第466章

Without attending to these observations, the cardinal entered Rodin's chamber.It was a tolerably large room, lighted by two windows, and simply but commodiously furnished.Two logs were burning slowly in the fireplace, in which stood a coffee-pot, a vessel containing mustard-

poultice, etc.On the chimney-piece were several pieces of rag, and some linen bandages.The room was full of that faint chemical odor peculiar to the chambers of the sick, mingled with so putrid a stench, that the cardinal stopped at the door a moment, before he ventured to advance further.As the three reverend fathers had mentioned in their walk, Rodin lived because he had said to himself, "I want to live, and I will live."

For, as men of timid imaginations and cowardly minds often die from the mere dread of dying, so a thousand facts prove that vigor of character and moral energy may often struggle successfully against disease, and triumph over the most desperate symptoms.

It was thus with the Jesuit.The unshaken firmness of his character, the formidable tenacity of his will (for the will has sometimes a mysterious and almost terrific power), aiding the skillful treatment of Dr.

Baleinier, had saved him from the pestilence with which he had been so suddenly attacked.But the shock had been succeeded by a violent fever, which placed Rodin's life in the utmost peril.This increased danger had caused the greatest alarm to Father d'Aigrigny, who felt, in spite of his rivalry and jealousy, that Rodin was the master-spirit of the plot in which they were engaged, and could alone conduct it to a successful issue.

The curtains of the room was half closed, and admitted only a doubtful light to the bed on which Rodin was lying.The Jesuit's features had lost the greenish hue peculiar to cholera patients, but remained perfectly livid and cadaverous, and so thin, that the dry, rugged skin appeared to cling to the smallest prominence of bone.The muscles and veins of the long, lean, vulture-like neck resembled a bundle of cords.

The head, covered with an old, black, filthy nightcap, from beneath which strayed a few thin, gray hairs, rested upon a dirty pillow; for Rodin would not allow them to change his linen.His iron-gray beard had not been shaved for some time, and stood out like the hairs of a brush.

Under his shirt he wore an old flannel waistcoat full of holes.He had one of his arms out of bed, and his bony hairy hand, with its bluish nails, held fast a cotton handkerchief of indescribable color.

You might have taken him for a corpse, had it not been for the two brilliant sparks which still burned in the depths of his eyes.In that look, in which seemed concentrated all the remaining life and energy of the man, you might read the most restless anxiety.Sometimes his features revealed the sharpest pangs; sometimes the twisting of his hands, and his sudden starts, proclaimed his despair at being thus fettered to a bed of pain, whilst the serious interests which he had in charge required all the activity of his mind.Thus, with thoughts continually on the stretch, his mind often wandered, and he had fits of delirium, from which he woke as from a painful dream.By the prudent advice of Dr.Baleinier, who considered him not in a state to attend to matters of--importance, Father d'Aigrigny had hitherto evaded Rodin's questions with regard to the Rennepont affair, which he dreaded to see lost and ruined in consequence of his forced inaction.The silence of Father d'Aigrigny on this head, and the ignorance in which they kept him, only augmented the sick man's exasperation.Such was the moral and physical state of Rodin, when Cardinal Malipieri entered his chamber against his will.