Now my task is smoothly done,
I can fly, or I can run
Quickly to the green earth's end,
Where the bow'd welkin low doth bend,
And, from thence, can soar as soon
To the corners of the moon.
MILTON
The marriages of the Lady Blanche and Emily St. Aubert were celebrated,
on the same day, and with the ancient baronial magnificence, at
Chateau-le-Blanc. The feasts were held in the great hall of the castle,
which, on this occasion, was hung with superb new tapestry, representing
the exploits of Charlemagne and his twelve peers; here, were seen the
Saracens, with their horrible visors, advancing to battle; and there,
were displayed the wild solemnities of incantation, and the necromantic
feats, exhibited by the magician JARL before the Emperor. The sumptuous
banners of the family of Villeroi, which had long slept in dust, were
once more unfurled, to wave over the gothic points of painted casements;
and music echoed, in many a lingering close, through every winding
gallery and colonnade of that vast edifice.
As Annette looked down from the corridor upon the hall, whose arches and
windows were illuminated with brilliant festoons of lamps, and gazed
on the splendid dresses of the dancers, the costly liveries of the
attendants, the canopies of purple velvet and gold, and listened to
the gay strains that floated along the vaulted roof, she almost fancied
herself in an enchanted palace, and declared, that she had not met with
any place, which charmed her so much, since she read the fairy tales;
nay, that the fairies themselves, at their nightly revels in this old
hall, could display nothing finer; while old Dorothee, as she surveyed
the scene, sighed, and said, the castle looked as it was wont to do in
the time of her youth.
After gracing the festivities of Chateau-le-Blanc, for some days,
Valancourt and Emily took leave of their kind friends, and returned to
La Vallee, where the faithful Theresa received them with unfeigned
joy, and the pleasant shades welcomed them with a thousand tender and
affecting remembrances; and, while they wandered together over the
scenes, so long inhabited by the late Mons. and Madame St. Aubert, and
Emily pointed out, with pensive affection, their favourite haunts, her
present happiness was heightened, by considering, that it would have
been worthy of their approbation, could they have witnessed it.
Valancourt led her to the plane-tree on the terrace, where he had first
ventured to declare his love, and where now the remembrance of the
anxiety he had then suffered, and the retrospect of all the dangers
and misfortunes they had each encountered, since last they sat together
beneath its broad branches, exalted the sense of their present felicity,
which, on this spot, sacred to the memory of St. Aubert, they solemnly
vowed to deserve, as far as possible, by endeavouring to imitate his
benevolence,--by remembering, that superior attainments of every sort
bring with them duties of superior exertion,--and by affording to their
fellow-beings, together with that portion of ordinary comforts, which
prosperity always owes to misfortune, the example of lives passed in
happy thankfulness to GOD, and, therefore, in careful tenderness to his
creatures.