Berlin and Sans-Souci Part 54

Proudly, triumphantly she entered the saloon, and returned the profound salutation of the two gentlemen with a slight bow.

"You bring me a message from his majesty?" said she, hastily.

"The king commissioned us to inquire after your health, signora,"

said Algarotti.

Barbarina smiled significantly. "He sent you to watch me closely,"

thought she; "he would ascertain if I am ready to pardon, ready to return to him. I will meet them frankly, honestly, and make their duty light.--Say to his majesty that I have pa.s.sed the night in sighs and tears, that my heart is full of repentance. I grieve for my conduct."

The gentlemen exchanged a meaning glance; they already knew what they came to learn. Barbarina had had a contest with the king, and he had separated from her in scorn. Therefore was the proud Barbarina so humble, so repentant.

Barbarina looked at them expectantly; she was convinced they would now ask, in the name of the king, to be allowed to conduct her to the castle. But they said nothing to that effect.

"Repentance must be a very poisonous worm," said General Rothenberg, looking steadily upon the face of Barbarina; "it has changed the blooming rose of yesterday into a fair, white blossom."

"That is perhaps fortunate," said Algarotti. "It is well known that the white rose has fewer thorns than the red, and from this time onward, signora, there will be less danger of mortal wounds when approaching you."

Barbarina trembled, and her eyes flashed angrily. "Do you mean to intimate that my strength and power are broken, and that I can never recover my realm? Do you mean that the Barbarina, whom the king so shamefully deserted, so cruelly humiliated, is a frail b.u.t.terfly?

That the purple hue of beauty has been brushed from my wings? that I can no longer charm and ravish the beholder because a rough hand has touched me?"

"I mean to say, signora, that it will be a happiness to the king, if the sad experience of the last few days should make you milder and gentler of mood," said Algarotti.

Rothenberg and himself had gone to Barbarina to find out, if possible, the whole truth. They wished to deceive her--to lead her to believe that the king had fully confided in them.

"The king was suffering severely yesterday from the wounds which the sharp thorns of the red rose had inflicted," said Rothenberg.

"And did he not cruelly revenge himself?" cried Barbarina. "He left me for long hours kneeling at his door, wringing my hands, and pleading for pity and pardon, and he showed no mercy. But that is past, forgotten, forgiven. My wounds have bled and they have healed, and now health and happiness will return to my poor martyred heart.

Say to my king that I am humble. I pray for happiness, not as my right, but as a royal gift which, kneeling and with uplifted hands, I will receive, oh, how gratefully! But no, no, you shall not tell this to the king--I will confess all myself to his majesty. Come, come, the king awaits us--let us hasten to him!"

"We were only commanded to inquire after the health of the signora,"

said Algarotti, coolly.

"And as you have a.s.sured us that you have pa.s.sed the night in tears and repentance, this confession may perhaps ameliorate his majesty's sufferings," said Rothenberg.

Barbarina looked amazed from one to the other. Suddenly her cheeks became crimson, and her eyes flashed with pa.s.sion. "You did not come to conduct me to the king?" said she, breathlessly.

"No, signora, the king did not give us this commission."

"Ah! he demands, then, that I shall come voluntarily? Well, then, I will go uncalled. Lead me to his majesty!"

"That is a request which I regret I cannot fulfil. The king has sternly commanded us to admit no one."

"No one?"

"No one, without exception, signora," said Algarotti, bowing profoundly.

Barbarina pressed her lips together to restrain a cry of anguish.

She pressed her hands upon the table to sustain her sinking form.

"You have only come to say that the king will not receive me; that to-day, as yesterday, his doors are closed against me. Well, then, gentlemen, you have fulfilled your duty. Go and say to his majesty I shall respect his wishes--go, sirs!"

Barbarina remained proudly erect, and replied to their greeting with a derisive smile. With her hands pressed nervously on the table, she looked after the two cavaliers as they left her saloon, with wide- extended, tearless eyes. But when the door closed upon them, when sure she could not be heard by them, she uttered so wild, so piercing a cry of anguish, that Marietta rushed into the room.

Barbarina had sunk, as if struck by lightning, to the floor.

"I am dishonored, betrayed, spurned," cried she, madly. "O G.o.d! let me not outlive this shame--send death to my relief!"

