For Sceptre and Crown Volume II Part 61

She bowed in silence and left the room.

"What a scene!" cried the young abbe, shuddering, "and what a dreadful woman!"

The count looked thoughtfully before him.

"Do you believe," asked the abbe, "that she will heed your warning?

that she will repent and amend?"

"I do not know," said the count calmly, "we must hope her heart may at last be opened to grace, in that case she would be an instrument of priceless worth."

"What are your views?" asked the young priest with surprise.

The count slowly placed himself in an arm-chair and signed to the abbe to seat himself beside him.

"My young friend," he said in a grave mild voice, "you belong to the Holy League, you are a soldier of the Church militant, you have genius, courage, and faith; you are called to labour with me in the erection of G.o.d's kingdom upon earth, to build up the temple of promise, upon the rock of St. Peter; I tell you a great battle, a great work, is before you, a work upon a new foundation."

He was silent--lost in thought.

"What we have done hitherto has crumbled to pieces," he said after a time; "a now phase begins--Austria has denied the very ground-work of her existence, she has denied the Church, upon whose soil the empire has grown up; through which alone it could have been maintained, and guided safely through the future. The first step upon this path will swiftly be followed by others, according to the merciless law of logical consequences; we must strike Austria out of our reckoning.

Whether we can rely upon France is not clear to me, it might appear so from the first glance, but the present government of France affords no guarantee, a h.e.l.lish power prevails there, and this power has been the first to lay hands upon the ancient and holy rights of the Church. I see," he continued, as if lost in the contemplation of the picture presented to his mind, "the world forming itself anew. I see the German nation slowly arising to supreme eminence. Is it the will of Providence that the realm of Germany, once the foremost backslider, shall now be the firm foundation-stone of the kingdom of G.o.d? The future will show,"

he said after a pause, "but we must be upon the watch, we must regard these new times with a sharp glance, that we may lay the foundation of our power, and be able to guide events with a firm hand. What we may have to do does not yet appear,--here at least _nothing_ can be done, here are only ruins tottering to their fall. I am going to Paris," he added, raising his head, "that is the centre of coming events, there we shall discover the threads which will bind the world. You will accompany me?" he asked, half as a question, half as a command.

The abbe bowed.

"I am prepared," he replied, "to follow your guidance, and it fills me with joy and pride to labour under such a master."

"I shall take this woman with me," said the count, "I shall free her from her present connexion, and place her in a position where her eminent talents may be developed: she will, now that she knows she is in my power, do us great service."

The abbe looked amazed.

"This woman?" he said; "ought we to defile our holy cause with such a tool?"

The count fixed his large expressive eyes firmly upon the young priest.

"Are you then a.s.sailed by that doubt of weak souls," he said slowly, "who desire the end, but fear to use the means?"

"Can sin serve heaven?" asked the abbe with hesitation.

The count rose, and spoke in a tone of firm and full conviction.

"Does not the tempest-flash, that slays and burns the huts of poverty, serve the eternal councils of G.o.d? are not all the destructive powers of nature wonderful instruments in the hand of G.o.d? This is the almighty power of G.o.d, that the evil should serve the good, and lead to a good end. Even that great German poet who did not belong to the faith, painted his devil more truly and more rightly than the world believes; as a power who wills evil, yet must do good! Well," he cried, "we desire to be soldiers of the Church militant, we wish to overcome her enemies, and to help on the triumph of the Cross; and shall we like cowards shrink back before the devil? Shall we acknowledge and fear his power? No, we must have strength in ourselves to compel the h.e.l.lish powers of darkness to the service of heaven; that is the true victory over sin; not the victory of the fearful schoolboy, who flies, that he may not be overcome, but the victory of our Master and our Lord, who in the name of G.o.d subdued the fallen angels, and fought against the powers of the world."

"Forgive me," said the abbe in a tone of doubt, "but is it not presumption in us, who are but weak sinful creatures, to try to govern the powers of darkness as the hand of Almighty G.o.d does, and can? may we not become their prey, whilst we think we rule them?"

