X. Bereaved

It was about ten months since we had last seen him: but that time had sufficed to make an alteration of years in his appearance. He had grown thinner; something of gloom and anxiety had taken the place of that cordial serenity which used to characterize his features. Il avait maigri; quelque chose de sombre et d'anxiété avait remplacé cette cordiale sérénité qui caractérisait autrefois ses traits. His dark blue eyes, always penetrating, now gleamed with a sterner light from under his shaggy grey eyebrows. It was not such a change as grief alone usually induces, and angrier passions seemed to have had their share in bringing it about. Ce n'était pas un tel changement que le chagrin seul induit habituellement, et des passions plus colériques semblaient avoir eu leur part dans sa réalisation.

We had not long resumed our drive, when the General began to talk, with his usual soldierly directness, of the bereavement, as he termed it, which he had sustained in the death of his beloved niece and ward; and he then broke out in a tone of intense bitterness and fury, inveighing against the "hellish arts" to which she had fallen a victim, and expressing, with more exasperation than piety, his wonder that Heaven should tolerate so monstrous an indulgence of the lusts and malignity of hell. Nous n'avions pas repris depuis longtemps notre route, lorsque le général commença à parler, avec sa franchise militaire habituelle, du deuil, comme il l'appelait, qu'il avait subi dans la mort de sa nièce et pupille bien-aimées; et il éclata alors d'un ton d'amertume et de fureur intenses, s'indignant contre les « arts infernaux » dont elle était devenue la victime, et exprimant, avec plus d'exaspération que de piété, son émerveillement que le Ciel tolère une si monstrueuse indulgence de la part des convoitises et malignité de l'enfer. My father, who saw at once that something very extraordinary had befallen, asked him, if not too painful to him, to detail the circumstances which he thought justified the strong terms in which he expressed himself. Mon père, qui vit tout de suite qu'il s'était passé quelque chose de très extraordinaire, lui demanda, sinon trop péniblement, de détailler les circonstances qui, selon lui, justifiaient les termes forts dans lesquels il s'exprimait.

"I should tell you all with pleasure," said the General, "but you would not believe me." "Why should I not?" he asked.

"Because," he answered testily, "you believe in nothing but what consists with your own prejudices and illusions. "Parce que," répondit-il avec humeur, "vous ne croyez qu'à ce qui consiste avec vos propres préjugés et illusions. I remember when I was like you, but I have learned better." "Try me," said my father; "I am not such a dogmatist as you suppose. Besides which, I very well know that you generally require proof for what you believe, and am, therefore, very strongly predisposed to respect your conclusions." De plus, je sais très bien que vous exigez généralement des preuves de ce que vous croyez, et je suis donc très fortement prédisposé à respecter vos conclusions." "You are right in supposing that I have not been led lightly into a belief in the marvelous--for what I have experienced is marvelous--and I have been forced by extraordinary evidence to credit that which ran counter, diametrically, to all my theories. "Vous avez raison de supposer que je n'ai pas été amené à la légère à croire au merveilleux - car ce que j'ai vécu est merveilleux - et j'ai été forcé par des preuves extraordinaires de créditer ce qui allait diamétralement à l'encontre de tous mes sentiments. théories. I have been made the dupe of a preternatural conspiracy." J'ai été dupe d'un complot surnaturel." Notwithstanding his professions of confidence in the General's penetration, I saw my father, at this point, glance at the General, with, as I thought, a marked suspicion of his sanity. Malgré ses professions de confiance dans la pénétration du général, je vis mon père, à ce moment, jeter un coup d'œil sur le général, avec, comme je le pensais, un soupçon marqué sur sa santé mentale. The General did not see it, luckily. He was looking gloomily and curiously into the glades and vistas of the woods that were opening before us.

