The Aarbergs, etc

Front matter

THE AARBERGS LONDON : BRADBURY AND EVAN8, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIAR3. THE AAKBEBGrS BY ROSAMOND HERVEY. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. !Lon-ort anS Cambtitigt : MACMILLAN AND CO. 1864. The right of Translation and Reproduction, is reserved. TO THE COUNTESS LOUISE BERCHEM, THESE PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED-, EY HER FRIEND AND SCHOOLFELLOW, THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS OF VOLUME L PAGE Chapter I. . . 1 Chapter II, . . . S Chapter III. 17 Chapter IV. . ... 23 Chapter V. . . 3*2 Chapter VI. . 50 Chapter VII. . . . .57 Chapter VIII. . . 71 Chapter IX. . . ... 81 Chapter X. ...... 90 Chapter XI. .110 Chapter XII. . .124 Chapter XIII. . . . .131 Chapter XIV. . . 148 Chapter XV. . . . . .154 CONTENTS. PAGE Chapter XVI. . . ... 163 Chapter XVII. . . .170 Chapter XVI IT. . . . 192 Chapter XIX. . .... 198 Chapter XX. . 204 Chapter XX s. . . 236 Chapter XXII. . 243 Chapter XXIIT.. . . 266 Chapter XXIV. 272 Chapter XXV . . 280 Chapter XXVI. _ .....

Chapter I

" The Aarberg estates are entailed, you say, and yet, under certain circumstances, they might have come to you instead of to your elder brother ! I don't see how that can be, Max, so you must please try to make the matter clear to me." " That is easily done," answered the person thus addressed ; " the Aarberg property descends to the eldest son, subject to the condition that if he marry he take to himseU a wife who is his equal in rank. Should he fad to do this, the property passes to his brother, or to the nearest relative, who is of course bound by the same condition ; and that is what I meant, MelviUe, when I said that, under certain circumstances, Aarberg might have been mine." " It must be rather a nuisance to have any restric tion laid upon one's choice of a wife," said the first speaker, reflectively ; " but, after all, in your case, VOL. I. B the limitation is not a very narrow one.

There are so many noble families in Germany, that you must have some thousands of young ladies to choose from." " So we should have, if the mere fact of noble birth made a lady eligible ; but, unluckily, she must be a Bavarian, and the daughter of a Baron, of a family as ancient as our own ; and when I tell you that ours dates from the tenth century, you will comprehend that our choice is confined within very narrow limits." " I should rather think so ! Why, Max, you Aarbergs are worse off in the matter of wives than any royal house in Europe. I call yours a very hard case." " A very hard case indeed," said Max Aarberg, throwing himself back in a corner of the carriage ; " a very hard case indeed." Arthur Melville was an English gentleman of an old Cathohc family and large fortune, whom iU health had forced to leave his own country three years before the date at which our story begins.

During the third winter of his sojourn abroad, he had made, at Rome, the acquaintance of Baron Max Aarberg, a young Bavarian, whom love of art had drawn to the Eternal City. Their acquaintance had soon ripened into friendship, and, when Max left Italy, he exacted from Melvdle a promise to pay him a visit on his way back to England. Six months had elapsed since the two young men parted, and now they had met again, and w7ere on their way together from Munich to that south-easterly corner of Bavaria in which the Castle of Aarberg is situated. " And pray how comes it that the possession of Aarberg is hampered by such a very unpleasant condition 1 " asked the Englishman, after a short pause. " It was one of my ancestors in the sixteenth century, Hugo the Proud, as he is called in our family annals, who imposed it upon all future possessors of Aarberg.

