Lothair - Benjamin Disraeli (best historical biographies .TXT) 📗

Greek priests, particularly in these Asian islands, are good sort of people," said Mr. Phoebus. "They marry and have generally large families, often very beautiful. They have no sacerdotal feelings, for they never can have any preferment; all the high posts in the Greek Church being reserved for the monks, who study what is called theology. The Greek parish priest is not at all Semitic; there is nothing to counteract his Aryan tendencies. I have already raised the statue of a nymph at one of their favorite springs and places of pleasant pilgrimage, and I have a statue now in the island, still in its case, which I contemplate installing in a famous grove of laurel not far off and very much resorted to."

"And what then?" inquired Lothair.

"Well, I have a conviction that among the great races the old creeds will come back," said Mr. Phoebus, "and it will be acknowledged that true religion is the worship of the beautiful. For the beautiful cannot be attained without virtue, if virtue consists, as I believe, in the control of the passions, in the sentiment of repose, and the avoidance in all things of excess."

One night Lothair was walking home with the sisters from a village festival where they had been much amused.

"You have had a great many adventures since we first met?" said Madame Phoebus.

"Which makes it seem longer ago than it really is," said Lothair.

"You count time by emotion, then?" said Euphrosyne.

"Well, it is a wonderful thing, however it be computed," said Lothair.

"For my part, I do not think that it ought to be counted at all," said Madame Phoebus; "and there is nothing to me so detestable in Europe as the quantity of clocks and watches."

"Do you use a watch, my lord?" asked Euphrosyne, in a tone which always seemed to Lothair one of mocking artlessness.

"I believe I never wound it up when I had one," said Lothair.

"But you make such good use of your time," said Madame Phoebus, "you do not require watches."

"I am glad to hear I make good use of my time," said Lothair, "but a little surprised."

"But you are so good, so religious," said Madame Phoebus. "That is a great thing; especially for one so young."

"Hem!" said Lothair.

"That must have been a beautiful procession at Rome," said Euphrosyne.

"I was rather a spectator of it than an actor in it," said Lothair, with some seriousness. "It is too long a tale to enter into, but my part in those proceedings was entirely misrepresented."

"I believe that nothing in the newspapers is ever true," said Madame Phoebus.

"And that is why they are so popular," added Euphrosyne; "the taste of the age being so decidedly for fiction."

"Is it true that you escaped from a convent to Malta?" said Madame Phoebus.

"Not quite," said Lothair, "but true enough for conversations."

"As confidential as the present, I suppose?" said Euphrosyne.

"Yes, when we are grave, as we are inclined to be now," said Lothair.

"Then, you have been fighting a good deal," said Madame Phoebus.

"You are putting me on a court-martial, Madame Phoebus," said Lothair.

"But we do not know on which side you were," said Euphrosyne.

"That is matter of history," said Lothair, "and that, you know, is always doubtful."

"Well, I do not like fighting," said Madame Phoebus, "and for my part I never could find out that it did an good."

"And what do you like?" said Lothair. "Tell me how would you pass your life?"

"Well, much as I do. I do not know that I want any change, except I think I should like it to be always summer."

"And I would have perpetual spring," said Euphrosyne.

"But, summer or spring, what would be your favorite pursuit?"

"Well, dancing is very nice," said Madame Phoebus.

"But we cannot always, be dancing," said Lothair.

"Then we would sing," said Euphrosyne.

"But the time comes when one can neither dance nor sing," said Lothair.

"Oh, then we become part of the audience," said Madame Phoebus, "the people for whose amusement everybody labors."

"And enjoy power without responsibility," said Euphrosyne, "detect false notes and mark awkward gestures. How can any one doubt of Providence with such a system of constant compensation!"

There was something in the society of these two sisters that Lothair began to find highly attractive. Their extraordinary beauty, their genuine and unflagging gayety, their thorough enjoyment of existence, and the variety of resources with which they made life amusing and graceful, all contributed to captivate him. They had, too, a great love and knowledge both of art and nature, and insensibly they weaned Lothair from that habit of introspection which, though natural to him, he had too much indulged, and taught him to find sources of interest and delight in external objects. He was beginning to feel happy in this islands and wishing that his life might never change, when one day Mr. Phoebus informed them that the Prince Agathonides, the eldest son of the Prince of Samos, would arrive from Constantinople in a few days, and would pay them a visit. "He will come with some retinue," said Mr. Phoebus, "but I trust we shall be able by our reception to show that the Cantacuzenes are not the only princely family in the world."

