| THE MINISTER IN A MAZE "Am I mad? or am I given over utterly to the fiend? Did I make a contract with him in the forest, and sign it with my blood? And does he now summon me to its fulfilment, by suggesting the performance of every wickedness which his most foul imagination can conceive?"
At the moment when the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale thus communed with himself, and struck his forehead with his hand, old Mistress Hibbins, the reputed witch-lady, is said to have been ing by. She made a very grand appearance, having on a high head-dress, a rich gown of velvet, and a ruff done up with the famous yellow starch, of which Anne Turner, her especial friend, had taught her the secret, before this last good lady had been hanged for Sir Thomas Overbury's murder. Whether the witch had read the minister's thoughts or no, she came to a full stop, looked shrewdly into his face, smiled craftily, and—though little given to converse with clergymen—began a conversation.
"So, reverend sir, you have made a visit into the forest," observed the witch-lady, nodding her high head-dress at him. "The next time I pray you to allow me only a fair warning, and I shall be proud to bear you company. Without taking overmuch upon myself my good word will go far towards gaining any strange gentleman a fair reception from yonder potentate you wot of."
"I profess, madam," answered the clergyman, with a grave obeisance, such as the lady's rank demanded, and his own good breeding made imperative—"I profess, on my conscience and character, that I am utterly bewildered as touching the purport of your words! I went not into the forest to seek a potentate, neither do I, at any future time, design a visit thither, with a view to gaining the favour of such personage. My one sufficient object was to greet that pious friend of mine, the Apostle Eliot, and rejoice with him over the many precious souls he hath won from heathendom!" "Ha, ha, ha!" cackled the old witch-lady, still nodding her high head-dress at the minister. "Well, well! we must needs talk thus in the daytime! You carry it off like an old hand! But at midnight, and in the forest, we shall have other talk together!"
She ed on with her aged stateliness, but often turning back her head and smiling at him, like one willing to recognise a secret intimacy of connexion. "Have I then sold myself," thought the minister, "to the fiend whom, if men say true, this yellow-starched and velveted old hag has chosen for her prince and master?" The wretched minister! He had made a bargain very like it! Tempted by a dream of happiness, he had yielded himself with deliberate choice, as he had never done before, to what he knew was deadly sin. And the infectious poison of that sin had been thus rapidly diffused throughout his moral system. It had stupefied all blessed impulses, and awakened into vivid life the whole brotherhood of bad ones. Scorn, bitterness, unprovoked malignity, gratuitous desire of ill, ridicule of whatever was good and holy, all awoke to tempt, even while they frightened him. And his encounter with old Mistress Hibbins, if it were a real incident, did but show its sympathy and fellowship with wicked mortals, and the world of perverted spirits. He had by this time reached his dwelling on the edge of the burial ground, and, hastening up the stairs, took refuge in his study. The minister was glad to have reached this shelter, without first betraying himself to the world by any of those strange and wicked eccentricities to which he had been continually impelled while ing through the streets. He entered the accustomed room, and looked around him on its books, its windows, its fireplace, and the tapestried comfort of the walls, with the same perception of strangeness that had haunted him throughout his walk from the forest dell into the town and thitherward. Here he had studied and written; here gone through fast and vigil, and come forth half alive; here striven to pray; here borne a hundred thousand agonies! There was the Bible, in its rich old Hebrew, with Moses and the Prophets speaking to him, and God's voice through all.
There on the table, with the inky pen beside it, was an unfinished sermon, with a sentence broken in the midst, where his thoughts had ceased to gush out upon the page two days before. He knew that it was himself, the thin and white-cheeked minister, who had done and suffered these things, and written thus far into the Election Sermon! But he seemed to stand apart, and eye this former self with scornful pitying, but half-envious curiosity. That self was gone. Another man had returned out of the forest—a wiser one—with a knowledge of hidden mysteries which the simplicity of the former never could have reached. A bitter kind of knowledge that! While occupied with these reflections, a knock came at the door of the study, and the minister said, "Come in!"—not wholly devoid of an idea that he might behold an evil spirit. And so he did! It was old Roger Chillingworth that entered. The minister stood white and speechless, with one hand on the Hebrew Scriptures, and the other spread upon his breast.
