Of our heroine, we must say that the hallucination caused by fever presented a musical character, and affected the auditory nerves. She resumed then the reverie she had when awake, or at least half awake, on her first night in the prison. She fancied that she heard the plaintive tone and the eloquent phrases of Albert's violin—now strong and distinct, now weak, as if they came from the distance of the horizon. There was in these imaginary sounds something painfully strange. When the vibration seemed to approach, Consuelo felt a feeling of terror. When it was fully displayed, it was with a power which completely overwhelmed. Then the sound became feeble, and she felt some consolation, for the fatigue of listening with constant attention to a song which became lost in space, made her soon feel feeble, during which she could hear nothing. The constant return of the harmonious tremor filled her with fear, trembling, and terror, as if the sweep of some fantastic bow had embraced all air, and unchained the storm around.
[CHAPTER XVI]
Consuelo soon recovered, and was able again to sing at night, and sleep calmly as before.
One day, the twelfth of her incarceration, she received a note from Von Poelnitz, which informed her that on the next night she would leave the fortress.
"I have obtained from the king," said he, "permission to go for you, in one of his own carriages. If you promise me not to escape through the windows, I hope I will even be able to dispense with the escort, and reproduce you at the theatre without all that melancholy cortège. Believe me, you have no more devoted friend than I am; and I deplore the rigorous treatment, perhaps unjust, which you undergo."
Porporina was somewhat amazed at the sudden friendship and delicate attention of the baron. In his intercourse with the prima donna, Von Poelnitz, who was ex-roué, with no respect for virtue, had been very cold and abrupt in his demeanor at first; subsequently, he had spoken of her regular conduct and of her reserved manners with the most disobliging irony. Nearly everybody knew the old chamberlain was a royal spy; but Consuelo was not initiated in the secrets of the court, and was not aware that any one could discharge such a disagreeable duty without losing the advantage of position in society. A vague, instinctive aversion, however, told Consuelo that Poelnitz had contributed more to her misfortune than he had alleviated it. She therefore watched every word that was uttered when she was alone with him on the next evening, as the coach bore them rapidly to Berlin.
"Well, my poor recluse," said he, "you are in a terrible condition. Are the veteran servitors who guard you very stern? They would never permit me to go inside the citadel, under the pretext that I had no permit. They kept me on that account freezing for a quarter of an hour at the gate while I was waiting for you. Well, wrap yourself closely in this fur I brought to preserve your voice, and tell me what has happened. What on earth passed at that last carnival ball? Everyone asks a question which none can answer. Many innocent persons like myself have disappeared as if by enchantment. The Count de Saint Germain, who I think is one of your friends, has disappeared. A certain Trismegistus, who it is said was in hiding at the house of one Golowkin, and whom perhaps you know, for they say you are familiar as any one with all that devil's brood——"
"Have those persons been arrested?"
"Or have they taken flight. There are two versions in the town."