"macbeth, thou shalt be king!"
mademoiselle lenormand took the hand, which her client held out to her, with a feeling almost akin to veneration.
"will you have the whole truth?" she asked, "or shall i tell you only the good and conceal the evil, as i would to one of those effeminate creatures, to whose nervous irritability you are sometimes subject?"
"tell me all," said the young man briefly.
"see that you remember the order which you have given me," she said, emphasizing the word "order." "your hand, which is the most perfect of any that i have ever seen, presents all the virtuous sentiments, and all the human weaknesses; it reveals at once the most heroic and the most hesitating of characters. most of the lines of your palm dazzle by their brilliancy, while others seem to point to the darkest and most painful hours. i am about to reveal to you an enigma more difficult to read than the theban sphinx; for even as you will be greater than ?dipus, so will you be more unhappy. shall i go on, or shall i stop?"
"go on," he said.
"i obey you," and again she emphasized the word "obey."
"we will begin with the most powerful of the seven[pg 371] planets; all seven are impressed upon your hand, and are placed in their recognized order.
"jupiter is at the extremity of your index finger. let us begin with him. perhaps some confusion will result from this method of procedure, but we will bring forth order out of chaos.
"jupiter then in your hand is placed at the extremity of your index finger, which means that you will be the friend and the enemy of the great men of this world, and among the fortunate of this age. notice this sign in the shape of a fan on the fourth joint of this finger; it indicates that you will forcibly levy tribute upon people and kings. see this sort of grafting on the second joint, broken at its seventh branch; that means that you will occupy in succession six positions of dignity, and that you will stop at the seventh."
"do you know what these positions are?"
"no. all that i can tell you about them is that the last is that of emperor of the west, which is to-day in the house of austria.
"see that star under the grating; it betokens that you have a good genius who will watch over you until your eighth lustre, or until you are forty years old. at that time you will probably forget that providence chose a companion for you, for you will abandon that companion, as a result of a false calculation of human prosperity. the two signs directly beneath that star, which resemble, the one a horseshoe, and the other a chessboard, indicate that after long prosperity you will inevitably fall, and from the greatest height to which man has ever attained. you will fall rather through the influence of women than the strength of men. four lustres will be the term of your triumph and power.
"this other sign, at the foot of jupiter, accompanied by these three other stars, indicate that during the last three years of your greatness and prosperity, your enemies will be trying to undermine you, and that three months will suffice to hurl you from your exalted position, and that the[pg 372] crash of your fall will resound throughout the east and the west. shall i go on?"
"go on!" said the young man.
"these two stars at the extremity of the middle finger, which is the finger of saturn, indicate positively that you will be crowned in the same metropolis which has witnessed the coronations of the kings of france, your predecessors. but the sign of saturn, placed immediately below these two stars, and governing them, is of the gloomiest import for you.
"on the second joint of this middle finger there are two signs, which are peculiar in that they seem to contradict each other. the triangle denotes a curious, suspicious man, not at all lavish of his means except to his soldiers, and who during his life will receive three wounds: the first on the thigh, the second on the heel, and the third on the little finger. the second of these signs, a star, denotes a magnanimous sovereign, a lover of the beautiful, forming gigantic projects, which are not only impossible of realization, but which none but he would be capable of conceiving.
"this line, which resembles an s, winding over the middle joint, forebodes, besides various other perils, several attempts at assassination, among which there is a prearranged explosion.
"the straight line, the letters c and x, which extend almost to the root of the finger of saturn, betoken a second alliance, more illustrious than the first."
"but," interrupted the young man, impatiently, "this is the second or third time that you have spoken of this first alliance which is to protect the first eight lustres of my life. how am i to recognize the lady when i see her?"
"she is dark," replied the sibyl; "the widow of a fair-haired man who wore a sword and perished by the axe. she has two children, whom you will adopt for your own. in examining her face you will recognize her by two things: one is that she has a noticeable mark on one of her eyebrows, and the second that in talking she frequently raises her right[pg 373] hand, being accustomed to holding a handkerchief, which she carries to her mouth whenever she laughs."
"very well," he returned, "now let us come hack to my horoscope."
"see at the base of the finger of saturn these two signs, one of which resembles a gridiron without a handle, and the other the six of diamonds.
"they predict that your second wife will destroy your happiness, and that she, unlike your first wife, will be fair and born of a race of kings.
"the figure representing the image of the sun at the end of the third joint of the ring finger, which is the finger of apollo, proves that you will become an extraordinary personage, rising by your own merit, but especially favored by jupiter and mars.
"these four straight lines, placed like a palisade below this image of the sun, betoken that you will struggle in vain against a power which, unaided, will stop you in your career.
"beneath these four straight lines we find again that serpentine line, in the form of the letter s, which has already twice predicted misfortune for you on the finger of saturn; if the star, which is below that line, were above it instead, it would indicate that you would continue in the zenith of your power for seven lustres.
