[EPILOGUE]
Had we been able to procure faithful documents in relation to Albert and Consuelo after their marriage, like those which have guided us up to this point, we might, doubtless, have written a long history, telling of all their adventures and journeys. But, most persevering readers, we cannot satisfy you; and of you, weary reader, we only ask a few moments of patience. Let neither of you reproach nor praise us. The truth is, that the materials by means of which we have so far been able to connect the items of this story, entirely disappear from the dates of the romantic night which blessed and consecrated the union of the two great characters of our story amid the Invisibles. Whether the engagements contracted by them in the temple prevented them from yielding to friendship in their letters; or that their friends, being affiliated in the same mysteries, in the days of persecution thought it proper to destroy their correspondence, we cannot say; but henceforth we see them through the maze of a cloud, under the veil of the temple or the mask of adepts. Without examining the traces of their existence which we find in manuscripts, it would often have been difficult to follow them; contradictory evidence shows both to have been at the same time at two different geographical points, or following different objects. However, we can easily understand the possibility of their voluntarily creating such errors, from the fact that they were secretly devoted to the plans of the Invisibles, and often were forced, amid a thousand perils, to avoid the inquisitorial policy of governments. In relation to the existence of this one soul, with two persons, called Consuelo and Albert, we cannot say whether love fulfilled all its promises, or if fate contradicted those which it had seemed to make during the intoxication of what they called "The Midsummer Night's Dream." They were not, however, ungrateful to Providence, which had conferred this rapid happiness, in all its plentitude, and which, amid reverses, continued the miracle of love Wanda had announced. Amid misery, suffering and persecution, they always remembered that happy life, which seemed to them a celestial union, and, as it were, a bargain made with the divinity, for the enjoyment of a better existence after many toils, ordeals, and sacrifices.
In other respects, all becomes so mysterious to us that we have been quite unable to discover in what part of Germany this enchanted residence was, in which, protected by the tumult of the chase and festivals, a prince unknown in documents became a rallying point and a principal mover of the social and philosophical conspiracy of the Invisibles. This prince had received a symbolical name, which, after a thousand efforts to discover the cypher used by the adepts, we presume to be Christopher, or Chrysostom, or the Golden Mouth. The temple where Consuelo was married and initiated was particularly called Saint Graal, and the chiefs of the tribunal Templists. These were Romanesque emblems, renewed from the old legends of the age of gold and chivalry. All the world knows that in these charming fictions, Saint Graal was hidden in a mysterious sanctuary, amid a grotto unknown to men. There the Templists, illustrious saints of primitive Christianity, devoted even in this world to immortality, kept the precious cup which Jesus had used in the consecration of the Eucharist, when he kept the passover with his disciples. This cup doubtless contained the celestial grace, represented sometimes by blood and then by the tears of Christ; a divine ichor or eucharistic substance, the mystic influence of which was inexplicable, but which it was sufficient merely to see, to be transformed, both morally and physically, so as to be forever sheltered from death and sin. The pious paladins, who, after terrible macerations and exploits sufficient to make the earth tremble, devoted themselves to the career of knight-errantry, had the idea of reaching Saint Graal at the end of their peregrinations. They looked for it amid the ices of the north, on the shores of Armorica, and in the depths of the forests of Germany. To realise this sublime conquest, it was necessary to confront danger, equal to those of the Hesperides—to overcome monsters, elements, barbarous people, hunger, thirst, and even death. Some of these Christian Argonauts discovered, it is said, the sanctuary, and were regenerated by the divine cup; they never, however, betrayed the terrible secret. Their triumph was known by the power of their invincible arm, by the transfiguration of all their existence: few, however, survived this glorious initiation. They disappeared from among men as Jesus did after his resurrection, and passed from earth to heaven without undergoing the bitter transition of death.