Soon, however, her cries of despair were changed to words of scorn and bitterness. She no longer wished to die--she wished to revenge herself. She rose from her knees, and paced the room hastily, raging, flas.h.i.+ng, filled with a burning thirst for vengeance, resolved to cast a veil over her shame, and hide it, at least, from the eyes of the world.

"Marietta, O Marietta!" cried she, breathlessly, "help me to find the means quickly, by one blow to satisfy my vengeance!--a means which will prove to the king that I am not, as be supposes, dying from grief and despair; that I am still the Barbarina--the adored, triumphant, all-conquering artiste--a means which will convince the whole world that I am not deserted, scorned, but that I myself am the inconstant one. Oh, where shall I find the means to rise triumphantly from this humiliation? where--"

"Silence, silence, sister! some one is coming. Let no one witness your agitation."

The servant entered and announced that Baron von Swartz, director of the theatre, wished to know if the signora would appear in the ballet of the evening.

"Say to him that I will dance with pleasure," said Barbarina.

When once more alone, Marietta entreated her to be quiet, and not increase her agitation by appearing in public.

Barbarina interrupted her impatiently. "Do you not see that already the rumor of my disgrace has reached the theatre? Do you not see the malice of this question of Baron Swartz? They think the Barbarina is so completely broken, crushed by the displeasure of the king, that she can no longer dance. They have deceived themselves--I will dance tonight. Perhaps I shall go mad; but I will first refute the slander, and bring to naught the report of my disgrace with the king."

And now the servant entered and announced Monsieur Cocceji.

"You cannot possibly receive him," whispered Marietta. "Say that you are studying your role, for the evening; say that you are occupied with your toilet. Say what you will, only decline to receive him."

Barbarina looked thoughtful for a moment. "No," said she, musingly, "I will not dismiss him. Conduct Cocceji to my boudoir, and say he may expect me."

The moment the servant left them, Barbarina seized her sister's hand. "I have prayed to G.o.d for means to revenge myself, and He has heard my prayer. You know Cocceji loves me, and has long wooed me in vain. Well, then, today he shall not plead in vain; to-day I will promise him my love, but I will make my own conditions. Come, Marietta!"

Glowing and lovely from excitement, Barbarina entered the boudoir where the young Councillor Cocceji, son of the minister, awaited her. With an enchanting smile, she advanced to meet him, and fixing her great burning eyes upon him, she said softly, "Are you not yet cured of your love for me?"

The young man stepped back a moment pale and wounded, but Barbarina stood before him in her wondrous beauty; a significant, enchanting smile was on her lip, and in her eyes lay something so sweetly encouraging, so bewildering, that he was rea.s.sured, he felt that it was not her intention to mock at his pa.s.sion.

"This love is a fatal malady of which I shall never be healed," he said warmly; "a malady which resists all remedies."

"What if I return your love?" said she in soft, sweet tones.

Cocceji's countenance beamed with ecstasy; he was completely overcome by this unlooked-for happiness.

"Barbarina, if I dream, if I am a somnambulist, do not awaken me!

If, in midsummer madness only, I have heard these blissful words, do not undeceive me! Let me dream on, give my mad fancy full play; or slay me if you will, but do not say that I mistake your meaning!"

"I shall not say that," she whispered, almost tenderly. "For a long year you have sworn that you loved me."

"And you have had the cruelty to jest always at my pa.s.sion."

"From this day I believe in your love, but you must give me a proof of it. Will you do that?"

"I will, Barbarina!"

"Well, then, I demand no giant task, no herculean labor; there is no rival whom you must murder! I demand only that you shall make your love for me known to the whole world. Give eclat to this pa.s.sion! I demand that with head erect, and clear untroubled eye, you shall give the world a proof of this love! I will not that this love you declare to me so pa.s.sionately shall be hidden under a veil of mystery and silence. I demand that you have the courage to let the sun in the heavens and the eyes of men look down into your heart and read your secret, and that no quiver of the eyelids, no feeling of confusion shall shadow your countenance. I will that to-morrow all Berlin shall know and believe that the young Councillor Cocceji, the son of the minister, the favorite of the king, loves the Barbarina ardently, and that she returns his pa.s.sion. Berlin must know that this is no cold, northern, German, phlegmatic LIKING, which chills the blood in the veins and freezes the heart, but a full, ardent, glowing pa.s.sion, animating every fibre of our being--an Italian love, a love of suns.h.i.+ne, and of storm, and of tempest."