APDL Eductation Resources/APDL Eductation Resources.iso/text/authors/poe/eleonora/ELEONORA

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                           Eleonora

        Sub conservatione formae specificae salva anima.--
                                        RAYMOND LULLY

I am come of a race noted for vigour of fancy and ardour of passion.
Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether
madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence-- whether much that is
glorious--whether all that is profound--does not spring from disease of
thought--from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general
intellect. They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which
escape those who dream only by night. In their grey visions they obtain
glimpses of eternity, and thrill, in awaking, to find that they have
been upon the verge of the great secret. In snatches, they learn
something of the wisdom which is of good, and more of the mere knowledge
which is of evil. They penetrate, however rudderless or compassless,
into the vast ocean of the 'light ineffable' and again, like the
adventurers of the Nubian geographer, 'aggressi sunt mare tenebrarum,
quid in eo esset exploraturi'.

We will say, then, that I am mad. I grant, at least, that there are two
distinct conditions of my mental existence--the condition of a lucid
reason, not to be disputed, and belonging to the memory of events
forming the first epoch of my life--and a condition of shadow and doubt,
appertaining to the present, and to the recollection of what constitutes
the second great era of my being. Therefore, what I shall tell of the
earlier period, believe; and to what I may relate of the later time,
give only such credit as may seem due; or doubt it altogether; or, if
doubt it ye cannot, then play unto its riddle the Oedipus.

She whom I loved in youth, and of whom I now pen calmly and distinctly
these remembrances, was the sole daughter of the only sister of my
mother long departed. Eleonora was the name of my <p 184 cousin. We had
always dwelled together, beneath a tropical sun, in the Valley of the
Many-Coloured Grass. No unguided footstep ever came upon that vale; for
it lay far away up among a range of giant hills that hung beetling
around about it, shutting out the sunlight from its sweetest recesses.
No path was trodden in its vicinity; and, to reach our happy home, there
was need of putting back, with force, the foliage of many thousands of
forest trees, and of crushing to death the glories of many millions of
fragrant flowers. Thus it was that we lived all alone, knowing nothing
of the world without the valley,--I, and my cousin, and her mother.

From the dim regions beyond the mountains at the upper end of our
encircled domain, there crept out a narrow and deep river, brighter than
all save the eyes of Eleonora; and, winding stealthily about in mazy
courses, it passed away, at length, through a shadowy gorge, among hills
still dimmer than those whence it had issued. We called it the 'River of
Silence'; for there seemed to be a hushing influence in its flow. No
murmur arose from its bed, and so gently it wandered along, that the
pearly pebbles upon which we loved to gaze, far down within its bosom,
stirred not at all, but lay in a motionless content, each in its own old
station, shining on gloriously for ever.

The margin of the river, and of the many dazzling rivulets that glided,
through devious ways, into its channel, as well as the spaces that
extended from the margins away down into the depths of the streams until
they reached the bed of pebbles at the bottom,--these spots, not less
than the whole surface of the valley, from the river to the mountains
that girdled it in, were carpeted all by a soft green grass, thick,
short, perfectly even, and vanilla-perfumed, but so besprinkled
throughout with the yellow buttercup, the white daisy, the purple
violet, and the ruby-red asphodel, that its exceeding beauty spoke to
our hearts, in loud tones, of the love and of the glory of God.

And, here and there, in groves about this grass, like wildernesses of
dreams, sprang up fantastic trees, whose tall slender stems stood not
upright, but slanted gracefully towards the light that peered at
noon-day into the centre of the valley. Their bark was speckled with the
vivid alternate splendour of ebony and silver, and was smoother than all
save the cheeks of Eleonora; so that but for the brilliant green of the
huge leaves that spread from their summits in long tremulous lines,
dallying with the Zephyrs, one might have fancied them giant serpents of
Syria doing homage to their Sovereign the Sun.

