fearfully did morning dawn on the eyes of the murderer. he had regained his chamber unobserved, and there he crouched in its most gloomy nook. his frenzy had passed away, and left the freezing coldness of despair. the darkness was terrible to him, and yet when the light of morning came, he shrank from it in horror, and buried his face in his garments to shut out the fearful glare. all day he remained motionless. margareta’s loud weeping came to him from within. from her brother’s bolted door, she thought he had departed on one of his usual rambles, and basil heard his name repeated often, mingled with isilda’s,——whom all supposed to have perished in the flames.
basil heard his sister’s sobs; but they fell idly on his stony ears. many sounds rose from the street,——the widow’s cry, the orphan’s moan, and the despairing lament of the houseless and homeless,——but all were nothing to him. he kept the same immovable attitude[112] until daylight waned, and then he rose and lit the fire on his hearth.
brighter and brighter grew the blaze, and wilder gleamed the eyes of the student. he swayed his body to and fro with a low murmuring, and then he passionately invoked the salamandrine.
“the sacrifice is complete——i have no bond to earth——my desire is free. why delayest thou, o spirit? come, teach me; let me know the past. give me wisdom,——i thirst!——i thirst! let me become as a god in knowledge!”
but the vision came not; there was no voice.
“spirit of fire! art thou deaf to me still? i have done all,——i have broken every human tie,——i have become what men would loathe. hear me,——answer me, or i die!”
wreaths of dusky vapor overshadowed the fire, and from them proceeded a melancholy voice:——
“o mortal, sin has entered thine heart; blood is on thy hand, and the polluted can have no fellowship with the pure. thine eyes may behold us no more forever!”
a fearful shudder passed through the student’s frame.
“it is false! cursed spirits, ye have deceived me!”
“it is not we who have deceived thee, but thine own soul,” answered the salamandrine. “we are not evil; unseen, we would have watched over thee thy whole life through. it was thou who didst long after what is permitted but to few,——to hold commune with the invisible. to do this with safety, man must keep a heart pure as fearless, and such was not thine. thou[113] didst seek us,——we allured not thee. blame not us, therefore, but thy own weakness. thou hast sinned, and henceforth we are invisible to thee!”
“woe! woe!” cried basil, in agony; “have i then lost all? adorable spirit, guide of my life, have mercy!——forsake me not!”
“i do not forsake thee, o poor mortal!” answered the voice, sadly. “i am here, beautiful and tender as before; but thou art no longer able to behold me. sin has darkened thine eyes, and thou wilt see me no more——forever.”
“no more?” echoed the student in tones of thrilling misery.
“no more,” replied the mournful accents of the salamandrine; and a faint chorus, like the sighing of the wind, echoed plaintively,——
“no more, o, poor mortal, no more!”
the vapor swept away from the fire, and the student was left to his despair.
viii.
two days after the terrible fire, some who loved and pitied the desolate margareta forcibly entered her brother’s room. they found basil dead. he lay on the floor, his marble face upturned to their horror-stricken view. there might have been agony in his last moments, for the hands were tightly pressed upon the heart; but all was calmness now. the features had settled into their eternal repose. how or when the spirit parted none knew, save him who gave it, and who had now reclaimed his gift. the book of[114] michael meyer lay beside the student; and firmly clasped in the stiffened fingers was a long tress of woman’s hair. more than this, all was mystery.
many years after, when the memory of the student of cologne had long been forgotten, an aged nun died in a convent not far from the city. it was margareta, the only sister of basil wolgemuth the rosicrucian.
