CHAPTER XXXIV

REVELATIONS

After remaining silent a few minutes, Iris, again fixing her scrutinising glances on the countenance of her mistress, thus resumed:--

"You have often told me that you espoused the Prince de Hansfeld with regret, and that your principal motive for bestowing your hand on him was to secure a provision for your aunt. I am correct so far, am I not?"

"Perfectly so!"

"You likewise informed me that, thanks to the extreme liberality of M. de Hansfeld, the greater part of his immense fortune would, at his death, revert to you----"

"Hold! miserable girl! you make me chill with horror! These repeated attempts on his life then----"

Without taking any notice of her mistress's remark, Iris continued,--

"Shortly after your marriage your former dejection of spirits returned with redoubled force. I hesitated no longer; and one evening, at Trieste, unperceived by any person, I put into a cup of milk----"

"Monster! I will hear no more!"

"Nay, godmother, I had taken my precautions too carefully to dread discovery, and even had I not escaped detection, none but myself could have been implicated; and besides, I should have voluntarily declared I was the sole culprit, and that no living soul was privy to my guilt."

"Horrible! and did you not shudder at the enormity of the crime you meditated?--did no whisper of conscience remind you how foul a deed you were about to commit?"

"Godmother, you desired to be released from your marriage-vows."

"How knew you that?--did I ever say so? Nay, I never even allowed such an idea to enter my mind."

"You repented having surrendered your liberty; my intention was to restore it to you."

"Have you, then, no notion of the difference between good and evil?"

"Oh! yes. Good is that which renders you happy. Evil whatever makes you wretched."

"Merciful Heavens! who would ever have believed such wild and savage enthusiasm could be found in our days and in a civilised country? And your hand trembled not? and you could calmly and coolly premeditate a crime as black as that of murder? and, still more, how could you renew your diabolical attacks undismayed by former failures?"

"After my first attempt, your melancholy became greater than ever. You frequently complained to me of what you had to endure from the inequality of the prince's temper, and many a time have I heard you curse the hour in which you were induced to consent to your ill-assorted marriage; and then, when most under the influence of gloom and depression of spirits, you have wept bitterly, and called upon death to free you from your misery. This was more than I could bear, and a second time I determined to effect the death of him who occasioned your sufferings. I planned my attack one night that we passed at a lone inn, and I contrived to gain admittance into the chamber of my intended victim by climbing up to the balcony belonging to his sleeping-apartment, the window of which opened into it, but had been left partly open to admit the air; this window I managed to close after me as I made my retreat after this second failure."

"Impossible that one so young could act with so much cold-blooded hardihood! I cannot, I will not believe the evidence of my own senses!"

"Alas! could you but comprehend how my heart sympathises with your most trifling sorrow; how each tear wrung from your eyes seems to fall like molten lead upon my brain; you would be able to understand the cold-blooded hardihood with which you reproach me! Ah! did you only know what a burden life has seemed to me since I discovered how valueless and unimportant I was to you, you could far better enter into my eager desire to secure your happiness, even at the risk of my own life, which was hateful and distasteful to me; and that I made no further attempts to achieve my design was attributable to the increased precautions adopted by the prince to secure his safety."

"Enough, enough; you fill me with horror! and now, what am I to do?--you have confessed your crime----"

"It matters little to me what is done now."

"You cannot for one instant suppose I can keep near me the person who has thrice endeavoured to deprive my husband of life--whose hand has been raised against that good and generous man who has even feigned madness to shield me from suspicion?"

"Yet you desire the death of this good and generous husband as ardently as you ever did!"

"Silence! I command."

"And should he die, you would espouse M. de Morville!"

For a moment Paula remained as though struck dumb by these fearful words, but quickly recovering herself she indignantly replied,--

"And by what right do you presume to scrutinise my thoughts? Is it any reason for my wishing the death of M. de Hansfeld that such an event would restore me to freedom? or that, in my eagerness to be free, I should even sanction any murderous attempt upon his life?"

