"Nay, nay, my young friend," answered the druggist, while a bitter sneer lurked round his lip, at the very candour he assumed; "you are beginning to think sadly ill of mankind. They are not so bad a race as you believe. Like all great patriots, you affect to despise the very world you would shed your blood to serve. No, no; the Duke of Gueldres, good honest man, would be as grateful as his neighbours, if no more powerful motive came in the way of gratitude. You forget, Albert Maurice, that we are teaching him to believe that his pretensions to the heiress of Burgundy are full as good as those of the sottish heir of Cleves; so that, whoever seeks to give her hand to a stranger, is an enemy to Adolphus of Gueldres, who counts boldly on being her husband."
The cheek of Albert Maurice flushed, and then grew pale; for often in the dull and filthy trade of worldly policy, men must work with tools they are ashamed to touch, and employ means abhorrent to their better nature. Thus, though obliged to balance one mean soul against another, as suitors for her he himself loved, it stung the young aspirant to the very heart to hear their pretensions calmly named by any other human being; and giving way to the first burst of indignation, he exclaimed, "Out on him, vile swine! But beware, Sir Druggist, beware how you raise his mad dreams too high! and still more beware," he continued, as a sudden suspicion seemed to cross his mind, awakened, as had been frequently the case before, by the sneering tone in which the druggist sometimes spoke; "and still more beware how you dare to play into his hands. Mark me, sir," and grasping Ganay by the arm, he bent his dark brow upon him; "mark me! I know you well, and you know me, but not so well! You think you use me as a tool, because, to a certain point, you have succeeded while following my steps, and have obtained, and are obtaining, the vengeance for which you thirst. But learn and know that you have succeeded so far, only because the interests of the state and your own desires have been bound up together. It is, that those whom you seek to destroy have given you the means of destroying them, by rendering it necessary that I should strike them; not, as perhaps you dream, that you have bent me to your purpose. You see I know you, and some of your most secret thoughts. But hear me further ere you reply. Learn, too, that the transactions of thirty years ago, are not so deeply buried beneath the dust of time as you may think; and that, though you and Adolphus of Gueldres may meet as strangers now-a-day, I have dreamt that there was a time when ye knew more of each other. So now, you see, I know you, and some of your most secret deeds; and once more, I say, beware!"
It was the second time that Albert Maurice had referred boldly to events in the past, which Ganay had supposed forgotten; and the ashy cheek of the druggist grew, if anything, a shade paler than before, while, for a moment, he gazed upon the face of Albert Maurice with a glance of amazement, most unwonted to his guarded features. It passed off, however, in an instant, and a flash of something like anger succeeded in its room. But that, too, passed away, and he replied calmly, but somewhat bitterly, "I will beware. But you, too, Albert Maurice, beware also. There are some things that it is not well to discuss; but if you can trace--as, for aught I know or care, perhaps you can--my whole course of being for more than thirty years, you well know that I am one whose vengeance is somewhat deadly; and that however strong you may feel yourself, it were better to incur the hatred of a whole host of monarchs, than that of so humble a thing as I am. Curl not your proud lip, Sir President, but listen to me, and let us both act wisely. I love you, and have loved you from your childhood; and, in the great changes that are taking place around us, we have advanced together--I, indeed, a step behind you; or, in other words, you have gone on in search of high things and mighty destinies, while I have had my objects, no less dear and precious to my heart, though perhaps less pompously named in the world's vocabulary. Let us not, now that we have done so much, and stood so long side by side, turn face to face as foes. Doubtless you fear not me: but let me tell you, Albert Maurice, that I am as fearless as yourself--nay, something more so--for there are many mere words cunningly devised, and artfully preached upon, by monks, and priests, and knaves, and tyrants, which you fear, and I do not. But let us set all these things aside; it is wisest and best for us both to labour on together, without suspicions of each other. If, as you say, you know the secrets of the past, you well know that I have no mighty cause to love Adolphus of Gueldres. In what I have done to win him popularity, and to make him raise his eyes to the hand of the sweet and beautiful Princess of Burgundy, I have but followed your own directions, and no more; and you must feel and know that his power over the people, and his hope of that bright lady, are, when compared with yours, but as a feather weighed against a golden crown."
