University of Virginia Library

17. XVII.

“Dreadful freedom! That instant I felt myself
alone. I was detached from the sphere in which

I had borne so small a labour, and enjoyed such a
high and worshipped glory, and I floated away
into a thousand regions, and journeyed with the
mighty spectre which had seduced me to his sorrows
and my own shame. But ere I had utterly
left the sphere in which I had dwelt so happily
and so long, I heard the sad lament of my companion
stars, stronger, yet more humble in station
than myself, whom I had left behind me. It was
a strain which told me my destiny, and shaped out
my only future hope, as it detailed my own duty
to myself and to the mighty master.

“Such was the mournful anthem which my
brethren sang in sorrow at my departure and fall,
and whose strains followed me afar, and still follow
me. I hear them now; and thou too, dearest
Anastasia, with whom I had commenced that new
being, and through whose beloved agency I had
hoped for my restoration, with thee beside me,
partaking my immortality and glory in that high
place — thou too mayst hear them now.”

And she did hear, for a gust of the breeze, that
seemed full of perfume, floated that moment by
the window, and her ears distinctly noted the last
words of the melancholy and imploring anthem: —

“I had commenced that new being with thee,
my Anastasia, and hoped to have succeeded in my
labours; but the very danger which I feared, and
against which I strove to counsel thee, has wrecked
the fond hope within my bosom, and now drives
me forth once more, alone, to commence my toils
anew. Thou wast not content with thy condition
or with mine — thou hast committed mine own
error.”

“And is there no forgiveness, Albert? — let me
but be tried once more, my beloved —”

“Thou shalt be tried, Anastasia — this is thy
doom, no less than mine. Thou hast striven to
know — it is now thy destiny — thou art now
doomed to partake of mine.”

“Ah! happy — happy shall I be, Albert, if so
permitted.”

“Alas! Anastasia, thou knowest not what it is
— thou canst not dream of its terrors,” was the
mournful answer of the spirit to the fond assurances

of the devoted woman. “Thou deemest that,
to share my destiny, thou wilt still remain with
me.”

“And will it not be so, my Albert?”

“Alas! no!” was the sad reply. “It is my
doom of loneliness which thou art to share — my
doom of isolation. Thou wilt not go with me,
nor I with thee, yet we must both go forth. Thou
hast to seek, as well as myself, for that condition
among the mortal which is borne without repining,
and with no desire of change. Make thyself
kindred to such a spirit, and thou livest with me
when I rejoin the stars.”

She lay shrieking at the foot of the cloud, which
now slowly descended, and seemed to encircle her.

“Come!” exclaimed a sober and sad, yet soft
accent, at the window; and there, in her sight,
floated once more the kindred star which had followed
her lover; she felt herself lifted from the
ground, and enveloped in a fold of the softest and
the sweetest air, while the bright eye of Albert,
starlike and pure, came close to her forehead.

“What wouldst thou?” demanded Anastasia,
in her bewilderment.

“Impress upon thee my immortality with my
doom,” was the answer; and that moment she
felt the star pressing like ice upon her forehead.

It seemed to sink, cold and chilling, into her very
brain, and she shrieked with the momentary agony
of that feeling. In another instant she was released
from his embrace, and, whirling round with
a motion not her own, she now found herself
wrapped in an airy mantle like that of her companion,
and she was conscious, while floating away
— away into the fathomless abysses of the air —
that she shone from the centre of a cloud like the
star which had personified her lover. Her next
feeling was that of utter isolation. She beheld the
beautiful star, which she had loved as a mortal,
sailing along, with a slow and steady light, above
the rocks and the river, and she strove to follow
and rejoin it. But a power restrained her movements
and checked her will, and she now felt herself
borne unresistingly in an opposite direction.
Then, for the first time, did she feel the horrible nature
of that destiny which she had so passionately
desired to share with him. The fearful truth which
he had uttered came like a knell of agony to her
suffering soul, as she felt and feared, in that desolate
moment, that she was destined for ever after
to remain alone!