This worthy was a widower with one son, whom he betrothed, as a child, to the only daughter and heiress of a neighbouring baron, with an eye, of course, to a union of the two properties. But when this young Baron Max grew up, he objected to the bride his father had selected for him, and, falUng in love with Luitgard Haldinger, the beautiful daughter of a Nuremberg merchant, he was absolutely guilty of the crime of allying the illustrious Aarberg name with that of an unknown burgher maiden. In a word, regardless of the family honour and of his previous engage ment, my namesake married this Luitgard. Hugo the Proud was frantic with rage when the news of this terrible mesalliance reached his ears. He was so very unscrupulous a person, that Max, dreading for his wife the fate of Inez de Castro, fled with her b into Austria, where, under an assumed name, he won for himself the Emperor's favour and all the worldly advantages which an Emperor's favour can bestow.

Baron Hugo married again — the very lady whom he had intended for his son, and to her eldest child he left the Aarberg estate, subject to the condition I have told you of." " And since that time has Aarberg always devolved on the eldest son ?" " Always. Since the days of Baron Max, not one of our family has ever sacrificed his interests to his inclinations. Let us hope," added Max, smiling, "that, with them, inclination and interest have always been identical. Of course, there were formerly many famdies from which the Aarbergs could choose fitting wives ; but their number has gradually diminished, till, at the present moment, there are but six families in the world out of which the heir of Aarberg can select his bride." " And to one of the six I suppose your brother's wife belongs ? " Yes ; Otto made a proper choice."

A silence ensued, during which Melville looked rather discontentedly out of the window. " It is too bad," thought he, " that even in this out-of-the-way corner of the earth I am doomed to find that men are actuated by mercenary motives. Have I not been disgusted, both in England and Italy, by observing the worldliness which prevails in the matter of marriage, and did I not hope that among the Germans, a race who pride themselves on their romance and disinterestedness, I should have found things different ? But, alas ! I suppose, whatever their language or complexion, men are much the same everywhere. Still this Otto Aarberg can hardly be like his brother ; he, I am sure, would be ruled by his affections rather than by his in terests." " I am very thankful Otto has made a marriage which secures to him the possession of Aarberg, and that he has a son to inherit it," said Max, inter rupting his friend's reverie, " as I can now feel myseU free to many just as my feelings may prompt me."

" Do you mean to say that, if you had been in your brother's place, you would have sacrificed your affections to the wish to retain Aarberg ?" " Yes, I think I should," answered Max, reflec tively. " It sounds strange to say so, perhaps, and I daresay it shocks you, Melville, who hold romantic opinions upon the subject of marriage ; but if you consider the matter fairly, you will be forced to own that such conduct on my part would be only natural. Love is a very excellent thing, no doubt ; but there are other feelings implanted in our nature which are also sacred and strong ; and love of the place where we have been born and reared, and with which the history of our family has been bound up for centuries, is hot a feeling to be lightly set at nought. From renouncing wealth I feel sure I should not shrink ; but the voluntary surrender of my ancestral estate, every foot of w7hich I have known from childhood, every nook and corner of which is connected in my mind with pleasant memories — that is a very dif ferent thing."

Melville did not answer, for, as Max spoke, there rose before him the picture of his own English home as he had last seen it, glittering in the dewy splen dour of a bright June morning. He saw the old Elizabethan house, the green undulating park, the wooded dells, where the deer sought a covert from the heat, the groups of stately oaks, and lofty elms, and graceful beeches crowning every swelling knoll, the little lake with its ivy-covered boat-house and snowy swans, and as the scene rose clear before his mind's eye, he felt that it would indeed cost him a terrible pang to see it pass into the hands of strangers. " You are right, Max," said he gravely, " a man must love a woman very dearly to be justified in resigning for her sake the home that he has inherited from his fathers." " Look," said Max, interrupting his friend, " look, there is Aarberg."

