commiseration as alarm. But in the last conversation the prince had behaved so harshly, so unjustly, and she felt that she was so cruelly sacrificed to his affection for Bertha, that, wounded in her most sensitive part--her love for De Morville,--Paula divided her hatred between her husband and Madame de Brévannes.

Such were Madame de Hansfeld's reflections when the prince entered her apartment, having just quitted Pierre Raimond. His demeanour was even more firm, more imperious than on the preceding evening.

"It appears, madame, that you are not hurrying yourself in your preparations for departure," he observed dryly; "but as you will not visit or receive company at the Château de Hansfeld, whither I send you, you have no great need of much preparation of toilette. You may take your diamonds, I relinquish them to you. Frantz, who will have charge of you to Germany, is incorruptible, and my only hesitation in leaving you your jewels was the apprehension that you might bribe your guide by their means."

Madame de Hansfeld interrupted her husband.

"I thank you, sir, for affording me the opportunity of returning these ornaments to you and rising from her chair she went towards a _secrétaire_, whence she took a large casket, which she handed to the prince.

"In other days I accepted these presents, but for a long time I have desired to restore them into your hands."

"Be it so!" said the prince, taking them with indifference; "the most affectionate tenderness, the most devoted love, have been unavailing with you, my generosity therefore must have been powerless. It is true," he added, with a smile of crushing contempt, "I had by a settlement assigned the larger portion of my property to you; and, after my decease, you would have inherited all--these jewels inclusive."

"Sir?"

"Only as you have appeared somewhat in a hurry to enjoy these advantages, I have found means to realise a portion of my fortune which has neutralised my previous settlement. I tell you this, in order to convince you that should I die to-morrow, your interested hopes will be frustrated. Perhaps I should have told you this earlier, and it might have spared you some rather hazardous experiments, which your ardent desire to be a widow explains, but by no means excuses," added De Hansfeld, with cutting irony.

These cruel words made a strange impression on Madame de Hansfeld, perfectly indifferent to the reproaches they comprised, and which she did not comprehend, for she did not in any way deserve them; she was only struck with their injustice and cruelty.

Had De Hansfeld died at that moment at her feet, she would have been far from regretting it, for at that instant she recollected what De Morville had written to her, "_My love will be always unpropitious, since I cannot aspire to your hand._"

But the princess was soon ashamed and horrified at her thought, or, rather, her atrocious wish, and replied coldly to her husband,--

"I do not desire to comprehend the sense of your words, monsieur, it is as odious as it is absurd. As to the question of interest, you know it was against my wish that you made so large a settlement on me, and it is only exceedingly natural that you should alter your mind at such an arrangement."

"As much hypocrisy in language, as audacity in the most criminal actions!" said the prince, in a low voice, and as if speaking to himself; "this it is that confounds my reason, and makes me always doubt this woman's crimes. Fortunately, at this moment she is completely unmasked, for my fatal love is utterly extinct."

Then, addressing Paula, he said aloud,--

"I come, madame, to desire you to make every hasty preparation for your departure. You must leave Paris before to-morrow evening!"

"Sir, I will not quit Paris!"

"Then, madame, you prefer that I should speak out?"

"You have used that threat very frequently, sir. For the love of Heaven speak plainly, and I shall then know what you have to reproach me with."

"You rely too much on the respect I have for my name and my dread of a public scandal. Take care, and do not drive me to extremities. Be advised--go--depart!"

"To speak plainly, sir, I am not your dupe; you wish to alarm me--compel me to leave Paris--and wherefore? in order that your departure may also be supposed to be taken also, and that you may thus more easily preserve your _incognito_."

"What mean you, madame?"

"And that you may, thanks to this _incognito_, be favourably received by Pierre Raimond, the father of Madame de Brévannes."

"Madame, take care!"

"Of Madame de Brévannes, of whom you are enamoured, and whom you so often meet at her father's house."

At these words the prince remained struck with amaze, his pale face became purple, and after a moment's silence he exclaimed,--

"Not another word, madame--not another word!"

"You love this woman," added Madame de Hansfeld.

"Not another word, I say, madame!"

"And she gives you _rendezvous_ at her father's house. It's rather a sudden affair," added Madame de Hansfeld, with irony.

"You are unworthy even to utter the name of such an angel!" cried the prince.

"Really! Well, then, I am somewhat curious to know what the husband of this angel will think of your interview with his wife?"

"Do you dare?"

"Particularly when he learns that you introduced yourself to Pierre Raimond under an assumed name!"

