第48章

But murderers! exterminating murderers!--clothed in mystery and utter darkness--these were objects too terrific for any family to contemplate with fortitude.Had these very murderers added to their functions those of robbery, they would have become less terrific; nine out of every ten would have found themselves discharged, as it were, from the roll of those who were liable to a visit; while such as knew themselves liable would have had warning of their danger in the fact of being rich; and would, from the very riches which constituted that danger, have derived the means of repelling it.But, as things were, no man could guess what it was that must make him obnoxious to the murderers.Imagination exhausted itself in vain guesses at the causes which could by possibility have made the poor Weishaupts objects of such hatred to any man.True, they were bigoted in a degree which indicated feebleness of intellect; but THAT wounded no man in particular, while to many it recommended them.True, their charity was narrow and exclusive, but to those of their own religious body it expanded munificently; and, being rich beyond their wants, or any means of employing wealth which their gloomy asceticism allowed, they had the power of doing a great deal of good among the indigent papists of the suburbs.As to the old gentleman and his wife, their infirmities confined them to the house.Nobody remembered to have seen them abroad for years.How, therefore, or when could they have made an enemy? And, with respect to the maiden sisters of Mr.

Weishaupt, they were simply weak-minded persons, now and then too censorious, but not placed in a situation to incur serious anger from any quarter, and too little heard of in society to occupy much of anybody's attention.

1

I hurried to a room over the porter's lodge, and, opening the window, I cried out to a man passing hastily below, "What, in God's name, is the meaning of this?" It was a watchman belonging to our district.I knew his voice, he knew mine, and he replied in great agitation:

"It is another murder, sir, at the old town councilor's, Albernass;and this time they have made a clear house of it.""God preserve us! Has a curse been pronounced upon this city?

What can be done? What are the magistrates going to do?""I don't know, sir.I have orders to run to the Black Friars, where another meeting is gathering.Shall I say you will attend, sir?""Yes--no--stop a little.No matter, you may go on; I'll follow immediately."I went instantly to Maximilian's room.He was lying asleep on a sofa, at which I was not surprised, for there had been a severe stag chase in the morning.Even at this moment I found myself arrested by two objects, and I paused to survey them.One was Maximilian himself.A person so mysterious took precedency of other interests even at a time like this; and especially by his features, which, composed in profound sleep, as sometimes happens, assumed a new expression, which arrested me chiefly by awaking some confused remembrance of the same features seen under other circumstances and in times long past; but where? This was what Icould not recollect, though once before a thought of the same sort had crossed my mind.The other object of my interest was a miniature, which Maximilian was holding in his hand.He had gone to sleep apparently looking at this picture; and the hand which held it had slipped down upon the sofa, so that it was in danger of falling.I released the miniature from his hand, and surveyed it attentively.It represented a lady of sunny, oriental complexion, and features the most noble that it is possible to conceive.One might have imagined such a lady, with her raven locks and imperial eyes, to be the favorite sultana of some Amurath or Mohammed.What was she to Maximilian, or what HAD she been? For, by the tear which I had once seen him drop upon this miniature when he believed himself unobserved, I conjectured that her dark tresses were already laid low, and her name among the list of vanished things.

Probably she was his mother, for the dress was rich with pearls, and evidently that of a person in the highest rank of court beauties.I sighed as I thought of the stern melancholy of her son, if Maximilian were he, as connected, probably, with the fate and fortunes of this majestic beauty; somewhat haughty, perhaps, in the expression of her fine features, but still noble--generous--confiding.Laying the picture on the table, I awoke Maximilian, and told him of the dreadful news.He listened attentively, made no remark, but proposed that we should go together to the meeting of our quarter at the Black Friars.He colored upon observing the miniature on the table; and, therefore, I frankly told him in what situation I had found it, and that I had taken the liberty of admiring it for a few moments.He pressed it tenderly to his lips, sighed heavily, and we walked away together.

I pass over the frenzied state of feeling in which we found the meeting.Fear, or rather horror, did not promote harmony; many quarreled with each other in discussing the suggestions brought forward, and Maximilian was the only person attended to.He proposed a nightly mounted patrol for every district.And in particular he offered, as being himself a member of the university, that the students should form themselves into a guard, and go out by rotation to keep watch and ward from sunset to sunrise.

Arrangements were made toward that object by the few people who retained possession of their senses, and for the present we separated.

Never, in fact, did any events so keenly try the difference between man and man.Some started up into heroes under the excitement.

Some, alas for the dignity of man! drooped into helpless imbecility.Women, in some cases, rose superior to men, but yet not so often as might have happened under a less mysterious danger.