Melville looked, and saw on the summit of a low but steep hill a vast, ivy-clad, many-towered pile of buildings. There was a long silence, during which both travellers gazed at the castle as it stood out boldly against the brilliant evening sky : Melville regarding it with all the eager interest of one to whom it was new ; Max, with all the tender affection of one to whom it was familiar and dear. " If you and your brother were both to forfeit your claim to Aarberg, to whom would it go ?" asked Melvdle, abruptly. Max looked round with a start, and the smile on his lips died suddenly away. " To our cousin Edgar," he said shortly ; and then added hastily, " there is a footpath up to the castle through this wood ; shall we walk, and send the car riage round by the road ? " Melville assented, and Max called to the driver to stop. " I wonder," thought Melville, as he followed his companion up the narrow, slippery path, " I wonder why Max Aarberg hates his cousin Edgar."

Chapter II

On issuing from the wood, Melville found himself on a broad carriage-drive, not fifty paces from a lofty archway through which he caught a glimpse of a vast court -yard. " That is the way to the principal entrance," said Max ; " but we seldom make use of it now that Otto has opened a new door on the south side of the castle." Turning, as he spoke, to the left, Max led his companion through iron gates, into a shrubbery which opened out on to a wide, smooth lawn, and then signing to MelviUe to keep silence, he softly approached a large bay-window, and peeped in. " I wanted to take my sister-in-law by surprise," he said, turning to Melville, after a moment's survey of the room within, " but she is not here. Come in and wait whilst I go to look for her." So saying, Max sprang through the open window, and disappeared by a door at the opposite side of the room, whdst Melville, from his station on the lawn, surveyed the apartment.

It was large and lofty, bright and cheerful-looking The ceiling was tastefully painted with groups of wild flowers, and the carpet, which covered a part of the polished oak floor, was embroidered with the same. Little tables, cosy arm-chairs, luxurious couches, were scattered about the room. Small cabinet pictures adorned the walls, separated from each other by brackets, on which stood vases filled with fresh flowers. The deep bay-window by which Melville stood was evidently a lady's particular sanctum, for in it was a tiny work-table, on which lay some delicate woman's work and an open book, with a freshly gathered rose-bud serving as a mark. At the west end of the room was another window of the same kind, which, by means of trellis-work, over which wild vines and creeping roses were trained, had been converted into a perfect little fairy bower, beneath whose shade gold and silver fish swam merrily about in a large marble basin, and half-a-dozen canaries sang gaily in a spacious cage suspended from the ceiling.

Melville looked around him with a feeling of satisfaction. His refined taste was gratified by everything that met his eye. " I wonder what the Baroness Aai-bergis like," thought he. " I fancied, from Max saying so little about her, that she must be rather a common-place person, but this room betrays the presence of a refined and cultivated mind." So thinking, he made a step into the room, and, as he did so, his eye fell upon a picture which had hitherto been hidden from him. It was the head of a young girl, crowned with a wreath of wild roses. Mel ville approached, and stood gazing at it, fascinated by the extreme loveliness of the face. Never, either in nature or in art, had he beheld eyes so soft and dark, nor seen aught to compare with the richness of the waving hair, — hair almost black in shadow, but with a rich red gold tint shining through it wherever the sunlight fell upon it.

The features were small and delicately formed, and the complexion pure and bright as a child's. But the irresistible charm ofthe face lay in its expression, so innocently arch, so play fully tender. "A Psyche," murmured Melville ; "a Psyche, after she has seen Love, but before she has known sorrow. It is too lovely to be a portrait, or, if a portrait, its painter was some artist-lover whose hand was guided by Love himself : " ' A more ideal artist he than all.' At this moment the sound of an opening door made Melville turn round and utter an involuntary exclamation, for, entering the room with Max, he beheld the Psyche, — no artist's dream, but a living reality, lovelier than her picture. " My sister-in-law, the Baroness Aarberg." At the sound of Max's voice Melville started, and advanced hastily to meet his hostess.