"Are you thus resolved to drive me mad?" exclaimed the prince, passionately. "You talk of derangement, but it is you who are deranged, wretched woman, when you thus sport with your fate."

"The future will prove whether you or I am deranged, sir. I have been long accustomed to the wanderings of your reason; and I do not know if at this moment you are in your senses. But, however that may be, impress on your memory this--if you persist in making me quit Paris, I will disclose every thing to M. de Brévannes."

"Silence, madame, silence!"

"Be it so; I will be silent: but you know my conditions."

"Conditions to me! dare you impose any?"

"I dare; for I wish to believe that, setting aside your monomania of addressing to me such incomprehensible reproaches, you are a man of good sense. We have reasons for mutually considering each other on certain points. Your reason is not very sound; I could thus have you placed under the protection of the laws, but it would be repugnant to my feelings to draw public attention towards you by a process which would rip up all the secrets of your household to the eyes of malignant curiosity. You must fear on your side that M. de Brévannes may learn that you are paying attentions to his wife. So let us remain as we are; I have no pretension to your heart; mine has never been yours--let us then act as free persons. If it is necessary for you to pretend absence, I will lend myself to the feint, and say you have quitted Paris. All I ask in return, sir, is permission to remain where I am for some time, and my desire is not, I think, exorbitant."

M. de Hansfeld was amazed at Paula's assurance. Unfortunately for him, she possessed a secret which he trembled to have noised abroad. This consideration, more than the fear of the scandal of any processes, operated in placing him in his wife's power.

It is impossible to depict his regrets at hearing that the princess was instructed as to the visits he paid to the engraver. Bertha's reputation was thus at the mercy of a woman who inspired Arnold with as much surprise as horror.

The conduct of Madame de Brévannes was unquestionably irreproachable, but the least suspicion--the discovery of the prince's real name--would be sufficient to excite Pierre Raimond's mistrust, and prevent him from again receiving Arnold Schneider; with one word, the princess could conjure up this storm. We may imagine the prince's anger when he found himself under Paula's domination.

She triumphed; she felt all the force of her position. To gain time, remain in Paris, see De Morville sometimes, write to him frequently, after having perhaps owned that he was not deceived as to the author of the mysterious correspondence to which we have referred. Such was the most ardent desire of Madame de Hansfeld, and, thanks to the secret she possessed, she hoped fully to realise this wish.

She profited by the sort of stupor of her husband to add,--

"It is, then, understood, sir, you take your jewels. I give up all the settlement you had made upon me--my only wish being to live as separate and distinct from you as possible; and even more so if possible than during the past. This is the price of my silence. You came here, sir, with threats on your lips, but the characters are changed."

"No!" exclaimed the prince, in a burst of violent indignation, "no, the woman who has thrice attempted my life dares not use such language, and threaten me--me, whose forbearance has been so great,--me, who, from a latent feeling of absurd consideration, have always recoiled from the terrible accusation which might compel you to confront a scaffold!"

Madame de Hansfeld looked at her husband with amazement.

"Sir, take care, your brain wanders!"

"I tell you that three times you have attempted to assassinate me, madame!"

"I?"

"You, madame! You remember the pavilion at Trieste; the lone _auberge_, on the road to Geneva; and then the last attempt that was made but two days ago against my life?"

"I--I? Why, it is impossible that you can say this seriously, sir?" exclaimed Paula. "For what motive should I commit so black a crime? It is horrible! for surely nothing in my conduct could have authorised such terrible suspicions."

"Suspicions, madame? say, rather certainties."

"Certainties? and of what nature--on what proofs do you base them? But I am wrong to discuss with you thus,--it is really derangement."

"Dare you to allude to my derangement! why it was my forbearance that was my sole derangement, madame; I could not isolate myself in distrust--surround myself with precautions without explaining the cause, and that explanation would have ruined you."

Madame de Hansfeld looked at her husband with increasing surprise, she could not credit, she could not believe what she had heard.

"Now, sir," she said, recalling her recollection, "all your strange caprices, your singular bursts are explained. This odious accusation has, at least, the merit of being precise, and my justification will be as easy."

"You pretend then----"

"To justify myself? Yes, most assuredly, and I request that you will listen to me."

"Your audacity confounds me. There was a time when I might have been your dupe--but now----"

"Now, sir, you will be pleased to tell me the grounds on which your accusation rests; what are your proofs? I will refute them one by one. There is no logic so potent as truth."

