Francis Lathom

Francis Lathom. The Midnight Bell. A German Story, Founded on Incidents in Real Life

London:  H. D. Symonds, 1798.

 

Synopsis of The Midnight Bell

The Midnight Bell; a German story founded on incidents in real life was published for the first time in three volumes during the year of 1798. It was printed in 1798 for H.D. Symonds and was held in high public esteem for a significant period of time. A second edition was published in 1825 and the piece was also translated into French a year after it was first published in 1799. The first edition in 1798 doesn't contain any evidence that Francis Lathom was the author. Lathom's attribution for the The Midnight Bell first appeared in an advertisement in the second volume of his novel Astonishment.

Volume I

The book opens right away with a love triangle which would lead one to believe that the novel would be a love story. But is it? Count Alphonsus and Fredric are brothers. Count Alphonsus is married and Frederic is in love with Anna, the only daughter of the duke of Coblentz. While they are all living together in their father's castle on a branch of the river Elbe, Count Alphonsus begins to fall secretly in love with Anna. Fredric and Count Alphonsus's wife, Sophia, begin to get suspicious about the love affair and Fredric leaves for some time. Fredric spends a few years coming back to the castle and leaving again until Count Alphonsus is needed to travel to the metropolis of the German Empire to fix the will of his late father. While Count Alphonsus is gone Frederic is placed in charge. On the day Count Alphonsus is to return word comes back that he is dead, that he had been stabbed. His wife tells his son -- who is also named Alphonsus -- that his uncle Frederic is the one who killed his father, and she asks that Alphonsus avenge his father's death. However, Frederic was proved to be innocent and afterward he again departs and leaves the castle. Before Frederic's departure, Alphonsus walks in and sees his mother kneeling before Frederic. Appalled and confused by his mother's actions, Alphonsus refuses to speak to her. Alphonsus, deeply hurt by his father's death and by the confusion arising from his mother, decides to leave to find Frederic and obey his mother and keep the promise he made to her.

While Alphonsus is away he decides to volunteer for the German army in the war against Poland, and the army heads straight to Berlin. During his stint in the army, Alphonsus became friends with his commander, Arieno. Arieno is the son of Count Arieno, who we learn was one of the richest noblemen in the state of Venice. The two men become close friends and tell each other their life stories. One day in battle Arieno is killed and Alphonsus is thrown from his horse, fracturing his arm. The fracture is bad enough that he cannot continue volunteering for the army.

His next stop took him to Bohemia where he became a silver miner. Working long hours with his fellow co-workers, Alphonsus began telling the story about his father. One day a gentleman named Baron Kardsfelt came by the mine with a servant. During the baron's visit it was Alphonsus's job to assist him. While Baron Kardsfelt was exploring one of the cavities of the mine, his servant slipped and fell to his death. Upset by his servant's death, the baron was determined to take on another servant and chose Alphonsus. It turns out that the baron was from Inspruck, a place that Alphonsus frequently visited. The baron liked to gamble and entered a game with a stranger whom he beat badly. The stranger then accused the baron of cheating, which made the baron mad. The two drew their swords. The fight resulted in the baron being fatally injured. While on his death bed, the baron gave Alphonsus his purse and told the friar that he wished Alphonsus's safety.

The friar looking after Alphonsus took him to the convent of Saint Helena. While at the convent Alphonsus met a girl named, Lauretta, it was love at first sight. After six months of gazing at Lauretta, Alphonsus inquires about her from father Matthias. Father Matthias tells Alphonsus that her birth is a secret, but he trusts Alphonsus with her history and promises to tell him, sometime. One night there was a knock at Alphonsus's door, and when he opened the door a stranger was there and gave him a manuscript of Lauretta's history.

Lauretta is the only daughter of Count Arieno who lived near Venice. She was in love with one Frederic Cohenburg, Alphonsus's uncle. However, due to her father's desire for his daughter to marry into wealth, he had arranged for her to marry Count Byroff. While count Byroff was traveling to foreign lands, he required Lauretta to cure herself of her love for Fredric. This meant for her to join the convent. Frederic would still write letters to Lauretta confessing his love for her. One day Byroff returned to Venice and requested Lauretta to meet him at the altar. On her way to the altar, Lauretta dropped to her knees and grabbed her father's legs, begging for her father to call off the wedding. Her father denied her wishes, which caused her to faint. Lauretta was then taken to her room where she was to recover. After she regained consciousness, she feared that word had gotten to Frederic that she was to marry Byroff. She worryingly waited for Frederic's return to run away with him; however, he never came. Depressed by the absence of Frederic, Lauretta decides to marry Byroff and make her father happy. Byroff and Count Arieno leave on a journey. While they are gone Lauretta tries to get in contact with Frederic to no avail. Upon Byroff's return she confesses her love for another man and the two decided to split up. Since divorce is frowned upon during this period, Lauretta goes back to the convent to find herself. It turns out that the Lauretta from the story is Lauretta, Alphonsus's love's mother. Lauretta became pregnant with Byroff's daughter and refused for him to have it. She then left her daughter Lauretta to the care of the convent. This amazed Alphonsus and made him fall even deeper in love with Lauretta.

