In truth, Henry’s ecclesiastical secretary was greatly displeased at the words “monastic arts:” however, an apology and some pieces of gold not only brought the avaricious Monk into good-humour again, but even induced him to offer to be the bearer of his letter, in case the young Lord of Montfort should still think proper to send it, after hearing what he (the Monk) had to say upon the subject.
Henry gave him permission to speak, and promised to be attentive.
—“You believe then,” began Father Jacob, “that the form, whose appearance so greatly surprized you in the Chapel belonged to a deceased person?—Count of Montfort, it was the living Rosanna, Tell whom you beheld; Rosanna who has now exchanged that name for the more lofty one of Ida of Werdenberg—You start?—You believe what I tell you to be impossible?—Nay, Count, with all my heart! Number me (if you like it) among those, who wish to impede you in the gratification of your new amours: it would be ill-breeding in me to force upon you the conviction of a truth, to which you are evidently so unwilling to give credit!”—
The crafty Friar rose, as if about to quit the apartment. It is superfluous to say, that Henry (whose head was now assailed by astonishment from a new quarter) did not suffer him to depart.—Father Jacob possest the whole of Ida’s history, except in so far as related to her adventure with Erwin Melthal: he refused to communicate any portion of his knowledge, till this hitherto unsuspected circumstance had been fully explained to him. This demand was complied with, every circumstance was confided to him; and with astonishing quickness he discerned in this narrative the means of attaining an object, which he and his honest ally, the keeper of Count Frederick’s conscience, had very nearly at heart, but which they had found themselves compelled to abandon in despair.
Montfort had finished.—And now the Monk exerted all his eloquence to convince his auditor of that, which Henry’s heart was already most anxious to believe; namely, that his first oaths of love ought to be the most binding; that it was no less necessary to keep his faith to Ida of Werdenberg than to Rosanna Tell; and that his giving that hand to Elizabeth, which he had sworn to give to another, would only serve to form an union unjust, sinful, abominable, and accursed.
Henry was quite of the Monk’s opinion, long before his oration came to an end. Of much more consequence did it now appear to him to renew his vows to the long-lost late-found Ida, than to appease the indignation of the offended Elizabeth. Joy and anxiety almost bereft him of understanding. The Monk was commissioned to procure for him an immediate interview with Ida; and when Father Jacob returned to him with the information, that an hour had already elapsed, since the Damsels of Werdenberg departed from the Castle, he forgot (in his impatience to rejoin his mistress) so completely all ideas of propriety, of consideration for the feelings of his bride, and of the misconstructions to which he was making his conduct liable, that without farther deliberation he sprang upon his courser, and pursued the way, which the Monk pointed out to him as that, by which he might the most speedily overtake the sisters. In the hurry of his enthusiastic affection, he forgot every thing else; he left no apology for the Count of March; no explanation for Elizabeth; he even neglected to remind the Monk to deliver his letter, or to desire him to clear up the mystery of his conduct.
In fact, Father Jacob had other business upon his hands, than to extenuate Montfort’s offence in the eyes of Elizabeth. Immediately on the youth’s departure, he lost no time in transmitting the following letter to the family-priest of Torrenburg.