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The Duchesse de Langeais-Part25_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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clear that she had entered a convent. Montriveau determined to



search, or to institute a search, for her through every convent

in the world. He must have her, even at the cost of all the



lives in a town. And in justice to this extraordinary man, it

must be said that his frenzied passion awoke to the same ardour



daily and lasted through five years. Only in 1829 did the Duc de

Navarreins hear by chance that his daughter had travelled to



Spain as Lady Julia Hopwood's maid, that she had left her service

at Cadiz, and that Lady Julia never discovered that Mlle Caroline



was the illustriousduchess whose sudden disappearance filled the

minds of the highest society of Paris.



The feelings of the two lovers when they met again on either side

of the grating in the Carmelite convent should now be



comprehended to the full, and the violence of the passion

awakened in either soul will doubtless explain the catastrophe of



the story.

In 1823 the Duc de Langeais was dead, and his wife was free.



Antoinette de Navarreins was living, consumed by love, on a ledge

of rock in the Mediterranean; but it was in the Pope's power to



dissolve Sister Theresa's vows. The happiness bought by so much

love might yet bloom for the two lovers. These thoughts sent



Montriveau flying from Cadiz to Marseilles, and from Marseilles

to Paris.



A few months after his return to France, a merchant brig, fitted

out and munitioned for active service, set sail from the port of



Marseilles for Spain. The vessel had been chartered by several

distinguished men, most of them Frenchmen, who, smitten with a



romantic passion for the East, wished to make a journey to those

lands. Montriveau's familiar knowledge of Eastern customs made



him an invaluable travelling companion, and at the entreaty of

the rest he had joined the expedition; the Minister of War



appointed him lieutenant-general, and put him on the Artillery

Commission to facilitate his departure.



Twenty-fours hours later the brig lay to off the north-west shore

of an island within sight of the Spanish coast. She had been



specially chosen for her shallow keel and light mastage, so that

she might lie at anchor in safety half a league away from the



reefs that secure the island from approach in this direction. If

fishing vessels or the people on the island caught sight of the



brig, they were scarcely likely to feel suspicious of her at

once; and besides, it was easy to give a reason for her presence



without delay. Montriveau hoisted the flag of the United States

before they came in sight of the island, and the crew of the



vessel were all American sailors, who spoke nothing but English.

One of M. de Montriveau's companions took the men ashore in the



ship's longboat, and made them so drunk at an inn in the little

town that they could not talk. Then he gave out that the brig



was manned by treasure-seekers, a gang of men whose hobby was

well known in the United States; indeed, some Spanish writer had



written a history of them. The presence of the brig among the

reefs was now sufficiently explained. The owners of the vessel,



according to the self-styled boatswain's mate, were looking for

the wreck of a galleon which foundered thereabouts in 1778 with a



cargo of treasure from Mexico. The people at the inn and the

authorities asked no more questions.



Armand, and the devoted friends who were helping him in his

difficult enterprise, were all from the first of the opinion that



there was no hope of rescuing or carrying off Sister Theresa by

force or stratagem from the side of the little town. Wherefore



these bold spirits, with one accord, determined to take the bull

by the horns. They would make a way to the convent at the most



seemingly inaccessible point; like General Lamarque, at the

storming of Capri, they would conquer Nature. The cliff at the



end of the island, a sheer block of granite, afforded even less

hold than the rock of Capri. So it seemed at least to



Montriveau, who had taken part in that incredibleexploit, while

the nuns in his eyes were much more redoubtable than Sir Hudson



Lowe. To raise a hubbub over carrying off the Duchess would

cover them with confusion. They might as well set siege to the



town and convent, like pirates, and leave not a single soul to

tell of their victory. So for them their expedition wore but two



aspects. There should be a conflagration and a feat of arms that

should dismay all Europe, while the motives of the crime remained






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