"Welcome home, reverend sir," said the physician "And how found you that godly man, the Apostle Eliot? But methinks, dear sir, you look pale, as if the travel through the wilderness had been too sore for you. Will not my aid be requisite to put you in heart and strength to preach your Election Sermon?"
"Nay, I think not so," reed the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale. "My journey, and the sight of the holy Apostle yonder, and the free air which I have breathed have done me good, after so long confinement in my study. I think to need no more of your drugs, my kind physician, good though they be, and istered by a friendly hand."
All this time Roger Chillingworth was looking at the minister with the grave and intent regard of a physician towards his patient. But, in spite of this outward show, the latter was almost convinced of the old man's knowledge, or, at least, his confident suspicion, with respect to his own interview with Hester Prynne. The physician knew then that in the minister's regard he was no longer a trusted friend, but his bitterest enemy. So much being known, it would appear natural that a part of it should be expressed. It is singular, however, how long a time often es before words embody things; and with what security two persons, who choose to avoid a certain subject, may approach its very verge, and retire without disturbing it. Thus the minister felt no apprehension that Roger Chillingworth would touch, in express words, upon the real position which they sustained towards one another. Yet did the physician, in his dark way, creep frightfully near the secret.
"Were it not better," said he, "that you use my poor skill tonight? Verily, dear sir, we must take pains to make you strong and vigorous for this occasion of the Election discourse. The people look for great things from you, apprehending that another year may come about and find their pastor gone."
"Yes, to another world," replied the minister with pious resignation. "Heaven grant it be a better one; for, in good sooth, I hardly think to tarry with my flock through the flitting seasons of another year! But touching your medicine, kind sir, in my present frame of body I need it not."
"I joy to hear it," answered the physician. "It may be that my remedies, so long istered in vain, begin now to take due effect. Happy man were I, and well deserving of New England's gratitude, could I achieve this cure!"
"I thank you from my heart, most watchful friend," said the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale with a solemn smile. "I thank you, and can but requite your good deeds with my prayers."
"A good man's prayers are golden recompense!" reed old Roger Chillingworth, as he took his leave. "Yea, they are the current gold coin of the New Jerusalem, with the King's own mint mark on them!"
Left alone, the minister summoned a servant of the house, and requested food, which, being set before him, he ate with ravenous appetite. Then flinging the already written pages of the Election Sermon into the fire, he forthwith began another, which he wrote with such an impulsive flow of thought and emotion, that he fancied himself inspired; and only wondered that Heaven should see fit to transmit the grand and solemn music of its oracles through so foul an organ pipe as he. However, leaving that mystery to solve itself, or go unsolved for ever, he drove his task onward with earnest haste and ecstasy.
Thus the night fled away, as if it were a winged steed, and he careering on it; morning came, and peeped, blushing, through the curtains; and at last sunrise threw a golden beam into the study, and laid it right across the minister's bedazzled eyes. There he was, with the pen still between his fingers, and a vast, immeasurable tract of written space behind him! |
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EL MINISTRO PERDIDO EN UN LABERINTO —Estoy loco por ventura, o me hallo completamente en poder del enemigo malo? Hice un pacto con l en la selva y lo firm con mi propia sangre? Y me pide ahora que lo cumpla, sugirindome que lleve a cabo todas las iniquidades que pueda concebir su perversa imaginacin?
En los momentos en que el Reverendo Sr. Dimmesdale razonaba de este modo consigo mismo, y se golpeaba la frente con la mano, se dice que la anciana Sra. Hibbins, la dama reputada por hechicera, pasaba por all, vestida con rico traje de terciopelo, fantsticamente peinada, y con un hermoso cuello de lechuguilla, todo lo cual le daba una apariencia de persona de muchas campanillas. Como si la hechicera hubiese ledo los pensamientos del ministro, se detuvo ante l, fij las miradas astutamente en su rostro, sonri con malicia, y,—aunque no muy dada a hablar con gente de la iglesia,—tuvo con l el siguiente dilogo:
—De modo, Reverendo Seor, que habis hecho una visita a la selva,—observ la hechicera inclinando su gran peinado hacia el ministro.—La prxima vez que vayis, os ruego me lo avisis en tiempo, y me considerar muy honrada en acompaaros. Sin querer exagerar mi importancia, creo que una palabra ma servir para proporcionar a cualquier caballero extrao una excelente recepcin de parte de aquel potentado que sabis.
