Book: Wieland; or The Transformation, An American Tale

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After considerable pause, he once more turned to me. "My
dear girl, this sight is not for you. Can you confide in my
care, and that of Mrs. Baynton's? We will see performed all
that circumstances require."

I made strenuous opposition to this request. I insisted on
remaining near her till she were interred. His remonstrances,
however, and my own feelings, shewed me the propriety of a
temporary dereliction. Louisa stood in need of a comforter, and
my brother's children of a nurse. My unhappy brother was
himself an object of solicitude and care. At length, I
consented to relinquish the corpse, and go to my brother's,
whose house, I said, would need mistress, and his children a
parent.

During this discourse, my venerable friend struggled with his
tears, but my last intimation called them forth with fresh
violence. Meanwhile, his attendants stood round in mournful
silence, gazing on me and at each other. I repeated my
resolution, and rose to execute it; but he took my hand to
detain me. His countenance betrayed irresolution and
reluctance. I requested him to state the reason of his
opposition to this measure. I entreated him to be explicit. I
told him that my brother had just been there, and that I knew
his condition. This misfortune had driven him to madness, and
his offspring must not want a protector. If he chose, I would
resign Wieland to his care; but his innocent and helpless babes
stood in instant need of nurse and mother, and these offices I
would by no means allow another to perform while I had life.

Every word that I uttered seemed to augment his perplexity
and distress. At last he said, "I think, Clara, I have entitled
myself to some regard from you. You have professed your
willingness to oblige me. Now I call upon you to confer upon me
the highest obligation in your power. Permit Mrs. Baynton to
have the management of your brother's house for two or three
days; then it shall be yours to act in it as you please. No
matter what are my motives in making this request: perhaps I
think your age, your sex, or the distress which this disaster
must occasion, incapacitates you for the office. Surely you
have no doubt of Mrs. Baynton's tenderness or discretion."
New ideas now rushed into my mind. I fixed my eyes
stedfastly on Mr. Hallet. "Are they well?" said I. "Is Louisa
well? Are Benjamin, and William, and Constantine, and Little
Clara, are they safe? Tell me truly, I beseech you!"

"They are well," he replied; "they are perfectly safe."

"Fear no effeminate weakness in me: I can bear to hear the
truth. Tell me truly, are they well?"

He again assured me that they were well.

"What then," resumed I, "do you fear? Is it possible for any
calamity to disqualify me for performing my duty to these
helpless innocents? I am willing to divide the care of them
with Mrs. Baynton; I shall be grateful for her sympathy and aid;
but what should I be to desert them at an hour like this!"

I will cut short this distressful dialogue. I still
persisted in my purpose, and he still persisted in his
opposition. This excited my suspicions anew; but these were
removed by solemn declarations of their safety. I could not
explain this conduct in my friend; but at length consented to go
to the city, provided I should see them for a few minutes at
present, and should return on the morrow.

Even this arrangement was objected to. At length he told me
they were removed to the city. Why were they removed, I asked,
and whither? My importunities would not now be eluded. My
suspicions were roused, and no evasion or artifice was
sufficient to allay them. Many of the audience began to give
vent to their emotions in tears. Mr. Hallet himself seemed as
if the conflict were too hard to be longer sustained. Something
whispered to my heart that havoc had been wider than I now
witnessed. I suspected this concealment to arise from
apprehensions of the effects which a knowledge of the truth
would produce in me. I once more entreated him to inform me
truly of their state. To enforce my entreaties, I put on an air
of insensibility. "I can guess," said I, "what has
happened--They are indeed beyond the reach of injury, for they
are dead! Is it not so?" My voice faltered in spite of my
courageous efforts.

"Yes," said he, "they are dead! Dead by the same fate, and
by the same hand, with their mother!"

"Dead!" replied I; "what, all?"

"All!" replied he: "he spared NOT ONE!"

Allow me, my friends, to close my eyes upon the after-scene.
Why should I protract a tale which I already begin to feel is
too long? Over this scene at least let me pass lightly. Here,
indeed, my narrative would be imperfect. All was tempestuous
commotion in my heart and in my brain. I have no memory for
ought but unconscious transitions and rueful sights. I was
ingenious and indefatigable in the invention of torments. I
would not dispense with any spectacle adapted to exasperate my
grief. Each pale and mangled form I crushed to my bosom.
Louisa, whom I loved with so ineffable a passion, was denied to
me at first, but my obstinacy conquered their reluctance.