M. de Hansfeld, confounded at this assurance, looked in his turn at his wife with unfeigned and vast astonishment. She was so calm, she seemed to anticipate with so much innocence those explanations, which a guilty conscience would have dreaded, that his doubts all returned more strongly than ever.

"What, madame!" exclaimed he, "do you deny that one evening at Trieste, after a painful dispute, you endeavoured to get rid of me by throwing into a cup of milk, which had been brought for me, a poison so violent, that a spaniel, to which I was greatly attached, died the moment after he had drunk it?"

"I--I poison?" she exclaimed, clasping her hands, with horror, "why, who could--great God!--have inspired you with such suspicions? How have I deserved them? How, since then do you suppose me capable of such a crime?"

"That crime was not the only one, madame!"

"If the others have no better proofs than that, sir, God will demand at your hands an account of these terrible accusations."

After a silent reflection for some moments, Paula resumed,--

"Yes, yes, now I remember the circumstance to which you allude, and also another which will entirely exculpate me, and the explanation of which you may ask of Frantz, in whom I know you have entire confidence. I perfectly well remember that after our painful discussion, when you left the pavilion, the tea had not been brought in."

"True; but it was on my return to the kiosk that I found the cup which no doubt you had poured out for me in my absence."

"You mistake. Fortunately the minutest details of that evening are before my eyes at this moment. I left the pavilion after you, and as I was about to descend the steps Frantz was bringing in the tea, which he put down on a table before me, and then followed me to the house, where I kept him occupied for the rest of the evening. Ask him instantly, and may I die this moment if he will contradict a word that I say!"

"Who, then, could have put the poison in the cup?"

"I only profess to clear myself, and riot to develope this horrid mystery."

"You will be exculpated unquestionably should Frantz confirm what you have said. But the attempt at assassination at the lone inn on the road to Geneva?"

"After your first suspicion," said Paula, smiling bitterly, "this does not surprise me. Still, you must remember that I was sleeping soundly, and that you had some trouble to arouse me from my slumber. As to the attentions I paid you after this terrible event, I did not suppose you suspected them!"

"But the stiletto which belonged to you, and which was the weapon that committed the crime?"

"I cannot explain this strange incident any more than you can. This very valuable dagger, and till then very inoffensive one, had served me as a paper-knife, and I always shut it up in my writing-case.--But, now I think of it, Frantz can again speak in my favour. He kept the keys of the boxes of our travelling carriage, and had himself packed up this writing-box, which he did not open until we reached Geneva. When we left Trieste, he had arranged it with Iris. Inquire of them both whether the dagger was packed with the other things, and they will, I am certain, confirm what I say. During the journey I never left you for a moment, and as Frantz always carried the keys of the carriage about him, how could I obtain possession of this dagger?"

What Madame de Hansfeld said, seemed so perfectly probable that the prince fancied he again heard the secret voice which had so often repeated, "Paula is not guilty!"

The prince felt his suspicions almost entirely dissipated; and although he no longer loved Paula, he had so generous a temper that he regretted most bitterly ever having accused Madame de Hansfeld, and already imposed on himself the obligation of making her a complete and solemn reparation if she justified herself entirely.

"You have, sir," she said, "a final charge to make against me. Will you be so kind as to produce it? Let us, I beseech you, terminate this conversation, which, as you may well believe, is most painful to me!"

"The day before yesterday, madame, the iron balustrade which environs the small terrace of the _belvéder_ of the hotel was cut away at the bottom and had no support. Instead of leaning upon it at once, as is my usual custom, I mechanically placed my hand upon it, and it fell instantly to the earth!"

"Horrible!" exclaimed Paula, "and you really believed--but why should you not? this crime was not more horrid than the others. I shall have more difficulty to exculpate myself from this accusation: all I can tell you is that the day before yesterday I went out at eleven o'clock to go and breakfast with Madame de Lormoy; I returned at four o'clock, and your servant must have seen that from this hour until the moment when I went to the Opera, I did not leave my own room. I must have crossed the court-yard in order to go into your gallery, which is the only means of communication with the staircase of the _belvéder_, and no one enters your apartments but Frantz: interrogate him, and perhaps you may learn something from him; as for me, I have not another word to add on this subject."

After a few moments' silence, M. de Hansfeld rose and said to his wife,--

"What you tell me, madame, makes me alter my determination. Your departure, which I desired, I desire no longer; when I have spoken with Frantz, I will see you again."

And the prince quitted his wife with an air of the deepest dejection.