—Os aseguro, seora,—respondi el ministro con respetuoso saludo, como demandaba la alta jerarqua de la dama, y como su buena educacin se lo exiga,—os aseguro, bajo mi conciencia y honor, que estoy completamente a obscuras acerca del sentido que entraan vuestras palabras. No he ido a la selva a buscar a ningn potentado; ni intento hacer all una futura visita con el fin de ganarme la proteccin y favor de semejante personaje. Mi nico objeto fue saludar a mi piadoso amigo el apstol Eliot, y regocijarme con l por las muchas preciosas almas que ha arrancado a la idolatra.
—Ja! ja! ja!—exclam la anciana bruja, inclinando siempre su alto peinado hacia el ministro.—Bien, bien: no necesitamos hablar de esto durante el da; pero a media noche, y en la selva, tendremos juntos otra conversacin.
La vieja hechicera continu su camino con su acostumbrada majestad, pero de cuando en cuando volva hacia atrs las miradas y se sonrea, exactamente como quien quisiera dar a entender que exista entre ella y el ministro una secreta y misteriosa intimidad.
—Me habr vendido yo mismo,—se pregunt el ministro,—al maligno espritu a quien, si es verdad lo que se dice, esta vieja y amarillenta bruja, vestida de terciopelo, ha escogido por su prncipe y seor?
Infeliz ministro! Haba hecho un pacto muy parecido a ese de que hablaba. Alucinado por un sueo de felicidad, haba cedido, deliberadamente, como nunca lo hizo antes, a la tentacin de lo que saba que era un pecado mortal; y el veneno infeccioso de ese pecado se haba difundido rpidamente en todo su ser moral; adormeciendo todos sus buenos impulsos, y despertando en l todos los malos a vida animadsima. El odio, el desprecio, la malignidad sin provocacin alguna, el deseo gratuito de ser perverso, de ridiculizar todo lo bueno y santo, se despertaron en l para tentarle al mismo tiempo que le llenaban de pavor. Y su encuentro con la vieja hechicera Hibbins, caso de que hubiera acontecido realmente, slo vino a mostrarle sus simpatas y su compaerismo con mortales perversos y con el mundo de perversos espritus.
Ya para este tiempo haba llegado a su morada, cerca del cementerio, y subiendo apresuradamente las escaleras se refugi en su estudio. Mucho se alegr el ministro de verse al fin en este asilo, sin haberse vendido l mismo cometiendo una de esas extraas y malignas excentricidades, a que haba estado continuamente expuesto, mientras atravesaba las calles de la poblacin. Entr en su cuarto, y dio una mirada alrededor examinando los libros, las ventanas, la chimenea para el fuego, y los tapices, experimentando la misma sensacin de extraeza que le haba acosado durante el trayecto desde la selva a la ciudad. En esta habitacin haba estudiado y escrito; aqu haba ayunado y pasado las noches en vela, hasta quedar casi medio muerto de fatiga y debilidad; aqu se haba esforzado en orar; aqu haba padecido mil y mil tormentos y agonas. All estaba su Biblia, en el antiguo y rico hebreo, con Moiss y los Profetas que le hablaban constantemente, y resonando en toda ella la voz de Dios. All, sobre la mesa, con la pluma al lado, haba un sermn por terminar, con una frase incompleta tal como la dej cuando sali a hacer su visita dos das antes. Saba que l era el mismo, el ministro delgado de plidas mejillas que haba hecho y sufrido todas estas cosas, y tena ya muy adelantado su sermn de la eleccin. Pero pareca como si estuviera aparte contemplando su antiguo ser con cierta curiosidad desdeosa, compasiva y envidiosa. Aquel antiguo ser haba desaparecido, y otro hombre haba regresado de la selva: ms sabio, dotado de un conocimiento de ocultos misterios que la sencillez del primero nunca pudo haber conseguido. Amargo conocimiento por cierto!
Mientras se hallaba ocupado en estas reflexiones, reson un golpecito en la puerta del estudio, y el ministro dijo: "Entrad"—no sin cierto temor de que pudiera ser un espritu maligno. Y as fue! Era el anciano Roger Chillingworth. El ministro se puso en pie, plido y mudo, con una mano en las Sagradas Escrituras y la otra sobre el pecho.