They led the way into a darkened hall. A lamp pendant from
the ceiling was uncovered, and they pointed to a table. The
assassin had defrauded me of my last and miserable consolation.
I sought not in her visage, for the tinge of the morning, and
the lustre of heaven. These had vanished with life; but I hoped
for liberty to print a last kiss upon her lips. This was denied
me; for such had been the merciless blow that destroyed her,
that not a LINEAMENT REMAINED!

I was carried hence to the city. Mrs. Hallet was my
companion and my nurse. Why should I dwell upon the rage of
fever, and the effusions of delirium? Carwin was the phantom
that pursued my dreams, the giant oppressor under whose arm I
was for ever on the point of being crushed. Strenuous muscles
were required to hinder my flight, and hearts of steel to
withstand the eloquence of my fears. In vain I called upon them
to look upward, to mark his sparkling rage and scowling
contempt. All I sought was to fly from the stroke that was
lifted. Then I heaped upon my guards the most vehement
reproaches, or betook myself to wailings on the haplessness of
my condition.

This malady, at length, declined, and my weeping friends
began to look for my restoration. Slowly, and with intermitted
beams, memory revisited me. The scenes that I had witnessed
were revived, became the theme of deliberation and deduction,
and called forth the effusions of more rational sorrow.



Chapter XVIII


I had imperfectly recovered my strength, when I was informed
of the arrival of my mother's brother, Thomas Cambridge. Ten
years since, he went to Europe, and was a surgeon in the British
forces in Germany, during the whole of the late war. After its
conclusion, some connection that he had formed with an Irish
officer, made him retire into Ireland. Intercourse had been
punctually maintained by letters with his sister's children, and
hopes were given that he would shortly return to his native
country, and pass his old age in our society. He was now in an
evil hour arrived.

I desired an interview with him for numerous and urgent
reasons. With the first returns of my understanding I had
anxiously sought information of the fate of my brother. During
the course of my disease I had never seen him; and vague and
unsatisfactory answers were returned to all my inquires. I had
vehemently interrogated Mrs. Hallet and her husband, and
solicited an interview with this unfortunate man; but they
mysteriously insinuated that his reason was still unsettled, and
that his circumstances rendered an interview impossible. Their
reserve on the particulars of this destruction, and the author
of it, was equally invincible.

For some time, finding all my efforts fruitless, I had
desisted from direct inquiries and solicitations, determined, as
soon as my strength was sufficiently renewed, to pursue other
means of dispelling my uncertainty. In this state of things my
uncle's arrival and intention to visit me were announced. I
almost shuddered to behold the face of this man. When I
reflected on the disasters that had befallen us, I was half
unwilling to witness that dejection and grief which would be
disclosed in his countenance. But I believed that all
transactions had been thoroughly disclosed to him, and confided
in my importunity to extort from him the knowledge that I
sought.

I had no doubt as to the person of our enemy; but the motives
that urged him to perpetrate these horrors, the means that he
used, and his present condition, were totally unknown. It was
reasonable to expect some information on this head, from my
uncle. I therefore waited his coming with impatience. At
length, in the dusk of the evening, and in my solitary chamber,
this meeting took place.

This man was our nearest relation, and had ever treated us
with the affection of a parent. Our meeting, therefore, could
not be without overflowing tenderness and gloomy joy. He rather
encouraged than restrained the tears that I poured out in his
arms, and took upon himself the task of comforter. Allusions to
recent disasters could not be long omitted. One topic
facilitated the admission of another. At length, I mentioned
and deplored the ignorance in which I had been kept respecting
my brother's destiny, and the circumstances of our misfortunes.
I entreated him to tell me what was Wieland's condition, and
what progress had been made in detecting or punishing the author
of this unheard-of devastation.

"The author!" said he; "Do you know the author?"

"Alas!" I answered, "I am too well acquainted with him. The
story of the grounds of my suspicions would be painful and too
long. I am not apprized of the extent of your present
knowledge. There are none but Wieland, Pleyel, and myself, who
are able to relate certain facts."

