Volume I Part 27 (1/2)
”Oh! don't tell me that, Giovanni! No, you would not have returned--or else you would have come too late and would have found me dead! Clearly, you do not understand how much I love you; you know not that to me this love is above and beyond the whole world, that it makes me capable of defying everything, of undertaking any enterprise.--But why do I disturb the happiness that is mine now that I have found you?--Why these clouds on your brow? I will not utter one word of reproach--I will not ask a question. Let me live in the same city with you, let me see you, speak to you sometimes, and I shall be happy; and I will not even ask you what you are doing in Paris, or why you are afraid to have me mention your name!”
”But I propose to tell you!” muttered Giovanni, in a gloomy voice, dropping the girl's hand, so that she shuddered, although she did not yet know why her heart was turned to ice. ”Since you have chosen to come to Paris despite my prohibition, you must know what your lover is doing; otherwise, you might unsuspectingly compromise his safety every day.”
The young man rose and walked about the room, with a sinister expression, saying:
”Ah! why did you come to Paris, Miretta?”
”Mon Dieu! in what a tone you say that! You would make me tremble if I did not love you so dearly!”
”Your love will not resist, I will swear, the confidence I am about to make to you.”
”My love is stronger than everything! You may put it to the test!”
”But if your lover were--a man banished from society--a--a criminal, in short?”
Miretta ran to Giovanni and threw herself into his arms, crying in a tone of savage joy:
”Ah! I was afraid that you were going to say that you loved someone else! I breathe again, since it is not that.”
Giovanni kept his eyes fixed for some moments on the girl's, then said, shaking his head:
”Ah! it is the truth! she loves me truly!”
Thereupon he resumed his seat and continued, but more calmly:
”Listen, Miretta: there has been in Paris, for several months past, a man who spreads terror through all cla.s.ses of society, but especially among the wealthiest; this man--this robber, for I am talking of a robber--attacks every night those people whose purses he knows to be well lined. Adroit, active, fearless, he intimidates his victims by his audacity, he inspires terror by his mere presence, and never, up to the present moment, has he been obliged to shed blood in order to accomplish his ends. When--which rarely happens--he falls in with a gentleman who is brave enough to defend himself, he easily disarms him, and then contents himself with taking his gold. You may imagine that the police are straining every nerve to capture this brigand; but thus far all their efforts have been fruitless. And yet his description, or rather his costume, is known everywhere; for the robber always wears the same dress when he performs his exploits. An ample olive-green cloak envelops his body, a red cap with a fringe of boar's hair covers his head and comes down to his eyes, and a long black beard conceals the lower part of his face.”
”Mon Dieu!” said Miretta; ”the man must present a terrifying appearance, in very truth! But what have I to do with this robber? I am not afraid that he will take my gold. And why do you tell me of all his doughty deeds?”
Giovanni rose without replying; he went to an old chest secured by a stout padlock, opened it, and took out the olive-green cloak, the cap with the boar's hair, and the enormous black beard. He threw them all at the girl's feet, saying:
”See! here is the costume that this redoubtable brigand a.s.sumes every night; for this man whom the police seek and pursue to no purpose, this man who spreads terror and dismay throughout Paris--is I--your lover--Giovanni!”
Miretta covered her face with her hands.
”You!” she murmured; ”you! Oh! it is impossible!”
”I have told you the truth, Miretta; indeed, why should I tell you this story, if it were untrue?”
”O mon Dieu! But what can have induced you to take up this horrible trade?”
”Oh! it goes back a long way! Alas! in life, one thing leads to another, all things are connected. The child who refuses to study, the youth who leads a vagabond life, the young man who seeks only to enjoy himself and to gratify his pa.s.sions--all these are insensibly marching on to the goal which I have reached. They approach it less openly, perhaps! Some become swindlers, others Greeks--that is to say, they cheat at cards in fas.h.i.+onable society. I consider myself as good as they are; I run greater risks, that is all the difference! Yes, the man who seeks nothing but pleasure comes to this, unless he has the strength, the common sense, to stop in time. But I did not stop. I determined to indulge myself with all the forms of pleasure which the favorites of fortune enjoy--or those men whose talents raise them to the highest positions, to the greatest honors. But I had neither fortune nor talent.
I might tell you that it was the decree of fate, that my destiny was written in advance, that I could not avoid it. I will not say that, because I do not believe it; because, on the contrary, everything tends to prove that men make themselves what they are.--Besides, why should I seek to excuse myself? I had a momentary respite from my pa.s.sions--a moment of calm and almost unalloyed happiness; that was when I knew you, Miretta! Your sincere love made me think, for a brief period, that to love was all that was necessary to be happy. But soon those pa.s.sions, which you had had the art to lull to sleep, reawoke in my being; it was impossible for me to resist them. You yourself unsuspectingly aroused them sometimes; for when I saw you dressed so simply, so shabbily, I would say to myself:
”'Ah! how lovely she would be in a handsome silk dress! in the jewels with which so many old and ugly women bedeck themselves! What joy to drive with her in a fine carriage! to see everyone admire her and envy my good fortune!'”
”Ah! did I need fine clothes to love you, Giovanni?”
”No, not you; but I--I wanted to give them to you, to see you dressed in them.--Well, Miretta, that desire I am able to satisfy now. Come, look!”
Giovanni took Miretta's hand, led her to the chest, opened a false bottom, and showed her a heap of gold pieces, jewels, and diamonds, which half filled the great box.