"You are going to the Ruins of Karnstein?" he said. "Yes, it is a lucky coincidence; do you know I was going to ask you to bring me there to inspect them. I have a special object in exploring. There is a ruined chapel, ain't there, with a great many tombs of that extinct family?" "So there are--highly interesting," said my father. "I hope you are thinking of claiming the title and estates?" « J'espère que vous envisagez de revendiquer le titre et les domaines ? » My father said this gaily, but the General did not recollect the laugh, or even the smile, which courtesy exacts for a friend's joke; on the contrary, he looked grave and even fierce, ruminating on a matter that stirred his anger and horror. Mon père disait cela gaiement, mais le général ne se souvenait pas du rire ni même du sourire que la courtoisie exige pour la plaisanterie d'un ami ; au contraire, il avait l'air grave et même féroce, ruminant une affaire qui provoquait sa colère et son horreur. "Something very different," he said, gruffly. "Quelque chose de très différent," dit-il d'un ton bourru. "I mean to unearth some of those fine people. "Je veux dénicher certaines de ces braves gens. I hope, by God's blessing, to accomplish a pious sacrilege here, which will relieve our earth of certain monsters, and enable honest people to sleep in their beds without being assailed by murderers. J'espère, par la bénédiction de Dieu, accomplir ici un pieux sacrilège, qui débarrassera notre terre de certains monstres, et permettra aux honnêtes gens de dormir dans leur lit sans être assaillis par des meurtriers. I have strange things to tell you, my dear friend, such as I myself would have scouted as incredible a few months since." J'ai des choses étranges à vous dire, mon cher ami, comme j'aurais moi-même repéré des choses incroyables il y a quelques mois." My father looked at him again, but this time not with a glance of suspicion--with an eye, rather, of keen intelligence and alarm.

"The house of Karnstein," he said, "has been long extinct: a hundred years at least. « La maison de Karnstein, dit-il, est éteinte depuis longtemps : cent ans au moins. My dear wife was maternally descended from the Karnsteins. But the name and title have long ceased to exist. The castle is a ruin; the very village is deserted; it is fifty years since the smoke of a chimney was seen there; not a roof left." "Quite true. I have heard a great deal about that since I last saw you; a great deal that will astonish you. J'en ai beaucoup entendu parler depuis la dernière fois que je vous ai vu; beaucoup qui vous étonnera. But I had better relate everything in the order in which it occurred," said the General. "You saw my dear ward--my child, I may call her. No creature could have been more beautiful, and only three months ago none more blooming." Aucune créature n'aurait pu être plus belle, et il y a seulement trois mois, aucune n'était plus épanouie." "Yes, poor thing! when I saw her last she certainly was quite lovely," said my father. "I was grieved and shocked more than I can tell you, my dear friend; I knew what a blow it was to you." He took the General's hand, and they exchanged a kind pressure. Tears gathered in the old soldier's eyes. Les larmes montèrent aux yeux du vieux soldat. He did not seek to conceal them. He said:

"We have been very old friends; I knew you would feel for me, childless as I am. « Nous étions de très vieux amis ; je savais que vous ressentiriez pour moi, sans enfant que je suis. She had become an object of very near interest to me, and repaid my care by an affection that cheered my home and made my life happy. Elle était devenue un objet d'intérêt très proche pour moi, et a payé mes soins par une affection qui a égayé mon foyer et rendu ma vie heureuse. That is all gone. The years that remain to me on earth may not be very long; but by God's mercy I hope to accomplish a service to mankind before I die, and to subserve the vengeance of Heaven upon the fiends who have murdered my poor child in the spring of her hopes and beauty!" Les années qui me restent sur la terre ne seront peut-être pas très longues ; mais par la miséricorde de Dieu, j'espère accomplir un service à l'humanité avant de mourir, et servir la vengeance du Ciel sur les démons qui ont assassiné ma pauvre enfant au printemps de ses espoirs et de sa beauté ! "You said, just now, that you intended relating everything as it occurred," said my father. "Pray do; I assure you that it is not mere curiosity that prompts me." "Je vous en prie, je vous assure que ce n'est pas une simple curiosité qui me pousse." By this time we had reached the point at which the Drunstall road, by which the General had come, diverges from the road which we were traveling to Karnstein. A ce moment, nous étions arrivés au point où la route de Drunstall, par laquelle le général était venu, s'écarte de la route que nous prenions pour Karnstein.

"How far is it to the ruins?" inquired the General, looking anxiously forward.

"About half a league," answered my father. "Pray let us hear the story you were so good as to promise." "Je vous en prie, laissez-nous entendre l'histoire que vous avez eu la bonté de promettre."