There was a most sneering expression on the Chevalier’s face as I uttered these words. I paid no attention to it, however, but went on: “From the venerable dame I myself attained to some knowledge of ‘destiny reading,’ of which I remember once or twice in life to have afforded very singular proofs. My skill, however, usually preferred unravelling the ‘future’ to the ‘present.’”
“Speculation is always easier than recital,” said the Chevalier, dryly.
“Very true,” said I; “and in reading the past I have ever found how want of sufficient skill has prevented my giving to the great fact of a story the due and necessary connection; so that, indeed, I appear as if distinct events alone were revealed to me, without clew to what preceded or followed them. I see destiny as a traveller sees a landscape by fitful flashes of lightning at night, great tracts of country suddenly displayed in all the blaze of noonday, but lost to sight the next moment forever! Such humble powers as these are, I am well aware, unworthy to bear competition with your more cultivated gifts; but if, with all their imperfections, you are disposed to accept their exercise, they are sincerely at your service.”
The Chevalier, I suspect, acceded to this proposal in the belief that it was an effort on my part to turn the topic from myself to him, for he neither seemed to believe in my skill, nor feel any interest in its exercise.
Affecting to follow implicitly the old Moorish woman’s precepts, I prepared myself for my task by putting on a great mantle with a hood, which, when drawn forward, effectually concealed the wearer’s face. This was a precaution I took the better to study his face, while my own remained hid from view.
“You are certainly far more imposing as a prophet than I can pretend to be,” said he, laughing, as he lighted a cigar, and lay back indolently to await my revelations. I made a great display of knowledge in shuffling and arranging the cards, the better to think over what I was about; and at last, disposing some dozen in certain mystic positions before me, I began.
“You startled me, Chevalier, by a discovery which only wanted truth to make it very remarkable. Let me now repay you by another which I shrewdly suspect to be in the same condition. There are four cards now before me, whose meaning is most positive, and which distinctly assert that you, Chevalier de la Boutonerie, are no chevalier at all!”
“This is capital.” said he, filling out a glass of wine and drinking it off with the most consummate coolness.
“And here,” said I, not heeding his affected ease, – “here is another still stranger revelation, which says that you are not a Frenchman, but a native of a land which latterly has taken upon it to supply the rest of the world with adventurers, – in plain words, a Pole.”
“It is true that my father, who held a command in the Imperial army, lived some years in that country,” said he, hastily; “but I have yet to learn that he forfeited his nationality by so doing.”
“I only know what the cards tell me,” said I, spreading out a mass of them before me, and pretending to study them attentively; “and here is a complication which would need a cleverer expositor than I am. Of all the tangled webs ever I essayed to unravel, this is the knottiest. Why, really, Chevalier, yours must have been a life of more than ordinary vicissitude, or else my prophetic skill has suffered sadly from disuse.”
“Judging from what you have just told me, I rather lean to the latter explanation,” said he, swallowing down two glasses of wine with great rapidity.
“I suspect such to be the case, indeed,” said I, “for otherwise I could scarcely have such difficulty in reading these mystic signs, once so familiar to me, and from which I can now only pick up a stray phrase here and there. Thus I see what implies a high diplomatic employment, and yet, immediately after, I perceive that this is either a mistake of mine, or the thing itself a cheat and a deception.”
“It surely does not require divination to tell a diplomatic agent that he has served on a foreign mission,” said the Chevalier, with a sneer.
“Perhaps not, but I see here vestiges of strange occurrences in which this fact is concerned. A fleeting picture passes now before my eyes: I see a race-course, with its crowds of people and its throng of carriages, and the horses are led out to be saddled, and all is expectation and eagerness, and – what! This is most singular! the vision has passed away, and I am looking at two figures who stand side by side in a richly furnished room, a man and a woman. She is weeping, and he consoling her. Stay! He lifts his head – the man is yourself, Chevalier!”
“Indeed!” said he; but this time the word was uttered in a faint voice, while a pallor that was almost lividness colored his dark features.
“She murmurs a name; I almost caught it,” exclaimed I, as if carried away by the rapt excitement of prophecy. “Yes! I hear it now perfectly, – the name is Alexis!”
A fearful oath burst from the Chevalier, and with a bound lie sprung to his feet, and dashed his closed fists against his brow. “Away with your jugglery, have done with your miserable cheat, sir, – that can only terrify women and children. Speak out like a man: who are you, and what are you?”