Mr. Phoebus was confident in his resources in this respect, for his yacht's crew in their Venetian dresses could always furnish a guard of honor which no Grecian prince or Turkish pacha could easily rival. When the eventful day arrived, he was quite equal to the occasion. The yacht was dressed in every part with the streaming colors of all nations, the banner of Gaston Phoebus waved from his pavilion, the guard of honor kept the ground, but the population of the isle were present in numbers and in their most showy costume, and a battery of ancient Turkish guns fired a salute without an accident.

The Prince Agathonides was a youth, good looking and dressed in a splendid Palikar costume, though his manners were quite European, being an attach to the Turkish embassy at Vienna. He had with him a sort of governor, a secretary, servants in Mamlouk dresses, pipe-bearers, and grooms, there being some horses as presents from his father to Mr. Phoebus, and some rarely-embroidered kerchiefs and choice perfumes and Persian greyhounds for the ladies.

'The arrival of the young prince was the signal for a series of entertainments on the island. First of all, Mr. Phoebus resolved to give a dinner in the Frank style, to prove to Agathonides that there were other members of the Cantacuzene family besides himself who comprehended a first-rate Frank dinner. The chief people of the island were invited to this banquet. They drank the choicest grapes of France and Germany, were stuffed with truffles, and sat on little cane chairs. But one might detect in their countenances how they sighed for their easy divans, their simple dishes, and their resinous wine. Then there was a wolf-hunt, and other sport; a great day of gymnasia, many dances and much music; in fact, there were choruses all over the island, and every night was a serenade.

Why such general joy? Because it was understood that the heir-apparent of the isle, their future sovereign, had in fact arrived to make his bow to the beautiful Euphrosyne, as though he saw her for the first time.


CHAPTER 74

Very shortly after his arrival at Malta, Mr. Phoebus had spoken to Lothair about Theodora. It appeared that Lucien Campian, though severely wounded, had escaped with Garibaldi after the battle of Mentana into the Italian territories. Here they were at once arrested, but not severely detained, and Colonel Campian took the first opportunity of revisiting England, where, after settling his affairs, he had returned to his native country, from which he had been separated for many years. Mr. Phoebus during the interval had seen a great deal of him, and the colonel departed for America under the impression that Lothair had been among the slain at the final struggle.

"Campian is one of the beat men I over knew," said Phoebus. "He was a remarkable instance of energy combined with softness of disposition. In my opinion, however, he ought never to have visited Europe: he was made to clear the backwoods, and govern man by the power of his hatchet and the mildness of his words. He was fighting for freedom all his life, yet slavery made and slavery destroyed him. Among all the freaks of Fate nothing is more surprising than that this Transatlantic planter should have been ordained to be the husband of a divine being--a true Hellenic goddess, who in the good days would have been worshipped in this country, and have inspired her race to actions of grace, wisdom, and beauty."

"I greatly esteem him," said Lothair "and I shall write to him directly."

"Except by Campian, who spoke probably about you to no one save myself," continued Phoebus, "your name has never been mentioned with reference to those strange transactions. Once there was a sort of rumor that you had met with some mishap, but these things were contradicted and explained, and then forgotten: and people were all out of town. I believe that Cardinal Grandison communicated with your man of business, and between them every thing was kept quiet, until this portentous account of your doings at Rome, which transpired after we left England and which met us at Malta."

"I have written to my man of business about that," said Lothair, "but I think it will tax all his ingenuity to explain, or to mystify it as successfully as he did the preceding adventures. At any rate, he will not have the assistance of my lord cardinal."

"Theodora was a remarkable woman on many accounts," said Mr. Phoebus, "but particularly on this, that, although one of the most beautiful women that ever existed, she was adored by beautiful women. My wife adored her; Euphrosyne, who has no enthusiasm, adored her; the Princess of Tivoli, the most capricious being probably that ever existed, adored; and always adored, Theodora. I think it must have been that there was on her part a total absence of vanity, and this the more strange in one whose vocation in her earlier life had been to attract and live on popular applause; but I have seen her quit theatres ringing with admiration and enter her carriage with the serenity of a Phidian muse."

"I adored her," said Lothair, "but I never could quite solve her character. Perhaps it was too rich and deep far rapid comprehension."

"We shall never perhaps see her like again," said Mr. Phoebus. "It was a rare combination, peculiar to the Tyrrhenian sea. I am satisfied that we must go there to find the pure Hellenic blood, and from thence it got to Rome."

"We may not see her like again, but we may see her again," said Lothair; "and sometimes I think she is always hovering over me."

In this vein, when they were alone, they were frequently speaking of the departed, and one day--it was before the arrival of Prince Agathonides--Mr. Phoebus said to Lothair: "We will ride this morning to what we call the grove of Daphne. It is a real laurel-grove. Some of the trees must be immemorial, and deserve to have been sacred, if once they were not so. In their huge, grotesque forms you would not easily recognize your polished friends of Europe, so trim and glossy and shrub-like. The people are