" I am so glad to see you, Mr. Melville," said the young Baroness, holding out her hand to her guest, and speaking in tones clear and musical as those of a bird. " Max has told us so much about you that my husband and I have been longing to make your acquaintance." " You do not know how your kind welcome sets my mind at ease, Madame d'Aarberg," answered MelviUe ; " I have felt very diffident about coming here without a direct invitation from yourself." " You need not have felt any such scruples ; Max ought to have told you that we look upon all his friends as ours, even those whom we have never seen. I am so sorry my husband happens to be away : he was obliged to go to Berchtesgaden on business, but he will return early to-morrow. Meantime, Max, you are the host ; so take Mr. Melville to his room, whilst I prepare a tea ct, TAnglaise, which will, I hope, have the effect of making him feel quite at home here."

No sooner were the two gentlemen out of the room than Melville exclaimed, " Why on earth, Max, did you tell me that your sister-in-law was a common place little person ? " " I never told you anything of the sort, Melville." " But your tone, your manner in speaking of her, implied as much." " To own the truth, Melville, I wanted to give you a surprise, and thus revenge myself on you for the contemptuous way in which you often speak of my countrywomen." "The surprise was indeed complete. I had just been looking at the Baroness's portrait, and deciding that it must be an ideal picture, — some artist's embodiment of Psyche, — when she entered the room." " Psyche," repeated Max, thoughtfully ; " a good name for her : her face is really a perfect reflection of her soul. And now that you have seen Ebba, Melvdle, do you stiU suspect Otto of having chosen his wife simply to preserve his property ?

" Melville laughed. " How do you know I ever thought so i. " . " I read it in your dissatisfied countenance, when I told you that Otto's wife fulfilled all the conditions imposed by our horrid ancestor." " Well, if I did your brother a momentary injustice then, I fully acquit him now." "I am quite sure that Otto would have given up Aarberg without a sigh, if he had been obliged to choose between it and Ebba ; — more than I would have done, in his place, for any woman living." " How long has your brother been married ? " " Three years." " Three years ! Why, your sister still looks almost a child." " She is only nineteen ; she was married on her sixteenth birthday." On returning to the sitting-room, the gentlemen found Ebba making tea, whilst a handsome boy, of about a year and a half old, was playing on the rug at her feet.

He started up, and looked rather defiantly at the strangers, but was soon coaxed to go to his uncle Max. " What a fine fellow ! " said Melvdle, admiringly, " and how like his uncle." " He may well be handsome, if he is like me," said Max, surveying himself complacently in a mirror. "As shamelessly vain as ever," said Ebba, smiling. " Meinhard is the image of his father, Mr. MelviUe, and there is some slight resemblance between my husband and his brother." " Some slight likeness, indeed ! Why, Ebba, I doubt whether you yourself know one of us from the other. You need not laugh in that scornful manner, as though I were talking nonsense. But, Ebba, what do I see ? five cups ! Who are your visitors \ " " Marie is here, and her friend Mdlle. Lowenstein." "What, Bruna Lowenstein, — the little pale-faced, domineering, fierce-eyed child with whom I used to quarrel so terribly 1 " " The same, Baron Max," said a voice behind him ; " pale-faced still, but far from little ; as for the fierce eyes, you must judge for yourself whether they are altered."

Melville and Max turned round simultaneously, and saw standing by the open window a young lady of very striking appearance. She was tall and slender, yet strongly made, and possessed a singularly well-formed head and face. Her complexion, though clear and transparent, was so very pale, and her features were so perfectly regular, that, but for the animated light in her dark -grey eyes, and the determined, almost wilful, expression of her beautiful mouth, she might have been taken for an old Greek statue rather than a modern German girl. " Well, Baron Max," continued MdUe. Lbwenstein, smiling at Max's evident embarrassment, " am I much altered ? Should you have known me ? " " I think not," answered Max, recovering himself ; " so my uncomplimentary remarks have no applica tion to your present self."