"Spare yourself the pain," said he. "All that Wieland and
Pleyel can communicate, I know already. If any thing of moment
has fallen within your own exclusive knowledge, and the relation
be not too arduous for your present strength, I confess I am
desirous of hearing it. Perhaps you allude to one by the name
of Carwin. I will anticipate your curiosity by saying, that
since these disasters, no one has seen or heard of him. His
agency is, therefore, a mystery still unsolved."

I readily complied with his request, and related as
distinctly as I could, though in general terms, the events
transacted in the summer-house and my chamber. He listened
without apparent surprize to the tale of Pleyel's errors and
suspicions, and with augmented seriousness, to my narrative of
the warnings and inexplicable vision, and the letter found upon
the table. I waited for his comments.

"You gather from this," said he, "that Carwin is the author
of all this misery."

"Is it not," answered I, "an unavoidable inference? But what
know you respecting it? Was it possible to execute this
mischief without witness or coadjutor? I beseech you to relate
to me, when and why Mr. Hallet was summoned to the scene, and by
whom this disaster was first suspected or discovered. Surely,
suspicion must have fallen upon some one, and pursuit was made."

My uncle rose from his seat, and traversed the floor with
hasty steps. His eyes were fixed upon the ground, and he seemed
buried in perplexity. At length he paused, and said with an
emphatic tone, "It is true; the instrument is known. Carwin may
have plotted, but the execution was another's. That other is
found, and his deed is ascertained."

"Good heaven!" I exclaimed, "what say you? Was not Carwin
the assassin? Could any hand but his have carried into act this
dreadful purpose?"

"Have I not said," returned he, "that the performance was
another's? Carwin, perhaps, or heaven, or insanity, prompted
the murderer; but Carwin is unknown. The actual performer has,
long since, been called to judgment and convicted, and is, at
this moment, at the bottom of a dungeon loaded with chains."

I lifted my hands and eyes. "Who then is this assassin? By
what means, and whither was he traced? What is the testimony of
his guilt?"

"His own, corroborated with that of a servant-maid who spied
the murder of the children from a closet where she was
concealed. The magistrate returned from your dwelling to your
brother's. He was employed in hearing and recording the
testimony of the only witness, when the criminal himself,
unexpected, unsolicited, unsought, entered the hall,
acknowledged his guilt, and rendered himself up to justice.

"He has since been summoned to the bar. The audience was
composed of thousands whom rumours of this wonderful event had
attracted from the greatest distance. A long and impartial
examination was made, and the prisoner was called upon for his
defence. In compliance with this call he delivered an ample
relation of his motives and actions." There he stopped.

I besought him to say who this criminal was, and what the
instigations that compelled him. My uncle was silent. I urged
this inquiry with new force. I reverted to my own knowledge,
and sought in this some basis to conjecture. I ran over the
scanty catalogue of the men whom I knew; I lighted on no one who
was qualified for ministering to malice like this. Again I
resorted to importunity. Had I ever seen the criminal? Was it
sheer cruelty, or diabolical revenge that produced this
overthrow?

He surveyed me, for a considerable time, and listened to my
interrogations in silence. At length he spoke: "Clara, I have
known thee by report, and in some degree by observation. Thou
art a being of no vulgar sort. Thy friends have hitherto
treated thee as a child. They meant well, but, perhaps, they
were unacquainted with thy strength. I assure myself that
nothing will surpass thy fortitude.

"Thou art anxious to know the destroyer of thy family, his
actions, and his motives. Shall I call him to thy presence, and
permit him to confess before thee? Shall I make him the
narrator of his own tale?"

I started on my feet, and looked round me with fearful
glances, as if the murderer was close at hand. "What do you
mean?" said I; "put an end, I beseech you, to this suspence."

"Be not alarmed; you will never more behold the face of this
criminal, unless he be gifted with supernatural strength, and
sever like threads the constraint of links and bolts. I have
said that the assassin was arraigned at the bar, and that the
trial ended with a summons from the judge to confess or to
vindicate his actions. A reply was immediately made with
significance of gesture, and a tranquil majesty, which denoted
less of humanity than godhead. Judges, advocates and auditors
were panic-struck and breathless with attention. One of the
hearers faithfully recorded the speech. There it is," continued
he, putting a roll of papers in my hand, "you may read it at
your leisure."