“What means this outrage, sir? How have you forgotten yourself so far as to use this language to me?” said I, throwing back the mantle and standing full before him.
“Let us have no more acting, sir, whether it be as prophet or bully,” said he, sternly. “You affect to know me, who I am, and whence I have come. Make the game equal between us, or it may be worse for you.”
“You threaten me, then,” said I, calmly.
“I do,” was the answer.
“It is therefore open war between us?”
“I never said so,” replied he, with a most cutting irony of manner; “but whatever secret malice can do, – and you shall soon know what it means, – I pledge myself you will not find yourself forgotten.”
“Agreed, then; now leave me, sir.”
“I am your guest, sir,” said he, with a most hypocritical air of deference and courtesy. “It is surely scant politeness to drive me hence when I am not in a position to find another shelter; we are upon the high seas; I cannot walk forth and take my leave. Believe me, sir, the character you would fain perform before the world would not act so.”
Notwithstanding the insult conveyed in the last words, I determined that I would respect “him who had eaten my salt;” and with a gesture of assent, for I could not speak, I moved away.
No sooner was I alone than I repented me of the rash folly into which, for the indulgence of a mere petty vengeance, I had been betrayed. I saw that by this absurd piece of malice I had made an enemy of a man whose whole career vouched for the danger of his malevolence.
How could he injure me? What species of attack could he make upon me? Whether was it more likely that he would avoid me as one dangerous to himself, or pursue me wherever I went by his vengeance? These were hard questions to solve, and they filled my mind so completely that I neither heeded the bustle which heralded the arrival on board of the pilot, or the still busier movement which told that we were approaching the harbor. At last I went on deck and approached the bulwark, over which a number of the crew were leaning, watching the course of a boat that, with all her canvas spread, was making for land. “The pilot-boat,” said the captain, in reply to my glance of inquiry; “she is lying straight in, as the consul is anxious to land at once.”
“Is he on board of her?” said I, with an anxiety I could not conceal.
“Yes, Señhor Condé, and your Excellency’s secretary too.”
Was it my fear suggested the notion, or was it the simple fact, but I thought that the words “Count” and “Excellency” were articulated with something like a sneer? I had no opportunity to put the matter to the test, for the captain had already quitted the spot, and was busy with the multifarious cares the near approach to land enforces. My next thought was, Why had my secretary gone ashore without my orders? Was this a piece of zeal on his part to make preparations for our disembarking, or might it be something worse? and, if so, what? Every moment increased the trouble of my thoughts. Certainly, misfortunes do cast their shadows before them, for I felt that strange and overwhelming sense of depression that never is causeless. I ran over every species of casualty that I could imagine, but except highway robbery, actual “brigandage,” I could not fancy any real positive danger to be anticipated from the Chevalier.
How different was my mood from what I expected it would have been on nearing shore! Where were all my visions of pomp and splendor? Where the proud circumstances of my more than princely state? Alas! I would have given a full fourth of my wealth to be landed unostentatiously and quietly, and to have my mind relieved from all dread of the cursed Chevalier.
That I did not overrate the peril before me, events soon proved.
CHAPTER XXIX. THE CARCEL MORENA AT MALAGA
As we sailed proudly into the harbor of Malaga, my attention – at first directed to the striking features of the shore, where lay a city actually embowered amid orange-groves – was soon drawn off by the appearance of a boat, rowed by twelve men, which approached the ship. The national flag of Spain floated from a standard in her stern, and I could mark the glitter of arms and uniforms on board of her.
“The officers of health, I suppose?” said I, carelessly, to the captain.
“No, Señhor, these are soldiers of the garrison.”
“Ah, I understand,” said I, “they are on the alert as to whom they land in these troublous times; for it was the period of the great Carlist struggle.
“Possibly,” was his dry remark, and he moved away.
A hoarse challenge from the boat was answered by something from the ship; and the “accommodation-ladder” was immediately lowered, and an officer ascended to the deck, followed by two of his men, with their side-arms.
Some of the ordinary greetings being interchanged between the captain and the officer, the latter said, “My business here is with the person styling himself the Condé de Cregano. Where is he?”
“That is my name, Señhor,” said I, with a studious admixture of civility and condescension.
“Please to walk this way, sir,” said the officer, leading towards the poop cabin, and preceding me with a degree of assurance that boded ill for his impression of my dignity.
