"You!" repeated the old man, in still angry tones. "Go, you lost, vain, worm-eaten branch of the people's great trunk; go in your pitiful parade to certain ruin. Until the day when, as I said, the axe and the ring, the false gold and the true steel melt together ... until then I give you my curse as an inheritance, even unto the tenth generation, and with it shall follow dissension, hatred, war, and finally a despicable fall."
"Hold there, Father Bertila," cried Larsson the younger. "Grace for Bertel!"
"No grace for nobility," replied the peasant king.
"Beware, unnatural father!" cried Larsson the elder. "The doom may fall on your own head."
"I no longer ask any grace," said Bertel, pale, but apparently calm. "Farewell, my former father! Farewell, my Fatherland! I go never to see you again!"
"One moment," interrupted Meri, who with a violent effort placed herself in his way. "You go! yes, go ... my heart's darling, my hope, my life, my all ... go, I shall no longer stand in your way. But before you leave me, you shall take with you the secret which has been both my life's highest joy and its greatest agony..."
"Hear her not!" cried old Bertila in a changed and alarmed tone. "Listen not to what she says; madness speaks through her! ... Think of your honour and mine," he sternly whispered in his pale daughter's ear.
"What do I care for your or my honour!" burst out Meri with an impetuosity never before witnessed. "Do you not see that he goes ... my life's joy leaves me, to return no more? He goes, and you, hard, in-human parent, wish me to let him depart with a curse to foreign lands. But it shall not be. For every curse you throw upon his head, I will give him a hundred blessings, and we shall see which will avail the most before the throne of the Supreme Being—your hatred or my love—the grandfather's curse or the mother's blessing..."
"My mother!" exclaimed Bertel beside himself with astonishment. Duke Bernhard's obscure hints now suddenly became clear.
"Believe her not; she knows not—she knows not what she says!" cried Bertila, with a vain attempt to appear calm.
Meri had sunk into Bertel's arms.
"It is now said," she whispered in a weak voice. "Gustaf ... my son. Ah! it is so new and so sweet to call you so. Now you know my life's secret ... and I have not long to blush over it. Do you love me? ... Yes, yes! Now I go from life rejoicing ... the veil is lifted ... light comes ... My father, ... I forgive you ... that you have hated and cursed your daughter's son ... Forgive me ... that I ... love ... bless ... my son!..."
"My mother!" exclaimed Bertel, "hear me, my mother! I thank you ... I love you! ... You shall go with me, and I will never desert you. But you do not hear me. You are so pale ... Great God ... she is dead!"
"My daughter! my only child!" exclaimed the old hard-hearted peasant king, completely crushed.
"Judge not, lest ye be judged!" said old Larsson with clasped hands. "And you, our children, go put into life with reconciled hearts. Curse and blessing struggle for your future, and not only for yours, but for that of your posterity, unto the tenth generation. Pray to Heaven that blessing may conquer."
"Amen!" said Larsson the younger and Ketchen.
"So be it!" said Bertel and Regina.
END OF THE FIRST CYCLE.
Jarrold and Sons, The Empire Press, Norwich and London.
SELECTIONS FROMLIST OF FICTION
Maurus Jókai's Famous Novels.
Black Diamonds.
By MAURUS JÓKAI, Author of "The Green Book," "Poor Plutocrats," etc. Translated by Frances Gerard. With Special Preface by the Author.
The Green Book. (FREEDOM UNDER THE SNOW.)
By MAURUS JÓKAI. Translated by Mrs. Waugh. With a finely engraved Portrait of Dr. Jókai.
Pretty Michal.
By MAURUS JÖKAI. Translated by R. Nisbet Bain. With a specially engraved Photogravure Portrait of Dr. Jókai.
A Hungarian Nabob.
By MAURUS JÖKAI. Translated by R. Nisbet Bain. With a fine Photogravure Portrait of Dr. Jókai.
The Poor Plutocrats. (AS WE GROW OLD.)
By MAURUS JÖKAI. Translated by R. Nisbet Bain. With a fine Photogravure Portrait of Dr. Jókai.
The Day of Wrath.
By MAURUS JÖKAI. Translated from the Hungarian by R. Nisbet Bain. With a Photogravure Portrait of Dr. Jókai.
Dr. Dumany's Wife.
