Prince Zaleski | Page 9

Shiel, I know whether Mary did or did not murder Darnley; I
know--as clearly, as precisely, as a man can know--that Beatrice Cenci
was not "guilty" as certain recently-discovered documents "prove" her,
but that the Shelley version of the affair, though a guess, is the correct
one. It is possible, by taking thought, to add one cubit--or say a hand, or
a dactyl--to your stature; you may develop powers slightly--very
slightly, but distinctly, both in kind and degree--in advance of those of
the mass who live in or about the same cycle of time in which you live.
But it is only when the powers to which I refer are shared by the
mass--when what, for want of another term, I call the age of the
Cultured Mood has at length arrived--that their exercise will become
easy and familiar to the individual; and who shall say what presciences,
prisms, _séances_, what introspective craft, Genie apocalypses, shall
not then become possible to the few who stand spiritually in the van of
men.
'All this, you will understand, I say as some sort of excuse for myself,
and for you, for any hesitation we may have shown in loosening the
very little puzzle you have placed before me--one which we certainly
must not regard as difficult of solution. Of course, looking at all the
facts, the first consideration that must inevitably rivet the attention is
that arising from the circumstance that Viscount Randolph has strong
reasons to wish his father dead. They are avowed enemies; he is the
_fiancé_ of a princess whose husband he is probably too poor to
become, though he will very likely be rich enough when his father dies;

and so on. All that appears on the surface. On the other hand, we--you
and I--know the man: he is a person of gentle blood, as moral, we
suppose, as ordinary people, occupying a high station in the world. It is
impossible to imagine that such a person would commit an
assassination, or even countenance one, for any or all of the reasons
that present themselves. In our hearts, with or without clear proof, we
could hardly believe it of him. Earls' sons do not, in fact, go about
murdering people. Unless, then, we can so reason as to discover other
motives--strong, adequate, irresistible--and by "irresistible" I mean a
motive which must be far stronger than even the love of life itself--we
should, I think, in fairness dismiss him from our mind.
'And yet it must be admitted that his conduct is not free of blame. He
contracts a sudden intimacy with the acknowledged culprit, whom he
does not seem to have known before. He meets her by night,
corresponds with her. Who and what is this woman? I think we could
not be far wrong in guessing some very old flame of Lord Pharanx's of
_Théâtre des Variétés_ type, whom he has supported for years, and
from whom, hearing some story to her discredit, he threatens to
withdraw his supplies. However that be, Randolph writes to Cibras--a
violent woman, a woman of lawless passions--assuring her that in four
or five days she will be excluded from the will of his father; and in four
or five days Cibras plunges a knife into his father's bosom. It is a
perfectly natural sequence--though, of course, the intention to produce
by his words the actual effect produced might have been absent; indeed,
the letter of Lord Pharanx himself, had it been received, would have
tended to produce that very effect; for it not only gives an excellent
opportunity for converting into action those evil thoughts which
Randolph (thoughtlessly or guiltily) has instilled, but it further tends to
rouse her passions by cutting off from her all hopes of favour. If we
presume, then, as is only natural, that there was no such intention on
the part of the earl, we may make the same presumption in the case of
the son. Cibras, however, never receives the earl's letter: on the
morning of the same day she goes away to Bath, with the double object,
I suppose, of purchasing a weapon, and creating an impression that she
has left the country. How then does she know the exact locale of Lord
Pharanx's room? It is in an unusual part of the mansion, she is

unacquainted with any of the servants, a stranger to the district. Can it
be possible that Randolph _had told her_? And here again, even in that
case, you must bear in mind that Lord Pharanx also told her in his note,
and you must recognise the possibility of the absence of evil intention
on the part of the son. Indeed, I may go further and show you that in all
but every instance in which his actions are in themselves