With these words my uncle left me alone. My curiosity
refused me a moment's delay. I opened the papers, and read as
follows.



Chapter XIX


"Theodore Wieland, the prisoner at the bar, was now called
upon for his defence. He looked around him for some time in
silence, and with a mild countenance. At length he spoke:

"It is strange; I am known to my judges and my auditors. Who
is there present a stranger to the character of Wieland? who
knows him not as an husband--as a father--as a friend? yet here
am I arraigned as criminal. I am charged with diabolical
malice; I am accused of the murder of my wife and my children!

"It is true, they were slain by me; they all perished by my
hand. The task of vindication is ignoble. What is it that I am
called to vindicate? and before whom?

"You know that they are dead, and that they were killed by
me. What more would you have? Would you extort from me a
statement of my motives? Have you failed to discover them
already? You charge me with malice; but your eyes are not shut;
your reason is still vigorous; your memory has not forsaken you.
You know whom it is that you thus charge. The habits of his
life are known to you; his treatment of his wife and his
offspring is known to you; the soundness of his integrity, and
the unchangeableness of his principles, are familiar to your
apprehension; yet you persist in this charge! You lead me
hither manacled as a felon; you deem me worthy of a vile and
tormenting death!

"Who are they whom I have devoted to death? My wife--the
little ones, that drew their being from me--that creature who,
as she surpassed them in excellence, claimed a larger affection
than those whom natural affinities bound to my heart. Think ye
that malice could have urged me to this deed? Hide your
audacious fronts from the scrutiny of heaven. Take refuge in
some cavern unvisited by human eyes. Ye may deplore your
wickedness or folly, but ye cannot expiate it.

"Think not that I speak for your sakes. Hug to your hearts
this detestable infatuation. Deem me still a murderer, and drag
me to untimely death. I make not an effort to dispel your
illusion: I utter not a word to cure you of your sanguinary
folly: but there are probably some in this assembly who have
come from far: for their sakes, whose distance has disabled
them from knowing me, I will tell what I have done, and why.

"It is needless to say that God is the object of my supreme
passion. I have cherished, in his presence, a single and
upright heart. I have thirsted for the knowledge of his will.
I have burnt with ardour to approve my faith and my obedience.

"My days have been spent in searching for the revelation of
that will; but my days have been mournful, because my search
failed. I solicited direction: I turned on every side where
glimmerings of light could be discovered. I have not been
wholly uninformed; but my knowledge has always stopped short of
certainty. Dissatisfaction has insinuated itself into all my
thoughts. My purposes have been pure; my wishes indefatigable;
but not till lately were these purposes thoroughly accomplished,
and these wishes fully gratified.

"I thank thee, my father, for thy bounty; that thou didst not
ask a less sacrifice than this; that thou placedst me in a
condition to testify my submission to thy will! What have I
withheld which it was thy pleasure to exact? Now may I, with
dauntless and erect eye, claim my reward, since I have given
thee the treasure of my soul.

"I was at my own house: it was late in the evening: my
sister had gone to the city, but proposed to return. It was in
expectation of her return that my wife and I delayed going to
bed beyond the usual hour; the rest of the family, however, were
retired.

"My mind was contemplative and calm; not wholly devoid of
apprehension on account of my sister's safety. Recent events,
not easily explained, had suggested the existence of some
danger; but this danger was without a distinct form in our
imagination, and scarcely ruffled our tranquillity.

"Time passed, and my sister did not arrive; her house is at
some distance from mine, and though her arrangements had been
made with a view to residing with us, it was possible that,
through forgetfulness, or the occurrence of unforeseen
emergencies, she had returned to her own dwelling.

"Hence it was conceived proper that I should ascertain the
truth by going thither. I went. On my way my mind was full of
these ideas which related to my intellectual condition. In the
torrent of fervid conceptions, I lost sight of my purpose. Some
times I stood still; some times I wandered from my path, and
experienced some difficulty, on recovering from my fit of
musing, to regain it.