As we entered the cabin, I could hear the two soldiers taking up their places as sentries at the door.
“I wish to see your passport, Señhor,” said he, as he seated himself at the table.
“My passport shall be produced at the fitting time,” said I, “when I arrive on shore. Here I have no need of any.”
“You are wrong, sir; once within that circle of buoys, at the mouth of the port, you are within the limits of the shore authorities; but were it even otherwise, these are not the times for scruples, and I, for one, would not hesitate to arrest you on the information I have received.”
“Information you have received, sir!” exclaimed I, in terror and amazement.
“Yes, sir; I may as well tell you that Malaga is not in the possession of your friends, – you will not find a Carlist garrison ready to give you a salute of honor at your landing. Far less formal, but not less peremptory attentions await you. But produce your papers, for I have no time to lose.”
I saw at a glance that my position was most perilous, and as rapidly resolved to make an effort for safety. “Señhor Capitana,” said I, placing an open pocket-book stuffed with bank-notes before him, “please to accept my passport, and to keep it in your own safe possession. I shall put to sea again, and order the captain to land me at some port in Italy.”
“It is too late,” said he, with a sigh, as he pushed the pocket-book away; “the informations against you are already transmitted to Madrid.”
“Great heavens! and for whom do they take me?” cried I.
“I cannot tell; I never heard. I only know that I have the order for your arrest as the person assuming to be ‘the Condé Cregano.’”
“What crime is laid to my charge? Have I defrauded any one? What is alleged against me?”
“Show me your passport,” said he again.
“There it is,” said I, producing the document which by Don Estaban’s intervention I had obtained from the authorities of Guajuaqualla, and wherein I was called a native of Grenada and a noble of Spain.
“And all this is true as set forth?” said the officer.
“It is a principle of law in my native land that no prisoner is called upon to criminate himself,” said I.
“In that case you are no Spaniard,” said the officer, shrewdly, “nor, indeed, does your accent so bespeak you. You are now under arrest.” He opened the door as he said this, and, pointing me out to the two sentries, whispered something too low for me to overhear. This done, he left the cabin and went upon deck.
I looked up from the chair where I sat, into the faces of my two guardians, and a more ill-favored pair of gentlemen I never beheld. Ill-fed but dissipated-looking rascals, they seemed more like highwaymen than soldiers. Still, even a chance was not to be thrown away, and so I whispered in a soft voice: “My worthy friends, in that writing-case yonder there are bank-notes to a very large amount. In a few moments they will be taken away from me, never to be restored. I may as well have the satisfaction of knowing that two brave but poor men are benefited by them. Bring me the desk, and I’ll give them to you.” They looked at each other and they looked at me; they then looked towards the door and the skylight, and although without speaking, it was plain enough to see what was passing in their minds.
“Remember,” said I, “I ask nothing in return from you. I shall not attempt to escape, nor, were I to do so, could you aid me in any way. I merely wish to assist two worthy fellows who certainly do not look like the ‘spoiled children of fortune.’”
They hesitated and seemed afraid, and at last they whispered for a few seconds together; and then one of them went over, and, taking up the desk, laid it down before me. “You can make a fair division at another time,” said I; “it is better not to waste precious moments now, but at once conceal the money about your persons. Here are some eight or ten thousand piastres, – and here, fully as much more for you. These are Mexican notes for a large sum, and these are bills on Amsterdam and Hamburgh for great amounts. That’s right, my lads, make short work of it, – in your boots, in your shakos; anywhere for the present, only be quiet!”
Truly they merited all my encomiums! To “stow away” plunder, I ‘d back them against any pair who ever stopped a diligence on the high road; nor was it without some little difficulty I could persuade them to leave any money in the desk, as a precaution to prevent the suspicion of what had actually occurred. As I aided them in the work of concealment, I artfully contrived to possess myself of one paper, – the Havannah banker’s receipt for the large deposits I had left in his hands; and this I managed to slip within the lining of my travelling-cap. It was a last anchor of hope, if ever I were to weather the storm around me!
Our work had scarcely been completed, and the desk replaced in its former situation, when the officer returned. He briefly informed me that seals had been placed on all my effects, that my household was placed under an arrest similar to my own, and that when I had pointed out the various articles of my property in the cabin, there was nothing more for me to do but to accompany him on shore.
