"'I will give you a month for reflection,' he said. 'I have too good an opinion of you, I am too hopeful as regards your future, to allow you to ruin yourself with these wild Socialist intrigues. Your head can render better service to the State than by weaving endless, fruitless conspiracies in prison or in exile. You are not the first man who has recognised his error, and become in after-times the zealous opponent of the cause he once defended, and the very pertinacity and defiance with which you now put from you the proffered means of rescue, prove to me that I may take on myself the responsibility of readmitting you to the service, if you make up your mind to come back as one of ours. As yet no one has accused you, and it depends entirely upon yourself whether the charge against you shall be withdrawn. The few documents which might be compromising to you are in my hands, and will be destroyed directly I have your word. I shall expect to hear your decision in a month from this time. For the present, you are free, and have the choice between an honourable, possibly a brilliant, career, and ruin."
"And you chose----?" asked Gabrielle.
"No," replied Raven, bitterly. "In reality, no choice was left me. They had taken care I should be spared the pain of making one. My first endeavour was to find out how much was really lost to our cause, and how much might yet be saved. I sought out my friends, and met with a reception for which I was utterly unprepared. 'Treason,' they cried, on seeing me. 'Treason,' saluted my ears, wherever I showed myself. Hate, indignation, abhorrence--the whole gamut was run through. At first, I did not understand the meaning of it all--too soon it was made intelligible to me. In their eyes I was the traitor who had brought about the discovery. My official position, the evident favour shown me by my chief, had already given rise to some distrust--now it was clear as day. I had been the Minister's tool and spy. I had disclosed, had sold to him the secrets of our society. My own arrest, they concluded, was nothing but a blind, a concerted plan by which I was to be withdrawn from the vengeance of those whom I had betrayed, and my prompt liberation showed beyond a doubt that I was in league with the enemy, I now found that my chief's magnanimity had not been so complete as I had supposed. He had taken his precautions before setting me at liberty, and had thus definitively shut me out from the ranks of the 'wild reformers.'
"At first I stood bewildered by the terrible accusation, then with indignant vehemence I made my protest. Openly avowing my imprudence, the only crime of which I had been guilty, I gave a circumstantial account of my interview with the Minister--in vain, my words were received as so many mere evasive shifts. I was judged, and against their sentence there was no appeal. One man alone would perhaps have believed me--Rudolph Brunnow. He was the principal sufferer, the one on whom the blow had fallen most heavily; and yet, had I been able to confront him, to look him in the face, and say: 'It is a lie, Rudolph. I am no traitor!' he would have given me his hand, and together we should have fought down the calumny. But he was in prison--beyond my reach. I gave the others my word of honour. They answered that I had no honour to lose, and even refused me all satisfaction for the gross insult. These men, baited, persecuted, irritated to madness, were not capable of forming an unbiased judgment, and I fear that their suspicions were purposely directed against me. This, indeed, I have never learned for a fact; but the pardon, which was soon afterwards granted me, set the seal on my supposed ignominy and my disgrace.
"A month later I was with the Minister again. I had tried every means in my power to clear myself from the shameful suspicion, and had failed. I was still shunned, proscribed by the members of my own party, thrust out from their midst--and now I resolved in my turn to cast them from me. Up to this time I had been blameless. A last resource was still left to me. I could have quitted my native land, and have begun a new life elsewhere, accepting exile, in order to remain true to my principles--as Rudolph did later on, when he regained his freedom. Such a course would in time have vindicated my character, though years might have elapsed first; but I never had any great sympathy with the heroism which seeks a martyr's fate. On the one hand, I saw exile with all its bitterness and privations; on the other I was promised a career which was likely to satisfy, and more than satisfy, my ambition. The late events had destroyed my illusions. I now knew exactly what would be demanded of me, were I to accept my chief's proposal; but my whole soul rose in arms against those who had condemned me without a hearing. The insults I had endured, the injustice of my former friends, drove me straight into the enemy's camp. I knew that the price of my new position would be the renunciation of my principles--yet I broke with my past, and gave the required promise."
The Baron's voice vibrated strangely; his quick, short breathing betrayed the emotion these painful reminiscences aroused within him. Gabrielle hung on his words in a great tension of suspense; but she did not venture to interrupt the story. He had withdrawn his arm from her now; and when he spoke again, it was in a dull, hollow tone.
"From that time forth my career is known to you and to the world. I became the Minister's secretary, became his confidential friend, and, finally, his son-in-law. His potent influence overcame all the obstacles which stand in the path of a nameless commoner struggling upwards, and when once the road was clear before me, I had only to exert the natural powers I possessed. That in this new life I had to bury and disown my past was a thing of course. I had known that it would be so, and it is not in my nature to make half-resolves, or lamely to perform that which I have decided on. Moreover, by temperament I was inclined to despotic action. Power and authority had ever possessed for me a singular fascination. Now I tasted both, and the brilliant, the almost unexampled success of my career, helped me to vanquish old memories more easily than I had expected. The constant influence of my father-in-law, whom I sincerely revered, that of the circle in which I lived, did the rest. I must go onwards, without looking back--and onwards I went. The way was steep, and led over the ruins of former shrines, but I reached the goal. I have lived great and honoured--to end in this way!"
"But it is only a lie, a wicked calumny which has brought about your fall!" broke in Gabrielle, "This must and shall be clearly shown."
Raven shook his head gloomily.
"Can I compel that belief which the world does not willingly accord me? I have already heard from Rudolph Brunnow's mouth that I have forfeited all claim to confidence. He, indeed, can meet any charge with an unruffled brow; no defence set up by him would pass unnoticed, for his past, his whole life testifies for him--mine condemns me. The man who has abjured his convictions may also have betrayed his friends. The curse of that fatal hour, wherein I proved untrue to myself, weighs on me now, and makes me powerless to refute the calumny which works my fall."