Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin

. And the twain were playing dice. / . The game is done, I've won, I've won, / Quoth she, and whistled thrice. / Coleridge -- Rime of the Ancient Mariner / - The Tale of Guzman's Family

Of what I am about to read to you (said the stranger), I have witnessed part myself, and the remainder is established on a basis as strong as human evidence can make it.

In the city of Seville, where I lived many years, I knew a wealthy merchant, far advanced in years, who was known by the name of Guzman the rich. He was of obscure birth -- and those who honoured his wealth sufficiently to borrow from him frequently, never honoured his name so far as to prefix Don to it, or to add his surname, of which, indeed, most were ignorant, and among the number, it is said, the wealthy merchant himself. He was well respected, however; and when Guzman was seen, as regularly as the bell tolled for vespers, to issue from the narrow door of his house -- lock it carefully -- view it twice or thrice with a wistful eye -- then deposit the key in his bosom, and move slowly to church, feeling for the key in his vest the whole way -- the proudest heads in Seville were uncovered as he passed -- and the children who were playing in the streets, desisted from their sports till he had halted by them.

Guzman had neither wife or child -- relative or friend. An old female domestic constituted his whole household, and his personal expenses were calculated on a scale of the most pinching frugality; it was therefore matter of anxious conjecture to many, how his enormous wealth would be bestowed after his death. This anxiety gave rise to inquiries about the possibility of Guzman having relatives, though in remoteness and obscurity; and the diligence of inquiry, when stimulated at once by avarice and curiosity, is indefatigable. Thus it was at length discovered that Guzman had formerly a sister, many years younger than himself, who, at a very early age, had married a German musician, a Protestant, and had shortly after quitted Spain. It was remembered, or reported, that she had made many efforts to soften the heart and open the hand of her brother, who was even then very wealthy, and to induce him to be reconciled to their union, and to enable her and her husband to remain in Spain. Guzman was inflexible. Wealthy, and proud of his wealth as he was, he might have digested the unpalatable morsel of her union with a poor man, whom he could have made rich; but he could not even swallow the intelligence that she had married a Protestant. Ines, for that was her name, and her husband, went to Germany, partly in dependence on his musical talents, which were highly appreciated in that country -- partly in the vague hope of emigrants, that change of place will be attended with change of circumstances -- and partly, also, from the feeling, that misfortune is better tolerated anywhere than in the presence of those who inflict it. Such was the tale told by the old, who affected to remember the facts -- and believed by the young, whose imagination supplied all the defects of memory, and pictured to them an interesting beauty, with her children hanging about her, embarking, with a heretic husband, for a distant country, and sadly bidding farewell to the land and the religion of her fathers.

Now, while these things were talked of at Seville, Guzman fell sick, and was given over by the physicians, whom with considerable reluctance he had suffered to be called in.

In the progress of his illness, whether nature revisited a heart she long appeared to have deserted -- or whether he conceived that the hand of a relative might be a more grateful support to his dying head than that of a rapacious and mercenary menial -- or whether his resentful feelings burnt faintly at the expected approach of death, as artificial fires wax dim at the appearance of morning; -- so it was, that Guzman in his illness bethought himself of his sister and her family -- sent off, at a considerable expense, an express to that part of Germany where she resided, to invite her to return and be reconciled to him -- and prayed devoutly that he might be permitted to survive till he could breathe his last amid the arms of her and her children. Moreover, there was a report at this time, in which the hearers probably took more interest than in anything that related merely to the life or death of Guzman -- and this was, that he had rescinded his former will, and sent for a notary, with whom, in spite of his apparent debility, he remained locked up for some hours, dictating in a tone which, however clear to the notary, did not leave one distinct impression of sound on the ears that were strained, even to an agony of listening, at the double-locked door of his chamber.

All Guzman's friends had endeavoured to dissuade him from making this exertion, which, they assured him, would only hasten his dissolution. But to their surprise, and doubtless their delight, from the moment his will was made, Guzman's health began to amend -- and in less than a week he began to walk about his chamber, and calculate what time it might take an express to reach Germany, and how soon he might expect intelligence from his family.

Some months had passed away, and the priests took advantage of the interval to get about Guzman. But after exhausting every effort of ingenuity -- after plying him powerfully but unavailingly on the side of conscience, of duty, of fear, and of religion -- they began to understand their interest, and change their battery. And finding that the settled purpose of Guzman's soul was not to be changed, and that he was determined on recalling his sister and her family to Spain, they contented themselves with requiring that he should have no communication with the heretic family, except through them -- and never see his sister or her children unless they were witnesses to the interview.