As I was not suffered to take any portion of my baggage with me, even of my clothes, I was soon in the boat and pulling rapidly for the land. The quays and the jetty were crowded with people whose curiosity I at once perceived had no other object than myself; and although some did not scruple to exhibit towards me signs of dislike and dissatisfaction, I could remark that others regarded me with a compassionate, and even a kindly look. All were, however, scrupulously silent and respectful, and touched their hats in salutation as I ascended the stairs of the landing-place.
This feeling, to my considerable astonishment, I perceived extended even to the soldiery, one or two of whom saluted as I passed. In any case, thought I, it is for no insignificant offender I am taken; and even that is some comfort, provided my crime be not high treason.
I was conducted straight to the “Carcel Morena,” a large, sombre-looking building which was at once fortress, prison, and residence of the Governor, exhibiting a curious mixture of these incongruous functions in all its details.
The apartment into which I was ushered was a large saloon, dimly lighted by narrow windows piercing the thick walls. The furniture had once been handsome, but from time and neglect had become worn and disfigured. A small table, spread with a very tolerable breakfast, stood in one of the windows, at which I was invited to seat myself, and then I was left alone to my own lucubrations. Hunger prevailed over grief, I ate heartily; and having concluded my meal, amused myself by studying the Trojan war, which was displayed upon the walls in a very ancient tapestry.
I had traced the fortunes of Greeks and Trojans on the walls till 1 was well-nigh wearied. I had even gazed upon the little patches of brown grass beneath the windows till my eyes grew dim with watching; but no one came to look after me, and, in the unbroken silence around, I half feared that I should be utterly forgotten, and left, like the old tapestry, to die of moths and years; but at last, as day was declining, I heard something like the clank of arms and the tramp of soldiery, and soon the sounds were more distinctly marked, approaching my door. Suddenly the two leaves of the folding-door were thrown wide, and an elderly man, in a general’s uniform, followed by two other officers, entered.
Without taking any notice of the salute I made him, he walked towards the fireplace, and, standing with his back to it, said to one of his aides-de-camp, “Read the ‘procès-verbal,’ José.”
José bowed, and, taking from his sabretache a very lengthy roll of paper, began to read aloud, but with such rapidity and such indistinctness withal that I could only, and with the greatest difficulty, catch a stray word here and there. The titles of her Majesty the Queen appeared to occupy full ten minutes, and an equal time to be passed in setting forth the authority under whose jurisdiction I then stood. These over, there came something about an individual who, born a Mexican or a native of Texas, has assumed the style, title, and dignity of a Count of Spain, such rank being taken for purposes of deception, and the better to effect certain treasonable designs, to be set forth hereafter. After this there came a flourish about the duties of loyalty and fidelity to the sovereign, whose private virtues came in by parenthesis, together with a very energetic denunciation on all base and wicked men who sought to carry dissension into the bosom of their country, and convulse with the passions of a civil war a nation proverbially tranquil and peace-loving.
Nothing could be less interesting than the style of this paper, except the manner of him who recited it. State truisms, in inflated language, and wearisome platitudes about nothing, received no additional grace from a snuffling nasal intonation and a short cough.
I listened at first with the anxiety of a man whose fortunes hung on the issue; then, as the vague, rambling character of the document diminished this interest, I heard with more indifference; and, lastly, completely wearied by the monotony of the voice, and the tiresome iterations of the style, I could not prevent my thoughts from wandering far from the affair in hand.
What fearful crimes were alleged against me, – what dire offences I was charged with, – I was not to hear, since, lost in the pleasant land of day-dreams, I fancied myself strolling in the shade of a forest, with Donna Maria beside me, while I poured out a most impassioned narrative of my love and fidelity. Nor was it till the reading was concluded, and a loud “Hem!” from the General resounded through the chamber, that I remembered where I was.
“Prisoner!” said he, in a stern, authoritative tone, “you have now heard the nature of the charge against you, and the reasons of your arrest; you will answer certain questions, the replies to which, if not in accordance with truth, constitute the crime of ‘Traicion,’ the penalty being death. What is your name?”
“Con Cregan.”
“Native of what country?”
“Ireland.”
“What rank and position do you hold in society?”
“A variable one, – as luck favors me.”
“What trade or profession do you follow?”
“Whatever seems most convenient at the moment.”
“Have you served?”
“I have.”
“In the land or sea service?”
“In both.”
“With what grade?”
“Nothing very distinguished.”
“Have you ever held the command of an expedition?”
“I have.”