Alphonsus finally got enough courage to talk to Lauretta and the two began to constantly talk and fall in love with each other. After the two fell in love Alphonsus talked to Father Matthias and arranged for Lauretta to go with him. Alphonsus and Lauretta traveled to Inspruck where they meet Theodore. Theodore is the nephew of the baron who owned the place where Alphonsus and Lauretta stayed. Theodore had recently been studying in France where his mind became dark and terrifying. Throughout their time in Inspruck, Theodore becomes really strange around Lauretta. He constantly asks how she is doing and will stop by unexpectedly. Alphonsus becomes alarmed by Theodore's behavior and threatens to tell the baron pending he bothers Lauretta again. One night Alphonsus is gone, when Lauretta hears a noise which scares her. She quickly runs to the door where Theodore is standing. He grabs her by the arm and abducts her blind folded.

Lauretta regains consciousness and doesn't know where she is. All she knows is that she is being watched by two big men, Kroonzer and Ralberg, who where hired by Theodore. During her capture she would often have nightmares about Theodore and constantly be moved to different locations. At first Lauretta was scared of Kroonzer and Ralberg, but eventually she became accustomed to them. One night Lauretta awoke to the sound of loud bangs and crashes. She heard people talking quietly outside her prison. She got the suspicion that she was being rescued. However, no rescue was made. Six days passed and on the seventh day of her confinement a loud crash of thunder woke her and shook the turret of the tower she was kept in. Next came a flash of lightning that struck the side of the turret and knocked down a wall, which knocked Lauretta out.

Volume II

This section starts off with Lauretta regaining consciousness once again. She realizes what had happened and begins running figuring that Theodore and his people will find her. After running some distance she falls from exhaustion into the arms of a hermit. The hermit takes her to his house where he nurses her back to health and tells his story.

Then the novel flashes back to Alphonsus and what he has been doing. Alphonsus returns to find Lauretta missing and immediately informs the baron that he believes Theodore abducted Lauretta. The baron then calls for Theodore who lies to his uncle and denies he had anything to do with her disappearance. Alphonsus puts all his efforts into searching for Lauretta and becomes very ill from exhaustion. Meanwhile, Theodore's ego catches up with him and he tells an old woman what he did and then the old woman tells the baron. The baron then tells Alphonsus what he had discovered, only to enrage Alphonsus. When the baron went to confront Theodore he discovered he was gone and immediately looked for Alphonsus. While the baron was looking for Theodore, Alphonsus's anger got the best of him and he took off after Theodore.

Back to Lauretta. While Lauretta was with the hermit he took ill and died. Then Lauretta heard voices outside the hermit's home and when she went to see what it was she was captured by Theodore again. Lauretta, crying profusely, was being shouted at by Theodore. He wanted to know what her whole name was. Finally he found out her name was Lauretta Byroff. Angered by this, Theodore's assistant grabbed her by the arm and took her away. As the man took Lauretta way a man came from nowhere and hit Theodore's assistant, knocking him out. The mysterious man then took her to another one of Theodore's assistants, Ralberg. The man left them two to talk and it turns out that Ralberg's real name is Count Byroff, her father. Shocked and confused, Lauretta didn't know to think what just happened as a dream or reality.

Every day Byroff goes and visits his daughter where he tells her his story of what happened with him and her mother. While on one of his travels, Byroff meets Arieno who helps him find Frederic. Byroff, enraged by Lauretta's mother's love for Frederic, went to Frederic and killed him. After realizing Frederic was the son of one of the first senators, Arieno sends Byroff a letter saying they can't be friends and that if he were to see Byroff, he would kill him. Byroff then decided to go to a strange city where nobody knew him. He would gain a new identity and try to start over.

One day Byroff was approached by two men who took him into custody to the Bastille. In prison, Byroff spent years being tortured and beaten. Throughout his time, he spent a lot of time figuring out his remaining life. At this part of Byroff's story he is interrupted by the Shepard who warns him that Theodore and Kroonzer are on their way. Theodore, realizing that Byroff had told Lauretta he was her father, began to fight the two with the assistance of Kroonzer. During the fight, Lauretta become scared and runs away while being chased by Theodore. Theodore caught her and they continued to fight. After a brief moment Theodore was killed and shocked from what just occurred Lauretta faints once again.