" Oh, they did not offend me at all ; the descrip tion was quite correct, even to the epithet domineer ing ; which quality, by the way, I have not lost. I am as fond of my own way as ever ; so I have no doubt we shall quarrel quite as much as we did in those old days." " No," answered Max ; " I have grown so good natured, that I never quarrel." " What a change ! " said the young Countess, smiling ; " but it is the only one. I should have known you anywhere ; you are as like La Motte Fouque's heroes as ever." Max was prevented answering by the appearance of another young girl, who, from her likeness to Ebba, Melville at once guessed to be her sister. After she and Max had exchanged greetings, and Mr. Melville had been introduced to both the young ladies, the whole party sat down to tea, but were soon disturbed by the entrance of the nurse, come to fetch Master Meinhard to bed.

The little fellow was so wide awake that there would have been a battle between him and his attendant if Marie de Lindberg had not warded it off by rising and saying she would take him herself. This arrangement seemed to suit the young gentleman, for he trotted off quite quietly, holding his aunt's hand. " How fond he seems of Marie," said Max, as the door closed behind the two. "Yes, he loves her so much, that I am sorely tempted to be jealous." "I don't wonder at it, though," said Max, "her sweet, gentle ways must win all children's hearts." " And not children's hearts only," answered Ebba, smiling. Max made no reply, but, turning to Mdlle. de Lowenstein, was soon deep in animated conversation with her. After a while, Marie came back and drank her tea in silence. She was hke her sister, but quieter, shyer, and not as strikingly lovely, though there was something very engaging in her gentle look and manner.

After tea the whole party went into the garden and walked up and down the lawn. At first they all kept together, but after a time Max drew Marie away from the rest, and even when they had aU returned to the sitting-room these two lingered together in the great bay-window. MelvUle saw that Ebba's eyes wandered more than once to the spot where they stood, and that at such moments a smile stole across her face. " I read your thoughts, Madame d'Aarberg," said MelviUe to himself ; " you have planned a marriage between your sister and your brother-in-law, and you have hopes that your scheme wiU be realised. I wonder whether you will prove right."

Chapter III

The Aarberg family was, as Max had said, one of the oldest in Germany ; he might have added that it was also one of the most respected. None of its members had attained to great celebrity, but each successive generation had worthily fulfilled the duties demanded from it in its day. Rich and honoured, the Aarbergs had lived century after century on their large and beautiful estates, contented with the world, their position, and themselves ; with no draw back to their prosperity, save the condition attached by Baron Hugo to the possession of Aarberg ; and even this had not as yet weighed very heavily upon any of them. Blessed with excellent constitutions and the best of spirits, the Aarbergs had ever been a prosperous and long-lived race. The last Baron had been less fortunate than his predecessors, a fall from his horse having cut short his life when he was only fifty years of age.

He left behind him a young wife and two sons, the Max whom we already know7, and his elder brother Otto. Madame d'Aarberg, rich and pretty, might have married again had she chosen to do so, but she pre- VOL. I. ferred devoting herself to the education of her sons. For some years she had a tutor for them, but, as they grew older, she sent them first to school and after wards to the university. On coming of age, Otto returned to Aarberg, and having a high idea of the duties he owed to society, he at once set to work to improve his property and his tenants. He had so little taste for town life, that it was with difficulty his mother could persuade him to spend a couple of months every winter at Munich. Always busy and happy in his well-employed Use, Otto reached the age of six-and-twenty without its once occurring to him that a wife might add to his happiness ; perhaps the fact that, of the very few young ladies who were eligible candidates for the position of Baroness Aarberg, not one of those he had seen possessed any great attractions, helped to make him indifferent to marriage.

But one day he awoke suddenly to the consciousness that life would henceforward have no charms, unless one woman shared it with him. That was the day on which he first saw Ebba Lindberg. He had known the Lindbergs for some time — ever since they came to reside at Hagenfeld, an estate not more than twenty miles from Aarberg ; but Ebba had been at school, and so, though a pretty frequent visitor at her father's house, he had never seen her. One day he received a note from Madame de Lind berg asking him to spend a week at Hagenfeld : he accepted the invitation, and rode over thither on the day appointed. On approaching the place he turned off the high road into a wood, through which a bridle path led to the house. It was a private road, but Otto was sufficiently intimate with the Lindbergs to make use of it.