“With what object, and where?”
“In the prairies of South America, to shoot red-deer.”
“Remember, sir,” said the General, “this is no occasion for untimely jest; these sallies may cost you more dearly than you think for.”
“If I am to speak the truth,” said I, boldly, “I must answer as I have done. If you want fiction, I ‘m ready for you at a moment’s notice.”
“Make a note of that, José! – ’ says that he is perfectly indifferent whether he tells truth or falsehood.’”
“And add, by way of parenthesis,” said I, “that the General is precisely of my own way of thinking.”
“Write down,’ insults the commission,’” said the General, boiling with rage.
The paragraph seemed a full one, for the interrogating was not resumed for some minutes.
“Now, sir,” resumed the General, “state your object in coming to the country.”
“To get out of it as fast as I could.”
“For whose use were the arms provided, – the horses and horse equipage with which you embarked?”
“My own.”
“Name the agent or agents of Don Carlos with whom you have held correspondence?”
“None. I never knew any.”
“By whose hands were the large sums of money in your possession intrusted to you?”
“I found them.”
“How, and where?”
“In a hole.”
The General’s face grew purple; and more than once I could see the struggle it cost him to repress his bursting indignation. And in the mutterings he let fall to his secretary, it was easy to mark that his comments on the evidence were not too favorable.
“Were you acquainted with Brigadier Hermose Gonzillos?”
“No.”
“Nor with his brother, the Canon Gonzillos?”
“No.”
“When did you first meet Señhor Ruy Peres Y’ Hacho?”
“Never saw him in my life.”
“Nor held intercourse with him?”
“Never.”
“Were not much in his company, nor intrusted to him the secret details of the expedition?”
“I know nothing of what you’re talking about.”
“Produce Ruy Peres,” said the General; and the door opened, and the Chevalier, dressed in a military uniform and with several decorations of foreign orders, entered.
“Do you know this gentleman?” said the General, dryly.
“I know him for a Pole whose name is Alexis Radchoffsky – at least, under such a name he once lived in London, and is well known to the police there.”
“Go on,” said the General to the secretary. “On being confronted with the Señhor Ruy Peres, the prisoner became suddenly abashed, and at once confessed that he had known him intimately several years before in London.”
“Is that man a witness against me?” asked I, eagerly.
“Attend to me, sir,” said the General, while he made a sign to the Chevalier to retire. “Neither subterfuge nor insolence will avail you here. You are perfectly well known to us, – your early history, your late intrigues, your present intentions.”
“With such intimate knowledge of all about me, General,” said I, coolly, “have n’t we been wasting a great deal of valuable time in this interrogatory?”
“And, notwithstanding repeated admonitions, persisted in using the most indecorous language to the commission.” These words the General dictated in a loud voice, and they were immediately taken down by his secretary.
“Señhor Concregan,” said he, addressing me, “you stand now committed, by virtue of a royal warrant, a copy of which, and of the charges laid against you, will be duly transmitted to you. Whenever the authorities have decided whether your offence should be submitted to a civil or military tribunal, you will be brought up for trial.”
“I am an English subject, sir,” said I; “I belong to a nation that never permits its meanest member to be trampled on by foreign tyranny, far less will it suffer his liberty or life to be sacrificed to a false and infamous calumny. I claim the protection of my ambassador, or at least of such a representative of my country as your petty locality may possess. I desire – ” What I was about to demand as my birthright was not destined to be made public on this occasion, since at a signal from the General the door opened, and two soldiers, advancing, adjusted handcuffs on my wrists, and led me away even before I had recovered from the surprise the whole proceeding occasioned me.
Whether it was that I enjoyed the prerogative of a State prisoner, or that the authorities were not quite clear that they were justified in what they were doing, I cannot say; but my prison discipline was of the very mildest order. I had a most comfortable room, with a window looking seaward over the beautiful bay of Malaga, taking a wide range along shore, where gardens and villas and orange-groves extended for miles. The furniture was neat, and with some pretensions to luxury; and the fare, I am bound to own, was excellent. Books, and even newspapers, were freely supplied to me, and, save that at certain intervals the clank of a musket, and the shuffling of feet in the corridor without, told that the sentry of my guard was being relieved, I could have fancied myself in some homely inn, without a restriction upon my liberty. My handcuffs had been removed the moment I had entered my chamber, and now the iron stanchions of my window were the only reminders of a jail around me.