The count looked at him severely, almost angrily.

"The world," he said, "fights against us with every means she possesses, she loves to choose the best and sharpest weapons; shall we pursue our holy war unequally armed, and thus prepare for ourselves certainty of defeat? No! a thousand times No! our hand must bear the sharpest and the surest weapons, sharper and surer than our enemies'!

The sword slays," he added, "and it is written: 'Thou shalt not kill!'

Yet behold the thousands who wear the sword and spend their lives in learning most scientifically the art of slaying! Why are they not condemned, these armies? Why are they crowned with laurels, when they return victorious after slaying thousands and thousands of innocent men? Because they draw their swords to serve a good and a true principle, to defend their hearths, to defend the glory and the greatness of their country. And their country belongs to this world, belongs to this fleeting earth! Yet shall we hesitate to draw the sword in defence of our spiritual home? in defence of the glory, the power, and the greatness of the eternal country of the human race, the invisible, most holy kingdom of G.o.d? Truly, my young friend, those who for the things of this world draw the sword, and shed the blood of their fellow-men, have no right to fetter us in the choice of the weapons with which we strive for the eternal and imperishable good. But it is above all our enemies who would place only blunt weapons in our hands, that their victory may be certain; and if they succeed in casting doubts into our souls, the battle is gained beforehand. Banish doubt from your heart, strengthen your soul, or your hand will bear the sword for the warring Church of Christ in vain!"

The abbe bowed his head.

"Forgive the hesitation of a youthful heart," he said in a low voice, "I will wrestle and pray that I may be girded with the strong panoply of faithful obedience."

The count looked at him kindly.

"Pray to G.o.d," he said, "that your heart may be nerved and steeled, without having to pa.s.s through the pain and despair mine suffered before it attained to calm firmness and clear conviction."

He stepped closer to him, and laid his hand upon his shoulder.

"I too," he said in a gentle voice, "was young like yourself, I was cheerful and happy as you are, I had a wife whom my soul adored, I had a daughter two years old whose pure eyes seemed to me a greeting from heaven. I was a surgeon in Rome, my hand was skilful, riches streamed down upon me. I loved all mankind, when I put my arm around my wife and held my sweet child upon my knee. To help all who were suffering was my most holy endeavour, my thank-offering for all the happiness that G.o.d had bestowed upon me. And I had a brother," he added, with a dreamy look, searching amongst the memories of the past; "I loved him from his tenderest childhood, I was older than he, and I had formed his mind, and educated his heart. He was a disciple of the n.o.ble art of painting, that fair flower of my lovely country, and I saw with pride the creations of his pencil, in which the breath of genius lived, and which approached nearer and nearer to the great works of the ancients. It was a good and happy time. My brother wished to try his pencil on the highest and holiest subject art can create, the divinely blessed Virgin with the Child Jesus. My wife sat to him as a model, my child upon her lap was to represent the Divine Child. Was it a sin, a presumptuous crime? The great Raphael had painted the forms of earthly women for his madonnas, and yet the wonderful spirit of divinity had enlightened his eyes. I rejoiced, and was happy in the thought that by the hand of my brother all that I loved on earth might be united to do G.o.d service. I was absent long hours in the exercise of my profession," he continued in a gloomy voice, "and one day when I returned, they had vanished! My brother had tempted my wife away, or she him, I know not which--I know nothing except that they were gone, and that they had taken my innocent child with them, that her pure eyes might bring me no comfort in my loneliness!"

He said the last words lower and lower, his eyes seemed far away, his features trembled with painful emotion.

He sank down into an arm-chair as if exhausted, the abbe looked at him with much sympathy.

