第80章
The conclusion of this extraordinary manuscript was in such a state, that, in fifteen moldy and crumbling pages, Melmoth could hardly make out that number of lines.No antiquarian, unfolding with trembling hand the calcined leaves of an Herculaneum manuscript, and hoping to discover some lost lines of the Aeneis in Virgil's own autograph, or at least some unutterable abomination of Petronius or Martial, happily elucidatory of the mysteries of the Spintriae, or the orgies of the Phallic worshipers, ever pored with more luckless diligence, or shook a head of more hopeless despondency over his task.He could but just make out what tended rather to excite than assuage that feverish thirst of curiosity which was consuming his inmost soul.The manuscript told no more of Melmoth, but mentioned that Stanton was finally liberated from his confinement,--that his pursuit of Melmoth was incessant and indefatigable,--that he himself allowed it to be a species of insanity,--that while he acknowledged it to be the master passion, he also felt it the master torment of his life.He again visited the Continent, returned to England,--pursued, inquired, traced, bribed, but in vain.The being whom he had met thrice, under circumstances so extraordinary, he was fated never to encounter again IN HIS LIFETIME.At length, discovering that he had been born in Ireland, he resolved to go there,--went, and found his pursuit again fruitless, and his inquiries unanswered.The family knew nothing of him, or at least what they knew or imagined, they prudently refused to disclose to a stranger, and Stanton departed unsatisfied.It is remarkable, that he too, as appeared from many half-obliterated pages of the manuscript, never disclosed to mortal the particulars of their conversation in the madhouse; and the slightest allusion to it threw him into fits of rage and gloom equally singular and alarming.He left the manuscript, however, in the hands of the family, possibly deeming, from their incuriosity, their apparent indifference to their relative, or their obvious unacquaintance with reading of any kind, manuscript or books, his deposit would be safe.He seems, in fact, to have acted like men, who, in distress at sea, intrust their letters and dispatches to a bottle sealed, and commit it to the waves.The last lines of the manuscript that were legible, were sufficiently extraordinary...
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"I have sought him everywhere.--The desire of meeting him once more is become as a burning fire within me,--it is the necessary condition of my existence.I have vainly sought him at last in Ireland, of which I find he is a native.--Perhaps our final meeting will be in....
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Such was the conclusion of the manuscript which Melmoth found in his uncle's closet.When he had finished it, he sunk down on the table near which he had been reading it, his face hid in his folded arms, his senses reeling, his mind in a mingled state of stupor and excitement.After a few moments, he raised himself with an involuntary start, and saw the picture gazing at him from its canvas.He was within ten inches of it as he sat, and the proximity appeared increased by the strong light that was accidentally thrown on it, and its being the only representation of a human figure in the room.Melmoth felt for a moment as if he were about to receive an explanation from its lips.
He gazed on it in return,--all was silent in the house,--they were alone together.The illusion subsided at length: and as the mind rapidly passes to opposite extremes, he remembered the injunction of his uncle to destroy the portrait.He seized it;--his hand shook at first, but the moldering canvas appeared to assist him in the effort.He tore it from the frame with a cry half terrific, half triumphant,--it fell at his feet, and he shuddered as it fell.
He expected to hear some fearful sounds, some unimaginable breathings of prophetic horror, follow this act of sacrilege, for such he felt it, to tear the portrait of his ancestor from his native walls.He paused and listened:--"There was no voice, nor any that answered;"--but as the wrinkled and torn canvas fell to the floor, its undulations gave the portrait the appearance of smiling.Melmoth felt horror indescribable at this transient and imaginary resuscitation of the figure.He caught it up, rushed into the next room, tore, cut, and hacked it in every direction, and eagerly watched the fragments that burned like tinder in the turf fire which had been lit in his room.As Melmoth saw the last blaze, he threw himself into bed, in hope of a deep and intense sleep.He had done what was required of him, and felt exhausted both in mind and body; but his slumber was not so sound as he had hoped for.The sullen light of the turf fire, burning but never blazing, disturbed him every moment.He turned and turned, but still there was the same red light glaring on, but not illuminating, the dusky furniture of the apartment.The wind was high that night, and as the creaking door swung on its hinges, every noise seemed like the sound of a hand struggling with the lock, or of a foot pausing on the threshold.But (for Melmoth never could decide) was it in a dream or not, that he saw the figure of his ancestor appear at the door?--hesitatingly as he saw him at first on the night of his uncle's death,--saw him enter the room, approach his bed, and heard him whisper, "You have burned me, then; but those are flames I can survive.--I am alive,--I am beside you." Melmoth started, sprung from his bed,--it was broad daylight.He looked round,--there was no human being in the room but himself.He felt a slight pain in the wrist of his right arm.
He looked at it, it was black and blue, as from the recent gripe of a strong hand.
Balzac's tale, Melmoth Reconciled, in Vol.IV., furnishes a solution to the terrible problem which Maturin has stated in this story.--EDITOR'S NOTE.
Introduction to "A Mystery with a Moral"