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Page 16
"Hush! for God's sake, hush!" she cried, trembling violently, as she
pressed her hand upon his lips. "Do not utter such words; do not venture
even to think them; for even thoughts bring danger, and speech will bring
you death."
"Ah," he cried, laughing, "does my proud, royal Leonore fear? Does she
fear in her own house, in her boudoir, where love alone can hear?"
"And hate," she said anxiously. "For you say that not only love, but hate,
dwells in your heart."
"But not in yours, Leonore. No, in your heart dwells only love, and I will
trust it. Yes, you beautiful, glorious woman, I will give you a proof of my
infinite love and confidence. You shall know my secrets and I will tell you
what I have yet betrayed to no woman on earth."
"No, no," she cried vehemently; "no, I will hear nothing. I do not wish to
know your secrets; for I might reveal them in my sleep. They might fill my
soul with such anguish and terror, that they would occupy it even in
slumber, and I might tell in my dreams what I certainly would not disclose
in waking, though I were exposed to the tortures of the rack. Oh, love, I
fear your secrets, and I fear that they threaten you with peril! Give them
up. If my love has any power over you, I entreat you: renounce them. Resign
all your plans of hate and vengeance! Cast thoughts of anger from you! You
have lived and labored for your native land long enough. Now, my love,
dismiss hatred from your heart, and yield it to love! Renounce vengeance
and allow yourself happiness! You say that you love me--give me a proof of
it, a divine, beautiful proof! Let us fly, my beloved one, fly from this
world of falsehood, treachery, hate, and anger, to conceal ourselves in a
quiet corner of the earth, where no one knows us, where the noise of the
world does not penetrate, where we shall learn nothing more of its
dissensions and wars, where only love and peace will dwell with us; where,
clasped in each other's embrace, we can rest on Nature's bosom and receive
from her healing for all our wounds, comfort for all our losses. Oh, let us
fly, for I know well that, so long as you are here--here in this world of
strife and intrigue--you will not be mine; you cannot wrench yourself away
from the numerous relations which hold and bind you, draw you into their
perilous circle. Give them up. Let us rend these bonds which fetter you and
will drag you to destruction. Let us go to America; far, far away to some
quiet, unknown valley, where there are no human beings, and therefore there
will be no falsehood and no treachery, no battles and strife. There let us
dwell in the divine peace of creation; live as Adam and Eve lived in
Paradise, quietly and at rest in the precincts of pure human happiness."
"And you would, you could, do this for me?" he asked, gazing with admiring
eyes at her glowing face, radiant with enthusiasm. "You, the petted queen
of society, the spoiled, delicate daughter of luxury and wealth, you could
resolve to lead a quiet, simple, unknown life, far from the world and men?"
"Oh," she exclaimed, "such an existence would be my happiness, my ecstasy,
my bliss. I would greet it exultingly. I long for it with all the powers of
my soul, all the fervor of my heart. Give it to me, my beloved; give us
both this life of solitude and divine peace. Speak one word--say that you
are ready to fly with me--I will arrange everything for our escape; will
guide us both to liberty, to happiness. Speak this one word, and I will
sever every tie that binds me to the world; my future and my life will
belong to you alone. We will strip off all the luxury that surrounds us as
the glittering snake-skin with which we have concealed our real natures,
and escape into the solitude as free, happy children of God. If such a life
of peace and rest does not satisfy you; if you wish to labor and create, be
useful to mankind, we can find the opportunity. We will buy a tract of land
in America, gather around us people to cultivate it, create a little state
whose prince you will be, which you will render free and happy and content.
Say that you will, my loved one; tell me that you will make my golden
dreams of the future a reality--oh, tell me so and you will render me the
proudest and happiest of women. My dearest, you have so long devoted your
life to hate, consecrate it now to love; let yourself be borne away by it.
It will move mountains and fly on the wings of the morning through every
realm. Hitherto you have called Poland your native land--now let love be
your country, and you shall find it on my breast. Come, my darling, come!
My arms are opened to embrace you; they are ready to bear you away, far
away from this battle-rent, blood-soaked Europe. Save yourself, my beloved,
save me! Come to my arms, let us fly to America!"
She held out her arms, gazing at him with a happy, loving smile. But he did
not rise from his knees to fall upon her breast; he only bowed his head
lower and kissed the hem of her dress--kissed her feet, which he pressed to
his bosom.
"Alas!" he sighed sadly, "this little foot, in its white satin shoe, is not
created for the rough paths of life; it would be torn and blood-stained by
their thorns, and the fault would be mine. No, my sweet love, you shall not
for my sake renounce the world of pleasure and splendor whose queen you
are, even though you wish it, and perhaps even long for the peace and quiet
of solitude. I must not accompany you thither, must not be faithless to
myself. For the most terrible and inconsolable thing which can befall a man
is to be faithless to himself and turn from the way which he himself has
chosen, and from the goals which he himself has appointed. But I should do
this, Leonore, if I renounced the goals and efforts of my whole past life,
and turned from what I have hitherto regarded as the most sacred purpose of
my existence. You yourself, Leonore, cannot wish it, for then how could you
trust my fidelity, my love, if, for your sake, I could be untrue to my
native land, my sacred duty. No, Leonore, my heart is yours, but my brain
and life belong to my country. I came to Vienna to serve it. The great
patriots of Poland sent me here. 'Go to Austria, they said, and serve there
the sacred cause of freedom and human dignity.' And I went, and am here to
serve it. Many are in the league with me, struggling with me toward the
same goal. No one knows the others, but in the decisive hour we shall all
work together for the one great object. And this hour will soon come; all
the preparations are made, all the plans are matured. It is approaching.
The great hour of sacred vengeance is approaching. You do not wish me to
initiate you into my secrets, Leonore, and I now feel that you are right,
for every sharer in these secrets is imperiled by them, and I will not draw
you, my beloved one, into the dangerous circle, where I am bound. But if a
gracious destiny grants our plans success, if the great venture which we
have determined upon succeeds, then, Leonore, I will come to you, hold out
my hand, and exultingly repeat the question which to-day I dare only to
whisper timorously: Leonore, will you be my wife?"
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