"the fourth finger of the left hand bears the sign of mercury at the end of the third joint. this means that few men will possess such sagacity, knowledge, finesse, exactness of reasoning power and keenness of mind as you. you will bend several nations to your vast projects; you will undertake expeditions which will occasion great wonderment; you will cross deep rivers, ascend steep mountains, and traverse immense deserts. but this sign of mercury also denotes that you will have a very abrupt and capricious temper; that this temper will create powerful enemies against you; and that in the spirit of a true cosmopolitan, tormented by lust of conquest, you will not be[pg 374] contented anywhere, and that sometimes you will even feel that europe is too confined a sphere for you.
"as for this ladder which is drawn between the first and third joints of the finger of mercury, it denotes that in the days of your power, you will carry out immense works for the embellishment of your capital as well as the other cities of your kingdom.
"and now we pass to the thumb, which is the finger of venus.
"as you see, here is her all-powerful sign on the second joint. it announces that you will adopt children which are not your own, and that your first union will be childless, although you have had, and will have again, natural children. but as compensation, here are the three stars which are dominated by it; this is a sign that, in spite of the efforts of the enemy, surrounded by great men who supplement your genius, you will be crowned between your sixth and seventh lustre, and that the pope himself, to gain your favor for the church of rome, will come from rome to place the crown of louis xiv. and saint louis upon your head and that of your wife.
"beneath the three stars, do you see the sign of venus and that of jupiter? beside them, and on the same line, do you see those numbers which are so lucky when in conjunction—9, 19, and 99? they are the proof that the east and west will clasp hands, and that the c?sars of the house of hapsburg will consent to ally their name with yours.
"below those numbers we find the same sun which we have already seen on the tip of the finger of apollo, and which indicates that, contrary to the celestial luminary, which goes from east to west, your course will be from west to east.
"now let us go up from the first joint of this thumb to the o which crosses a bar diagonally. well, that sign indicates disordered vision, political blindness. as for the three stars on the first joint and the sign which surmounts them, they are only a confirmation of the prediction that[pg 375] women will have a great influence upon your life, and they indicate that even as happiness will come to you through a woman, so will it take flight through a woman.
"as for the four signs scattered about the palm of the hand in the form of an iron rake, one in the field of mars, another adhering to the line of life, and the remaining two adjoining the base of the mountain of the moon, they indicate prodigal expenditure of the blood of soldiers, but only upon the battlefield.
"the top of this forked line, divided toward the mount of jupiter, number 8, denotes extended journeys in europe, asia, and africa. some of these journeys will be forced ones, as the x at the top of the line of life denotes, overlooking the mount of venus. finally, as its branches cross beneath the line of mars, it is a sure sign of great renown, due to glorious feats of arms. in speaking to you, men will exhaust the whole vocabulary of humility and eulogy; you will be the glorious man, the man of prodigies and miracles. you will be alexander, you will be c?sar, you will be even greater than they; you will be atlas bearing the world. after seeing the whole universe lighted up with your glory, you will see it black as night on the day of your death; and men, seeing that the world is out of joint, will ask, not whether a man has just died, but whether the sun has set."
the young man had listened to this prophecy with an air of gloom rather than joy; he had seemed to follow the sibyl to these heights where she had paused, fatigued, to take breath; then with her he had descended into the abyss, where, as she said, his fortune would be sunk.
he remained silent a moment after she had ceased.
"you have prophesied c?sar's fortune for me," he said, after a pause.
"it is greater than c?sar's," she said; "for c?sar did not attain his end, and you will yours. c?sar put his foot only upon the first step of the throne, and you will take your seat upon it. but do not forget the dark woman[pg 376] who has a mark above her right eyebrow, and who carries her handkerchief to her month when she smiles."
"and when shall i meet her?" asked the young man.
"you have met her to-day," replied the sibyl, "and she marked with her foot the spot where your long line of victories will begin."
it was so manifestly impossible that the sibyl could have prepared beforehand this series of undoubted truths which had taken place in the past, and the succession of incredible facts which were still buried in the future, that for the first time the young officer believed thoroughly in what she had told him. he put his hand in his pocket and drew forth a purse containing some gold-pieces; but the sibyl laid a detaining hand upon his arm.
"if i have prophesied lies," she said, "the price is too great. if, on the contrary, i have told you the truth we can settle our account only at the tuileries. at the tuileries, then, when you are emperor of the french."
"so be it," replied the young man; "at the tuileries! and if you have told me the truth, you will lose nothing by waiting."[5]
[5] we can vouch for the truth of this scene the more confidently because the details were given us by mademoiselle lenormand's friend, pupil, and confidante, madame moreau, who lived in the rue du tournon, no. 5, in the same house with the celebrated sibyl, and who, devoting herself to the same art, met with great success.