By MAURUS JÖKAI. Translated by F. Steinitz (under the author's personal supervision). With specially engraved Photogravure Portrait of Dr. Jókai.
The Nameless Castle.
By MAURUS JÖKAI. Translated by S. E. Boggs (under the author's personal supervision). With a Photogravure Portrait of Dr. Jókai.
Debts of Honor.
By MAURUS JÖKAI. Translated by A. B. Yolland. With a charming Photogravure Portrait of Dr. and Madame Jókai.
'Midst the Wild Carpathians.
By MAURUS JÖKAI. Translated by R. Nisbet Bain. With a specially engraved Portrait of Dr. Jokai.
The Lion of Janina.
By MAURUS JÓKAI. Translated by R. Nisbet Bain. With a special Photogravure Portrait of Dr. Jókai.
Eyes Like the Sea.
By MAURUS JÓKAI. Translated by R. Nisbet Bain. With a fine Photogravure Portrait of Dr. Jókai.
Halil the Pedlar; THE WHITE ROSE.
By MAURUS JÓKAI. Translated by R. Nisbet Bain. With a Photogravure Portrait of Dr. Jókai.
Carpathia Knox.
By CURTIS YORKE, Author of "Hush," "That Little Girl," "A Romance of Modern London," etc. With a charming Photogravure Portrait of the Author.
Jocelyn Erroll.
By CURTIS YORKE, Author of "Once," "Dudley," "The Wild Ruthvens," etc. With a fine Photogravure Portrait of the Author.
Valentine: A STORY OF IDEALS.
By CURTIS YORKE, Author of "The Medlicotts," "His Heart to Win," "Because of the Child," etc.
In Tight Places.
By MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS, Author of "Forbidden by Law," etc.
St. Peter's Umbrella.
By KÁLMÁN MIKSZÁTH, Author of "The Good People of Palvez." Translated from the original Hungarian by W. B. Worswick. With Introduction by R. Nisbet Bain. A charming Photogravure Portrait of the Author and three illustrations.
The Adventures of Cyrano de Bergerac. Captain Satan.
From the French of Louis Gallet. With specially engraved Portrait of Cyrano de Bergerac.
A Woman's Burden,
By FERGUS HUME, Author of "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab," "The Lone Inn," etc.
Vivian of Virginia.
Being the Memoirs of Our First Rebellion, by John Vivian, of Middle Plantation, Virginia. By Hulbert Fuller, Author of "God's Rebel." With ten charming Illustrations by Frank T. Merrill.
Anima Vilis.
A tale of the Great Siberian Steppe. By MARYA RODZIEWICZ. Translated from the Polish by Count S. C. de Soissons. With a fine Photogravure Portrait of the Author.
The Tone King.
A Romance of the Life of Mozart. By Heribert Rau. Translated by J. E. S. Rae. With specially engraved Portrait of Mozart.
The Golden Dog (LE CHIEN D'OR).
A Romance of the days of Louis Quinze in Quebec. By WILLIAM KIRBY, F.R.S.C.
Memory Street.
By MARTHA BAKER DUNN, Author of "Sleeping Beauty," "Lias' Wife," etc.
God's Rebel.
By HULBERT FULLER, Author of "Vivian of Virginia."
The Rejuvenation of Miss Semaphore.
A Farcical Novel. By HAL GODFREY (Miss C. O'Conor Eccles).
The Man Who Forgot.
By JOHN MACKIE, Author of the "Prodigal's Brother," "Sinners Twain," etc. With a special Photogravure Portrait of the Author.
Jarrold & Sons'New Six-Shilling Fiction
By MAURUS JOKAI.Haiti the Pedlar.(The White Rose).
By COUNT LEO TOLSTOI.Tales Prom Tolstoi.Translated from the Russian by R. NISBET-BAIN,and with Biography of the Author.
By the Author of "ANIMA VILIS."Distaff.By MARYA RODZIEWICZ.Translated from the Polish by COUNT STANISLAUSC. DE SOISSONS.
By RENÉ BAZIM.Autumn Glory.Translated by MRS. ELLEN WAUGH.
By the Author of"DUKE RODNEY'S SECRET."Ivy Cardew.By PERRINGTON PRIMM.
By HULBERT FULLER.God's Rebel.
By MARTHA BAKER DUNN.Memory Street.
London:JARROLD & SONS,Publishers,10 & 11, Warwick Lane,E.C.