Hand in hand about this valley, for fifteen years, roamed I wish
Eleonora before Love entered within our hearts. It was one evening at
the close of the third lustrum of her life, and of the fourth of my own,
that we sat, locked in each other's embrace, beneath the serpent-like
trees, and looked down within the waters of the River of Silence at our
images therein. We spoke no words during the rest of that sweet day; and
our words even upon the morrow were tremulous and few. We had drawn the
god Eros from that wave, and now we felt that he had enkindled within us
the fiery souls of our forefathers. The passions which had for centuries
distinguished our race, came thronging with the fancies for which they
had been equally noted, and together breathed a delirious bliss over the
Valley of the Many-Coloured Grass. A change fell upon all things.
Strange brilliant flowers, star- shaped, burst out upon the trees where
no flowers had been known before. The tints of the green carpet
deepened; and when, one by one, the white daisies shrank away, there
sprang up, in place of them, ten by ten of the ruby-red asphodel.  And
life arose in our paths; for the tall flamingo, hitherto unseen, with
all gay glowing birds, flaunted his scarlet plumage before us. The
golden and silver fish haunted the river, out of the bosom of which
issued, little by little, a murmur that swelled, at length, into a
lulling melody more divine than that of the harp of Aeolus--sweeter than
all save the voice of Eleonora. And now, too, a voluminous cloud, which
we had long watched in the regions of Hesper, floated out thence, all
gorgeous in crimson and gold, and settling in peace above us, sank, day
by day, lower and lower, until its edges rested upon the tops of the
mountains, turning all their dimness into magnificence, and shutting us
up, as if for ever, within a magic prison-house of grandeur and of
glory.

The loveliness of Eleonora was that of the Seraphim; but she was a
maiden artless and innocent as the brief life she had led among the
flowers. No guile disguised the fervour of love which animated her
heart, and she examined with me its inmost recesses as we walked
together in the Valley of the Many-Coloured Grass, and discoursed of the
mighty changes which had lately taken place therein.

At length, having spoken one day, in tears, of the last sad change which
must befall Humanity, she thenceforward dwelt only upon this one
sorrowful theme, interweaving it into all our converse, as, in the songs
of the bard of Schiraz, the same images are found occurring, again and
again, in every impressive variation of phrase.

She had seen that the finger of Death was upon her bosom-- that, like
the ephemeron, she had been made perfect in loveliness only to die; but
the terrors of the grave, to her, lay solely in a consideration which
she revealed to me, one evening at twilight, by the banks of the River
of Silence. She grieved to think that, having entombed her in the Valley
of the Many- Coloured Grass, I would quit for ever its happy recesses,
transferring the love which now was so passionately her own to some
maiden of the outer and every-day world. And, then and there, I threw
myself hurriedly at the feet of Eleonora, and offered up a vow, to
herself and to Heaven, that I would never bind myself in marriage to any
daughter of Earth--that I would in no manner prove recreant to her dear
memory, or to the memory of the devout affection with which she had
blessed me. And I called the Mighty Ruler of the Universe to witness the
pious solemnity of my vow. And the curse which I invoked of Him and of
her, a saint in Helusion, should I prove traitorous to that promise,
involved a penalty the exceeding great horror of which will not permit
me to make record of it here. And the bright eyes of Eleonora grew
brighter at my words; and she sighed as if a deadly burthen had been
taken from her breast; and she trembled and very bitterly wept; but she
made acceptance of the vow (for what was she but a child?), and it made
easy to her the bed of her death. And she said to me, not many days
afterwards, tranquilly dying, that, because of what I had done for the
comfort of her spirit, she would watch over me in that spirit when
departed, and, if so it were permitted her, return to me visibly in the
watches of the night; but, if this thing were, indeed, beyond the power
of the souls in Paradise, that she would, at least, give me frequent
indications of her presence; sighing upon me in the evening winds, or
filling the air which I breathed with perfume <p 187 from the censers of
the angels. And with these words upon her lips, she yielded up her
innocent life, putting an end to the first epoch of my own.