Biding leisurely along, he came unawares upon a scene which never afterwards faded from his memory. In the middle of a smaU cleared space, which the boughs of the tall, encircling trees had converted into a natural bower, a young girl was seated on a mossy mound. Her hat and an open book lay on the grass beside her, and at her feet couched a large stag-hound. She was dressed all in white, and in her waving auburn hair she had twined a wreath of wild roses. With hands clasped on her knee, she sat lost in a trance of pleasure, smding to herself. Otto instinctively checked his horse ; the sound of its tread, muffled by the soft turf, had not reached the ear of the lovely dreamer. He stood and gazed till the hound sprang up barking, and startled his mistress. She looked up and saw Otto, who instantly advanced and apo logized for having disturbed her.

" I know I am trespassing," said he, smiling ; " but as I was on my w7ay to Hagenfeld, I thought I might venture to come through the wood, it is so much pleasanter than the road." " You are going to Hagenfeld ? Then you are o Baron Aarberg, whom mamma expects to-day. Come, I will take you to her." Otto sprang from his horse, threw the bridle over his arm, and walked by the side of his lovely guide, whose frankness and child-like confidence made him feel quite shy. By the time they reached the house, he was deeply in love. Madame de Lindberg had never spoken of her daughter to Otto, thinking that she was likely to make a greater impression on him if he saw her without any previous knowledge of her grace and beauty ; but, on the other hand, beheving, truly or not, that Otto's quiet, grave manner was hardly fitted to attract a lively girl, she had often talked of him to Ebba, thus preparing her before hand to like him : for Madame de Lindberg, though she had never breathed a word of it to any one, had long determined that Otto Aarberg should be her son-in-law.

Her wishes were realized even sooner than she had hoped ; for, within three weeks, Otto proposed and was accepted. Baron Lindberg thought his daughter too young to marry ; but as no one else appeared to share his opinion, he offered no further opposition, and the marriage was celebrated on Ebba's sixteenth birthday. Both Otto and Ebba entreated Madame d'Aarberg to live with them ; but she refused ; not from any doubt of their affection, but because she thought it better that young married people should live by themselves. " When I grow old," said she, " I will come to you, and you shall take care of me. In the meantime, I must make a home for Max ; but I will often come to see you.'" She kept her word. Two or three months every summer she spent at Aarberg, and the rest of the year she lived in Munich.

Her annual visit had come to an end a fortnight before the arrival of Melville and Max at Aarberg, and she had now gone to stay with a sister in Wurtemberg. Max Aarberg had as yet led an idle life. His father had left him a small fortune, and his mother's property would some day be his, so it was not necessary for him to adopt a profession, and his tastes did not incline him to embrace any of those open to men of noble birth. His mother regretted this ; but Otto comforted her with the assurance that, though Max had no inclination for the bar, the army, or diplomacy, he had so much sense, talent, and high principle, he was sure to distinguish himself some day. Meantime, Max was enjoying life ; and being good-natured, good-looking, and agreeable, he had many friends. With his sister-in-law he was a great favourite, and his attachment to her amounted almost to devotion.

Having given the reader this slight sketch of the Aarberg family, past and present, it only remains for us to glance at the history of the other guests staying at the Castle wdien Max and Melville arrived there. MademoiseUe Brunhilda de Lbwenstein was an only child, and had lost her mother when she was about ten years old. Her father, a man of reserved disposition and studious tastes, had led a most retired life since the death of his wife, and, not feeling himself fitted to undertake the education of his daughter, had sent her to school, and aUowed her to remain there till she had attained her eighteenth year, not even bringing her home for the holidays. Altheim was within a few miles of Aarberg, and Madame de Lbwenstein and Madame d'Aarberg had been intimate friends, so that, in her childhood, Bruna had known Otto and Max Aarberg well, and had always evinced a peculiar respect and fondness for the former, whilst with the latter, on the con trary, she was always at war.