The firmest heart that ever beat within man's bosom is, after all, but a strange weak thing; and--though feelings very little short of contempt and hatred were felt by the young citizen for his insidious companion--though he knew that he was false and subtle, and believed that even truth in his mouth was virtually a lie, from being intended to deceive, yet, strange to say, the goodly terms that he bestowed upon Mary of Burgundy, and the flattering picture he drew of his hearer's probable success, soothed, pleased, and softened Albert Maurice, and wiped away, for the moment, many of the individual suspicions he had been inclined to entertain before.
It must not be supposed, however, that those suspicions, thus partially obliterated, did not soon return. They were like the scratches on an agate, which a wet sponge will apparently wipe away for ever, but which come back the moment that the stone is dry again, and cloud it altogether. He knew Ganay too well, he saw too deeply into the secrets of his subtle heart, to be ever long without doubt of his purposes, though artful words and exciting hopes, administered skilfully to his passions, would efface it for a time. If this weakness, and it certainly was a great one, did not influence his conduct, it was, perhaps, as much as could be expected from man.
"I mean not, Ganay," he said, "either to taunt you or to pain you; but as our objects are different, as you admit yourself, I do you no wrong, even on your own principles, in supposing that as soon as those objects are no longer to be gained by aiding and supporting me, you will turn to some one whose plans may better coincide with your own. My purpose, then, in showing you how thoroughly I know you, is, that you may have the means of seeing that it would be dangerous to abandon my interest for that of any other person; and that you may balance in your own mind the advantages and difficulties on either side. But, as you say, to drop this subject, and never to resume it again, unless the day should come when separate interests and different feelings may oppose us hostilely to each other, tell me, candidly and fairly, do you think that, if we encourage the popularity of him of Gueldres, in opposition to this proud Duke of Cleves, we may safely count upon his ultimate failure; for did I believe that there were a possibility of his success, I would slay him myself ere such a profanation should take place:" and as he spoke he fixed his eyes upon the face of the druggist, in order to make the expression of the other's countenance a running commentary upon the words he was about to reply.
"I think," replied the druggist, firmly, and emphatically, "that Adolphus of Gueldres--stigmatized by the pure immaculate world we live in, as the blood-stained, the faithless, the perjured, the violator of all duties and of all rights--has as much chance of obtaining heaven, as of winning Mary of Burgundy. I tell you, Albert Maurice, that she would sooner die--ay, die a thousand times, were it possible, than wed the man she has been taught to hate from her infancy."
"I believe she would," murmured the young citizen, calling to mind the demeanour of the princess, when giving the order for the liberation of the Duke of Gueldres; "I believe she would, indeed."
"Besides," continued the druggist, "besides, she loves another. Ay, Albert Maurice, start not, she loves another! What, man," he continued, seeing his companion change colour, "are you so blind? I had fancied that all your hopes, and one half your daring, had birth in that proud consciousness."
Never dreaming that his companion would announce so boldly what was still but one of the most indistinct visions of hope, even within his own bosom--a vision, indeed, which was the prime motive of all thoughts and actions, but which he had never dared to scrutinize carefully--Albert Maurice, with all the irritable jealousy of love, had instantly concluded that Ganay, in the first part of what he said, had alluded to some other object of the princess's affection, and his cheek for a moment turned pale. Otherwise he might have paused to consider whether the somewhat over-enthusiastic tone was not assumed to blind and mislead him; but the latter part of the other's speech set the blood rushing back into his face with renewed force; and his own passions proved traitors, and lulled to sleep the sentinels of the mind.