Thus far I have faithfully said. But as I pass the barrier in Time's
path formed by the death of my beloved, and proceed with the second era
of my existence, I feel that a shadow gathers over my brain, and I
mistrust the perfect sanity of the record. But let me on.--  Years
dragged themselves along heavily, and still I dwelled within the Valley
of the Many-Coloured Grass;-- but a second change had come upon all
things. The star-shaped flowers shrank into the stems of the trees, and
appeared no more. The tints of the green carpet faded; and, one by one,
the ruby- red asphodels withered away; and there sprang up, in place of
them, ten by ten, dark eye-like violets that writhed uneasily and were
ever encumbered with dew. And Life departed from our paths; for the tall
flamingo flaunted no longer his scarlet plumage before us, but flew
sadly from the vale into the hills, with all the gay glowing birds that
had arrived in his company. And the golden and silver fish swam down
through the gorge at the lower end of our domain and bedecked the sweet
river never again. And the lulling melody that had been softer than the
wind-harp of Aeolus and more divine than all save the voice of Eleonora,
it died little by little away, in murmurs growing lower and lower, until
the stream returned, at length, utterly, into the solemnity of its
original silence. And then, lastly the voluminous cloud arose, and,
abandoning the tops of the mountains to the dimness of old, fell back
into the regions of Hesper, and took away all its manifold golden and
gorgeous glories from the Valley of the Many-Coloured Grass.

Yet the promises of Eleonora were not forgotten; for I heard the sounds
of the swinging of the censers of the angels; and streams of a holy
perfume floated ever and ever about the valley; and at lone hours, when
my heart beat heavily, the winds that bathed my brow came unto me laden
with soft sighs; and indistinct murmurs filled often the night air; and
once--oh, but once only!  I was awakened from a slumber like the slumber
of death by the pressing of spiritual lips upon my own.

But the void within my heart refused, even thus, to be filled. I longed
for the love which had before filled it to overflowing. At <p 188 length
the valley pained me through its memories of Eleonora, and I left it for
ever for the vanities and the turbulent triumphs of the world.


                           *


I found myself within a strange city, where all things might have served
to blot from recollection the sweet dreams I had dreamed so long in the
Valley of the Many-Coloured Grass. The pomps and pageantries of a
stately court, and the mad clangour of arms, and the radiant loveliness
of woman, bewildered and intoxicated my brain. But as yet my soul had
proved true to its vows, and the indications of the presence of Eleonora
were still given me in the silent hours of the night. Suddenly, these
manifestations they ceased; and the world grew dark before mine eyes;
and I stood aghast at the burning thoughts which possessed- -at the
terrible temptations which beset me; for there came from some far, far
distant and unknown land, into the gay court of the king I served, a
maiden to whose beauty my whole recreant heart yielded at once--at whose
foot-stool I bowed down without a struggle, in the most ardent, in the
most abject worship of love. What indeed was my passion for the young
girl of the valley in comparison with the fervour, and the delirium, and
the spirit- lifting ecstasy of adoration with which I poured out my
whole soul in tears at the feet of the ethereal Ermengarde?--  Oh bright
was the seraph Ermengarde! and in that knowledge I had room for none
other.--  Oh divine was the angel Ermengarde! and as I looked down into
the depths of her memorial eyes I thought only of them--and of her.

I wedded;--nor dreaded the curse I had invoked; and its bitterness was
not visited upon me. And once--but once again in the silence of the
night, there came through my lattice the soft sighs which had forsaken
me; and they modelled themselves into familiar and sweet voice, saying:

'Sleep in peace!--for the Spirit of Love reigneth and ruleth, and, in
taking to thy passionate her who is Ermengarde, thou art absolved, for
reasons which shall be made known to thee in Heaven, of thy vows unto
Eleonora.'