"Still, I say, and I repeat it, you do desire the death of M. de Hansfeld."

"Begone, begone! instantly leave me!"

"Oh, pardon, godmother! pardon!" cried Iris, falling at the feet of Paula; then in a voice half-choked by convulsive sobs and sighs, she continued, "I am a guilty, sinful creature, for in all I have done I have acted with cool and calculated premeditation, knowing full well both the extent and consequences of my crime; but I again assert that I know no good worth caring for but your happiness; no evil to be dreaded but your misery, all other considerations are as nothing with me; why, then, drive me from you? was it for my own advancement, or interest, that I sought to commit the deeds which inspire you with so much horror? was it not you--absolutely and entirely you, I endeavoured to save and to serve?"

"But to serve me by such frightful means was to render me guilty as yourself!"

"Then I repent of my past conduct, and humbly beseech your pardon, thus prostrate at your feet, only do not--oh, do not send me from you; it would be to sign the warrant for my death; for, as truly as life now throbs in my veins, do I solemnly assure you that life should cease on the instant you passed such a sentence on me. You know my determined nature, and of what I am capable; but, believe me, I care nothing for my existence further than it can be rendered useful to you."

"Again, I say, begone! Die--if such be your wish--your death would be a benefit both to the world and me. Since I have heard the prince's accusations and your subsequent confessions, I feel as though surrounded by an atmosphere of crimes and treachery, which terrifies and oppresses my mind with the fearful apprehension of becoming myself infected with its black wickedness, and I shudder, lest in time I might become as guilty as yourself; begone, then, I say, begone!"

Pale and sorrowful, Iris arose from her kneeling attitude, pressed one of her mistress's hands tenderly and reverentially to her lips, and made a step towards the door, when Madame de Hansfeld, shuddering at the fearfully stern expression of the girl's features, could not refrain from exclaiming,--

"Stay, Iris!"

The girl returned--and mutely, earnestly questioned Paula by one of her expressive and soul-searching glances.

"But what," cried the princess, "am I to say to the prince? Satisfied of my innocence, he will not rest till he has discovered the real culprit--what reply can I make if he questions me on the subject? will not his suspicions naturally point to you? And, besides, merciful Heavens! now I think of it, is there not a fearful probability of his believing that you have acted by my direction, and at my suggestion? See into how inextricable a labyrinth you have plunged me!"

"Godmother! I implore but permission to remain here; or, if I must be driven hence, at least let it not be by you; should the prince command my departure, I will endeavour to submit, but, I beseech you, let not your hand deal the blow that will crush me in the dust, never more to rise."

"Supposing, even, that the suspicions of M. de Hansfeld did not fall on you, would it not be sinful and criminal in me to retain near me a creature who has thrice attempted the life of my husband, and who might, under the influence of the same savage monomania which has already actuated her, be induced to renew her murderous designs!"

"If you desire it, godmother, I am ready to bind myself by any oath you will dictate never again to aim at the life of the prince."

"_If_ I desire it? Heavenly powers! can you for an instant suppose the contrary?"

"Then, I swear by _yourself_ (the only oath I know of possessing sufficient power to compel my strict adherence to it) to respect the existence of M. de Hansfeld as carefully as I would do your own," said the mulatto, with a peculiar look, gazing at the same time on Paula as if she would have read the very inmost recesses of her heart; "but, should you ever wish to marry M. de Morville without having to reproach yourself for the death of the prince, a death of which I should be equally innocent as yourself, say but one word--or, no, not even a word--" and Iris, casting her glances around, as though seeking something, and perceiving on the mantel-piece a gold pin, surmounted with an enamelled head, set round with pearls, took it up, saying, "you need only give me back this pin, and without either you or myself being in the eyes of God or man in any manner instrumental in procuring the death of the prince; you shall be free as air and at liberty to espouse M. de Morville. There is nothing that need astonish you in what I say; your greatest desire is for this marriage, while my sole and absorbing wish is for your perfect and unalloyed happiness."

Before the princess could reply, Iris had disappeared.