"The series of my thoughts is easily traced. At first every
vein beat with raptures known only to the man whose parental and
conjugal love is without limits, and the cup of whose desires,
immense as it is, overflows with gratification. I know not why
emotions that were perpetual visitants should now have recurred
with unusual energy. The transition was not new from sensations
of joy to a consciousness of gratitude. The author of my being
was likewise the dispenser of every gift with which that being
was embellished. The service to which a benefactor like this
was entitled, could not be circumscribed. My social sentiments
were indebted to their alliance with devotion for all their
value. All passions are base, all joys feeble, all energies
malignant, which are not drawn from this source.

"For a time, my contemplations soared above earth and its
inhabitants. I stretched forth my hands; I lifted my eyes, and
exclaimed, O! that I might be admitted to thy presence; that
mine were the supreme delight of knowing thy will, and of
performing it! The blissful privilege of direct communication
with thee, and of listening to the audible enunciation of thy
pleasure!

"What task would I not undertake, what privation would I not
cheerfully endure, to testify my love of thee? Alas! thou
hidest thyself from my view: glimpses only of thy excellence
and beauty are afforded me. Would that a momentary emanation
from thy glory would visit me! that some unambiguous token of
thy presence would salute my senses!

"In this mood, I entered the house of my sister. It was
vacant. Scarcely had I regained recollection of the purpose
that brought me hither. Thoughts of a different tendency had
such absolute possession of my mind, that the relations of time
and space were almost obliterated from my understanding. These
wanderings, however, were restrained, and I ascended to her
chamber.

"I had no light, and might have known by external
observation, that the house was without any inhabitant. With
this, however, I was not satisfied. I entered the room, and the
object of my search not appearing, I prepared to return.

"The darkness required some caution in descending the stair.
I stretched my hand to seize the balustrade by which I might
regulate my steps. How shall I describe the lustre, which, at
that moment, burst upon my vision!

"I was dazzled. My organs were bereaved of their activity.
My eye-lids were half-closed, and my hands withdrawn from the
balustrade. A nameless fear chilled my veins, and I stood
motionless. This irradiation did not retire or lessen. It
seemed as if some powerful effulgence covered me like a mantle.

"I opened my eyes and found all about me luminous and
glowing. It was the element of heaven that flowed around.
Nothing but a fiery stream was at first visible; but, anon, a
shrill voice from behind called upon me to attend.

"I turned: It is forbidden to describe what I saw: Words,
indeed, would be wanting to the task. The lineaments of that
being, whose veil was now lifted, and whose visage beamed upon
my sight, no hues of pencil or of language can pourtray.

"As it spoke, the accents thrilled to my heart. "Thy prayers
are heard. In proof of thy faith, render me thy wife. This is
the victim I chuse. Call her hither, and here let her
fall."--The sound, and visage, and light vanished at once.

"What demand was this? The blood of Catharine was to be
shed! My wife was to perish by my hand! I sought opportunity
to attest my virtue. Little did I expect that a proof like this
would have been demanded.

"My wife! I exclaimed: O God! substitute some other victim.
Make me not the butcher of my wife. My own blood is cheap.
This will I pour out before thee with a willing heart; but
spare, I beseech thee, this precious life, or commission some
other than her husband to perform the bloody deed.

"In vain. The conditions were prescribed; the decree had
gone forth, and nothing remained but to execute it. I rushed
out of the house and across the intermediate fields, and stopped
not till I entered my own parlour.
"My wife had remained here during my absence, in anxious
expectation of my return with some tidings of her sister. I had
none to communicate. For a time, I was breathless with my
speed: This, and the tremors that shook my frame, and the
wildness of my looks, alarmed her. She immediately suspected
some disaster to have happened to her friend, and her own speech
was as much overpowered by emotion as mine.

"She was silent, but her looks manifested her impatience to
hear what I had to communicate. I spoke, but with so much
precipitation as scarcely to be understood; catching her, at the
same time, by the arm, and forcibly pulling her from her seat.

"Come along with me: fly: waste not a moment: time will be
lost, and the deed will be omitted. Tarry not; question not;
but fly with me!

"This deportment added afresh to her alarms. Her eyes
pursued mine, and she said, "What is the matter? For God's sake
what is the matter? Where would you have me go?"

"My eyes were fixed upon her countenance while she spoke. I
thought upon her virtues; I viewed her as the mother of my
babes: as my wife: I recalled the purpose for which I thus
urged her attendance. My heart faltered, and I saw that I must
rouse to this work all my faculties. The danger of the least
delay was imminent.

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