This magical symbol was, in fact, well adapted to the object of the Invisibles. For many years, the new Templists hoped to make Saint Graal accessible to all mankind. Albert toiled constantly to diffuse the true ideas of his doctrine. He reached the highest grades of the order, for we find the list of his titles showing that he had time enough to reach them. Now all know that eighty-one months are needed to pass through the twenty-three degrees of masonry, and we think it certain that a much longer time was required for the higher grades of Saint Graal. The number of masonic degrees are now a mystery to no one; yet it will not be out of place here to recount a few, as they paint the enthusiastic genius and smiling fancy which presided over their first creation:
"Apprentice and Master Mason, Secret and Perfect Master, Provost and Judge, English and Irish Master, Master in Israel, Master Elect of the Nine and Fifteen, Elect of the Unknown, Grand Master Architect, Royal Arch, Grand Scotch Master of the Sublime or Master Masons, Knight of the Sword, Prince of Jerusalem, Knight of Orient and Occident, Rose-Cross of France, Heredom and Kilwinning, Grand Pontiff or Sublime Scot, Architect of the Sacred Roof, Pontiff of Jerusalem, Sovereign Prince of Masonry and Master ad vitam, Naochite, Prince of Libon, Chief of the Tabernacle and Knight of the Iron Serpent, Trinitarian Scot or Prince of Mercy, Grand Commander of the Temple, Knight of the Gun, Patriarch of the Crusades, Grand Master of Light, Knight Kadosch, Knight of the White Eagle and of the Black Eagle, Knight of the Phœnix and Knight of the Argonauts, Knight of the Golden Fleece, Grand-Inspector-Inquisitor-Commander-Sublime, Prince of the Royal Secret and Sublime Master of the Luminous King,"&c.[16]
These titles, or at least the majority of them, we find connected with the name of Albert Podiebrad, in the most illegible rolls of the freemasons. There are also many less known; such as Knight of St John, Sublime Johannite, Master of the New Apocalypse, Doctor of the Gospel, and Elect of the Holy Ghost, Templist, Areopagite, Magus, and Man of the People, Man-Pontiff, Man-King, and New-man,&c.[17] We have been surprised here to find some titles which seemed anticipated from the illuminatism of Weishaupt: this peculiarity, however, was explained at a later day, and will not, when this story is concluded, need any explanation to our readers.
Amid this labyrinth of obscure facts—which, however, are profound, and connected with the labor, success, and apparent extinction of the Invisibles—we can with difficulty follow the adventurous story of the young couple. Yet by supplying what we need by a prudent imagination, the following is nearly the abridged commentary of the chief events of their lives. The fancy of the reader will supply the deficiency of the text, and following our experience, we doubt not that the best dénoûements are those for which the reader and not the narrator will be responsible.[18]
Probably, after leaving Saint Graal, Consuelo went to the little court of Bareith, where the Margravine, sister of Frederick, had palaces, gardens, kiosques, and cascades, in the same style as those of Count Hoditz at Roswald, though less sumptuous and less expensive. This intellectual princess had been married without a dower to a very poor prince; and not long before she had worn robes with trains of reasonable length, and had pages whose doublets were not threadbare, her gardens, or rather her garden, to speak without metaphor, was situated amid a beautiful country, and she indulged in the Italian Opera in an antique temple à la Pompadour. The margravine was fond of philosophy—that is to say, she was a disciple of Voltaire. The young hereditary margrave, her husband, was the zealous head of a masonic lodge. I am not sure whether Albert was connected with him, or whether his incognito was observed by the secresy of the brothers, or whether he remained away from this court and joined his wife afterwards. Certainly Consuelo had some secret mission there. Perhaps, also, for the purpose of preventing attention from being attracted to her husband, she did not live publicly with him for some time. Their loves, then, had all the attraction of mystery; and if the publicity of their union, consecrated by the fraternal sanction of the Templists, seemed gentle and edifying to them, the secrecy they maintained in a hypocritical and licentious world, at first, was a necessary ægis and kind of mute protestation in which they found their enthusiasm and power.
Many male and female Italian singers at that time delighted the little court of Bareith. Corilla and Anzoleto appeared there, and the vain prima donna again became enamored of the traitor she had previously devoted to all the furies of hell. Anzoleto, however, while he cajoled the tigress, sought with a secret and mysterious reserve to find favor with Consuelo, whose talent, enhanced by such profound revelations, now eclipsed all rivalry. Ambition had become the dominant passion of the young tenor; love had been stifled by mortification, and voluptuousness by satiety. He then loved neither the chaste Consuelo nor the passionate Corilla, but kept terms with both, ready to attach himself to either of the two, who would serve his purpose, and make him advantageously known. Consuelo treated him kindly, and neither spared good advice nor such instructions as would enable him to exhibit his talent. She never, though, felt uneasy when she was with him, and the completeness of her pardon exhibited how completely she had mastered her passion. Anzoleto was not re-installed, and having listened with emotion to the advice of his friend, lost all patience when he lost all hope, and his deep mortification and sorrow, in spite of himself, became evident in his words.