第58章

He could not draw his sword in company with such men, nor in such a cause.But at length, under the pressure of necessity, he accepted (or rather bought with an immense bribe) the place of a commissary to the French forces in Italy.With this one resource, eventually he succeeded in making good the whole of his public claims upon the Italian states.These vast sums he remitted, through various channels, to England, where he became proprietor in the funds to an immense amount.Incautiously, however, something of this transpired, and the result was doubly unfortunate; for, while his intentions were thus made known as finally pointing to England, which of itself made him an object of hatred and suspicion, it also diminished his means of bribery.These considerations, along with another, made some French officers of high rank and influence the bitter enemies of my father.My mother, whom he had married when holding a brigadier-general's commission in the Austrian service, was, by birth and by religion, a Jewess.She was of exquisite beauty, and had been sought in Morganatic marriage by an archduke of the Austrian family; but she had relied upon this plea, that hers was the purest and noblest blood among all Jewish families--that her family traced themselves, by tradition and a vast series of attestations under the hands of the Jewish high priests, to the Maccabees, and to the royal houses of Judea; and that for her it would be a degradation to accept even of a sovereign prince on the terms of such marriage.This was no vain pretension of ostentatious vanity.It was one which had been admitted as valid for time immemorial in Transylvania and adjacent countries, where my mother's family were rich and honored, and took their seat among the dignitaries of the land.The French officers I have alluded to, without capacity for anything so dignified as a deep passion, but merely in pursuit of a vagrant fancy that would, on the next day, have given place to another equally fleeting, had dared to insult my mother with proposals the most licentious--proposals as much below her rank and birth, as, at any rate, they would have been below her dignity of mind and her purity.These she had communicated to my father, who bitterly resented the chains of subordination which tied up his hands from avenging his injuries.

Still his eye told a tale which his superiors could brook as little as they could the disdainful neglect of his wife.More than one had been concerned in the injuries to my father and mother; more than one were interested in obtaining revenge.Things could be done in German towns, and by favor of old German laws or usages, which even in France could not have been tolerated.This my father's enemies well knew, but this my father also knew; and he endeavored to lay down his office of commissary.That, however, was a favor which he could not obtain.He was compelled to serve on the German campaign then commencing, and on the subsequent one of Friedland and Eylau.Here he was caught in some one of the snares laid for him; first trepanned into an act which violated some rule of the service; and then provoked into a breach of discipline against the general officer who had thus trepanned him.

Now was the long-sought opportunity gained, and in that very quarter of Germany best fitted for improving it.My father was thrown into prison in your city, subjected to the atrocious oppression of your jailer, and the more detestable oppression of your local laws.The charges against him were thought even to affect his life, and he was humbled into suing for permission to send for his wife and children.Already, to his proud spirit, it was punishment enough that he should be reduced to sue for favor to one of his bitterest foes.But it was no part of their plan to refuse THAT.By way of expediting my mother's arrival, a military courier, with every facility for the journey, was forwarded to her without delay.My mother, her two daughters, and myself, were then residing in Venice.I had, through the aid of my father's connections in Austria, been appointed in the imperial service, and held a high commission for my age.But, on my father's marching northward with the French army, I had been recalled as an indispensable support to my mother.Not that my years could have made me such, for I had barely accomplished my twelfth year; but my premature growth, and my military station, had given me considerable knowledge of the world and presence of mind.

"Our journey I pass over; but as I approach your city, that sepulcher of honor and happiness to my poor family, my heart beats with frantic emotions.Never do I see that venerable dome of your minster from the forest, but I curse its form, which reminds me of what we then surveyed for many a mile as we traversed the forest.

For leagues before we approached the city, this object lay before us in relief upon the frosty blue sky; and still it seemed never to increase.Such was the complaint of my little sister Mariamne.