—Bienvenido, Reverendo Seor!—dijo el mdico.—Y cmo habis hallado a ese santo varn, el apstol Eliot? Pero me parece, mi querido seor, que estis plido; como si el viaje al travs de las selvas hubiera sido muy penoso. No necesitis de mi auxilio para fortaleceros algo, cosa de que podis predicar el sermn de la eleccin?
—No, creo que no,—replic el Reverendo Sr. Dimmesdale.—Mi viaje, y la vista del santo apstol, y el aire libre y puro que all he respirado, despus de tan largo encierro en mi estudio, me han hecho mucho bien. Creo que no tendr ms necesidad de vuestras drogas, mi benvolo mdico, a pesar de lo buenas que son y de estar istradas por una mano amiga.
Durante todo este tiempo el anciano Roger haba estado contemplando al ministro con la mirada grave y fija de un mdico para con su paciente; pero a pesar de estas apariencias, el ministro estaba casi convencido de que Chillingworth sabia, o por lo menos sospechaba, su entrevista con Ester. El mdico conoca, pues, que para su enfermo l no era ya un amigo ntimo y leal, sino su ms encarnizado enemigo; de consiguiente, era natural que una parte de esos sentimientos tomara forma visible. Es sin embargo singular el hecho de que a veces transcurra tanto tiempo antes de que ciertos pensamientos se expresen por medio de palabras, y as vemos con cuanta seguridad dos personas, que no desean tratar el asunto que ms a pecho tienen, se acercan hasta sus mismos lmites y se retiran sin tocarlo. Por esta razn, el ministro no tema que el mdico tratara de un modo claro y distinto la posicin verdadera en que mutuamente se encontraban uno y otro. Sin embargo, el anciano Roger, con su manera tenebrosa de costumbre, se acerc considerablemente al particular del secreto.
—No sera mejor, dijo, que os sirvierais esta noche de mi poca habilidad? Realmente, mi querido seor, tenemos que esmerarnos y hacer todo lo posible para que estis fuerte y vigoroso el da del sermn de la eleccin. El pblico espera grandes cosas de vos, temiendo que al llegar otro ao ya su pastor haya partido.
—S, a otro mundo,—replic el ministro con piadosa resignacin.—Concdame el cielo que sea a un mundo mejor, porque, en verdad, apenas creo que podr permanecer entre mis feligreses las rpidas estaciones de otro ao. Y en cuanto a vuestras medicinas, buen seor, en el estado actual de mi cuerpo, no las necesito.
—Mucho me alegro de orlo,—respondi el mdico.—Pudiera ser que mis remedios, istrados tanto tiempo en vano, empezaran ahora a surtir efecto. Por feliz me tendra si as fuere, pues merecera la gratitud de la Nueva Inglaterra, si pudiese efectuar tal cura.
—Os doy las gracias con todo mi corazn, vigilante amigo,—dijo el Reverendo Sr. Dimmesdale con una solemne sonrisa.—Os doy las gracias, y slo podr pagar con mis oraciones vuestros buenos servicios.
—Las preces de un hombre bueno son la ms valiosa recompensa,—contest el anciano mdico al despedirse.—Son las monedas de oro corriente en la Nueva Jerusaln, con el busto del Rey grabado en ellas.
Cuando estuvo solo, el ministro llam a un sirviente de la casa y le pidi algo de comer, lo que trado que fue, puede decirse que despach con voraz apetito; y arrojando a las llamas lo que ya tena escrito de su sermn, empez acto continuo a escribir otro, con tal afluencia de pensamientos y de emocin que se crey verdaderamente inspirado, irndose slo de que el cielo quisiera transmitir la grande y solemne msica de sus orculos por un conducto tan indigno como l se consideraba. Dejando, sin embargo, que ese misterio se resolviese por s mismo, o permaneciera eternamente sin resolverse, continu su labor con empeo y entusiasmo. Y as se pas la noche hasta que apareci la maana, arrojando un rayo dorado en el estudio, donde sorprendi al ministro, pluma en mano, con innumerables pginas escritas y esparcidas por donde quiera. |
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