"It is long since I have spoken of this," said the count after a moment, in a calm and melancholy voice, "since I have probed my wound with words. You see," he said, with an indescribably sad smile, "the wound is not yet healed.--All my inquiries were in vain," he then proceeded; "I could find no trace of the fugitives. Shall I describe my feelings? It would be hard to find human language to express them. I despaired of G.o.d, my soul revolted wildly against heaven; I wished to put an end to my life, and only a slight hope of recovering my child, my poor, innocent child, made me delay my resolution from day to day. I abhorred mankind, I withheld the help of my knowledge from the sick, from the dying; I rejoiced with cold malice when fathers died, when children were torn from their parents, whilst an operation from my skilful hand would have saved them. I hated and despised governments and communities; could their laws, and their inst.i.tutions, punish or prevent such crimes as had been committed against me? If I could have destroyed the whole human race with one word, I would have spoken that word with a scornful smile, and have reduced every living creature to eternal nothingness! Oh! my young friend," he said, with a heavy sigh, "those were frightful days and nights that I pa.s.sed through; my spirit went down into h.e.l.l, and I felt what seethes and ferments in its depths! In my breast its horrible, yelling voices resounded; I, too, p.r.o.nounced that 'No' against the decrees of the Creator, against the G.o.d of mercy and of love! An old worthy priest, a valiant warrior of the Church, came to me; he forced himself upon me, and the fiery rays of his eloquence aroused an angry tempest in the midnight of my soul, every fibre of my being shuddered. But after the storm came light. I learned from my wise teacher and guide, that no decree of government or of society, however well-founded, however wise, can banish sin. That power belongs to the Holy Church alone, that community ordained of G.o.d, and when at last she possesses the world in her all-powerful grasp, sin will be vanquished, and crime will vanish from the earth. I learned to know that there is no higher, no holier calling than this, to strive that all things may be committed to the power of the Church, that the work of our Saviour's redemption may be completed, that the blood of Christ may flow down upon all mankind; there is no prouder, no more glorious deed possible, than to compel sin itself to the service of heaven. But," he continued, and his eyes glowed with energy and indomitable will, "I also saw the frightful weapons of the Church's foes, and I learnt that victory can only be obtained by seizing with a firm, relentless hand all the weapons of the will and the mind; above all, by grasping with an iron hand all the evil powers of the sinful world, and compelling them to serve the Holy Cause, by an annihilating warfare against each other. I dedicated my life to the cause of the Church militant, and G.o.d strengthened my heart and enlightened my mind, and he gave me power over men to guide the threads of their fate. I have often held a fearful and demoniacal power; but my good angel has not failed me, the h.e.l.lish power has served heaven, as the gigantic power of steam obeys the pressure of the human hand. And ought I to hesitate and doubt," he cried pa.s.sionately, "in the choice of the weapons whereby the victory, the great and holy victory, may be won?

ought I to throw away the power I have gained over the enemy, and make myself and the cause I serve the laughing-stock of the world? Oh! I fear not the powers of h.e.l.l, this hand is strong enough to bend them to my will, and in the name of G.o.d to compel the evil ones to work his good pleasure!"

The abbe looked with admiration at the count's perfect and animated face.

"Forgive me, my master," he said humbly, "if I doubted; and do not withdraw your strong hand from me, to guide and to support."

The count held out his hand.

"Your powers, too, will be steeled in the battle," he said, "but never forget that though man, the weak and sinful creature, may venture to wield these weapons, only he has a right to seize them who renounces all, that he may live and die an instrument to increase the glory of G.o.d!"

The door opened, Herr Balzer entered.

He saluted the count with his usual vulgar familiarity, and the shameless confidence habitual to him.

The count responded by a proud inclination of the head, and looked at him coldly.

"You wished to speak to me, count," said Herr Balzer, "how can I serve you?"

"I hope our conversation will be short," replied the count, "I have a proposal to make to you which you will accept, as it will free you from a very bad position."

Herr Balzer was alarmed at the severe, decided tone in which the count spoke to him. His confidence seemed to give way a little.

"A proposal?" he said with surprise; then he added with a vulgar laugh, "I always like to hear proposals, especially if acceptable."

"I wish your wife to be perfectly free," said the count shortly.

"That will be a little difficult!" cried Herr Balzer with a look of satisfaction, "a separation--she must turn Protestant, and the scandal----"

"She would be free--as a widow," said the count.

Herr Balzer sprang backwards from the speaker.