Volume III

This volume begins with Lauretta being awoken by a kiss from her father who told her that Kroonzer ran off and that Theodore had been killed by Alphonsus. The two then romantically hug and kiss while Alphonsus tells Lauretta about his search for her.

Aware of the romance between his daughter and Alphonsus, Byroff begins questioning Alphonsus about his future plans to which Alphonsus says he hasn't thought much about them. Alphonsus mentions that he must first solve the mystery of his father's death that has troubled him so much before he can figure out his own life. Byroff replies by telling Alphonsus to follow his heart.

The three of them then decide to return to Alphonsus's home in search for the truth behind his father's death. During the journey, Byroff continues telling Lauretta of his life when he is yet interrupted again by Alphonsus, who recommends they rest for the night. The next morning the trio continue the journey to Alphonsus's home and Byroff continues his story. The story concludes with how he met up with Kroonzer and how Byroff would be a nice addition to their group. Byroff also explains how Theodore wouldn't let Byroff look after Lauretta while she was captured because he knows she was Byroff's daughter. Byroff then arranged for Lauretta to meet him after she was captured again to find out if she was really his daughter. Once he confirmed that she was his daughter, Byroff tried to ask for Lauretta's freedom but Theodore denied it. So, that is when Byroff helped her escape.

Once again Alphonsus becomes ill from exhaustion and pushing himself so much that they take time from their journey for Alphonsus to recover. At the inn where Alphonsus's is recovering the host tells him of the castle which his family lived is vacant because everyone died. The host then tells the story of how Fredric supposedly killed his brother and the only person or being in the castle is the ghost of Alphonsus. At the strike of midnight the ghost will ring the bell. This intrigued Alphonsus and decided to watch the tower to see if the myth was true. So Alphonsus and another tenant of the inn, Jacques Perlet, set out for the castle. Just as midnight approaches the bell begins to ring and Alphonsus finds a way to enter and find who is ringing the bell while Jacques stays behind.

Lauretta and Byroff decide to stay awake until their return. While waiting their return, Jacques came back scared without Alphonsus. Apparently Jacques saw something that frightened him and he ran back without Alphonsus. A little while later Alphonsus returned, terrified and petrified. He again was ill from exhaustion and fright. Byroff then decides to go back to the castle and find out for himself what is going on. Once at the castle the bell again began to ring and Byroff entered. Inside after roaming around for awhile he saw friars chanting around coffins. He began to follow one but lost them when he was hiding from being seen. Byroff then decided to return to the inn and figure out what exactly he had seen.

Once Byroff returned, Alphonsus returned and father Nicholas came over to help him remember what he had seen. To no avail Father Nicholas left, but said he would return the next day possibly with some news. The next day Father Nicholas returned and told Alphonsus that he had for many years been his mother's confessor. He then proceeds to tell Alphonsus that his mother in fact had been the one who killed his father. While Count Alphonsus was still living Frederic fell in love with Alphonsus's mother, who didn't want any part of him. One night after many attempts by Frederic to force himself upon her, Alphonsus's mother placed a dagger next to her bed in case he tried again. During this night Count Alphonsus was away. During the night Alphonsus's mother heard a noise who she thought was Frederic. She then quickly grabbed the dagger and stabbed the intruder, whom she thought was Frederic. The next morning came and it became evident that the intruder was in fact her husband, who had come back early from his travels.

After realizing what she had done, Alphonsus's mother decided to live a life of solitude in the castle. Thus the reason why she told Alphonsus that his uncle had been the one who killed his father in hopes that he would go after Frederic once he left. This way she could be alone in the castle and live ashamed of what had occurred.

The novel ends with Alphonsus asking forgiveness of his mother, after which he again grows ill with depression, from which it took some time for him to recover. Once he recovered and felt free to live his life after discovering the truth about his father, he and Lauretta were married. The two of them, along with Byroff, lived in the castle and began to raise a family. As their children began to grow up, Alphonsus often told them, "Learn above suspicion; for as it is the source of crimes, it is also the worst of crimes, attaching itself with equal mischief o the guilty and the innocent it is an endless pang to him who harbours it; for it dies only when he dies, and then too often leaves a curse on those that follow him; it is the influence of evil that breeds suspicion, the noble of charity that subdues it!"

-- Prepared by Greg Schwanke, Univversity of Nebraska, April 2006.
© Greg Schwanke, 2006.