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diff --git a/old/7drag10.txt b/old/7drag10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..abd8a05 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7drag10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5684 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Room in the Dragon Volant, by J. Sheridan LeFanu + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Room in the Dragon Volant + +Author: J. Sheridan LeFanu + +Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9502] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 6, 2003] +[Date last updated: December 22, 2004] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROOM IN THE DRAGON VOLANT *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, David Garcia and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +THE ROOM IN THE DRAGON VOLANT + +By J. Sheridan LeFanu + + + + +_Other books by J. Sheridan LeFanu_ + + The Cock and Anchor + Torlogh O'Brien + The Home by the Churchyard + Uncle Silas + Checkmate + Carmilla + The Wyvern Mystery + Guy Deverell + Ghost Stories and Tales of Mystery + The Chronicles of Golden Friars + In a Glass Darkly + The Purcell Papers + The Watcher and Other Weird Stories + A Chronicle of Golden Friars and Other Stories + Madam Crowl's Ghost and Other Tales of Mystery + Green Tea and Other Stones + Sheridan LeFanu: The Diabolic Genius + Best Ghost Stories of J.S. LeFanu + The Best Horror Stories + The Vampire Lovers and Other Stories + Ghost Stories and Mysteries + The Hours After Midnight + J.S. LeFanu: Ghost Stories and Mysteries + Ghost and Horror Stones + Green Tea and Other Ghost Stories + Carmilla and Other Classic Tales of Mystery + + + + + +The Room in the Dragon Volant + + + + +_Prologue_ + +_The curious case which I am about to place before you, is referred +to, very pointedly, and more than once, in the extraordinary Essay upon +the Drug of the Dark and the Middle Ages, from the pen of Doctor +Hesselius_. + +_This Essay he entitles_ Mortis Imago, _and he, therein, discusses the_ +Vinum letiferum, _the_ Beatifica, _the_ Somnus Angelorum, _the_ Hypnus +Sagarum, _the_ Aqua Thessalliae, _and about twenty other infusions and +distillations, well known to the sages of eight hundred years ago, and +two of which are still, he alleges, known to the fraternity of thieves, +and, among them, as police-office inquiries sometimes disclose to this +day, in practical use_. + +_The Essay,_ Mortis Imago, _will occupy, as nearly as I can at +present calculate, two volumes, the ninth and tenth, of the collected +papers of Dr. Martin Hesselius_. + +_This Essay, I may remark in conclusion, is very curiously enriched by +citations, in great abundance, from medieval verse and prose romance, +some of the most valuable of which, strange to say, are Egyptian_. + +_I have selected this particular statement from among many cases +equally striking, but hardly, I think, so effective as mere narratives; +in this irregular form of publication, it is simply as a story that I +present it_. + + + + +Chapter I + +ON THE ROAD + + +In the eventful year, 1815, I was exactly three-and-twenty, and had just +succeeded to a very large sum in consols and other securities. The first +fall of Napoleon had thrown the continent open to English excursionists, +anxious, let us suppose, to improve their minds by foreign travel; and +I--the slight check of the "hundred days" removed, by the genius of +Wellington, on the field of Waterloo--was now added to the philosophic +throng. + +I was posting up to Paris from Brussels, following, I presume, the route +that the allied army had pursued but a few weeks before--more carriages +than you could believe were pursuing the same line. You could not look +back or forward, without seeing into far perspective the clouds of dust +which marked the line of the long series of vehicles. We were +perpetually passing relays of return-horses, on their way, jaded and +dusty, to the inns from which they had been taken. They were arduous +times for those patient public servants. The whole world seemed posting +up to Paris. + +I ought to have noted it more particularly, but my head was so full of +Paris and the future that I passed the intervening scenery with little +patience and less attention; I think, however, that it was about four +miles to the frontier side of a rather picturesque little town, the name +of which, as of many more important places through which I posted in my +hurried journey, I forget, and about two hours before sunset, that we +came up with a carriage in distress. + +It was not quite an upset. But the two leaders were lying flat. The +booted postilions had got down, and two servants who seemed very much +at sea in such matters, were by way of assisting them. A pretty little +bonnet and head were popped out of the window of the carriage in +distress. Its _tournure_, and that of the shoulders that also +appeared for a moment, was captivating: I resolved to play the part of +a good Samaritan; stopped my chaise, jumped out, and with my servant lent +a very willing hand in the emergency. Alas! the lady with the pretty +bonnet wore a very thick black veil. I could see nothing but the pattern +of the Brussels lace as she drew back. + +A lean old gentleman, almost at the same time, stuck his head out of the +window. An invalid he seemed, for although the day was hot he wore a +black muffler which came up to his ears and nose, quite covering the +lower part of his face, an arrangement which he disturbed by pulling it +down for a moment, and poured forth a torrent of French thanks, as he +uncovered his black wig, and gesticulated with grateful animation. + +One of my very few accomplishments, besides boxing, which was cultivated +by all Englishmen at that time, was French; and I replied, I hope and +believe grammatically. Many bows being exchanged, the old gentleman's +head went in again, and the demure, pretty little bonnet once more +appeared. + +The lady must have heard me speak to my servant, for she framed her +little speech in such pretty, broken English, and in a voice so sweet, +that I more than ever cursed the black veil that baulked my romantic +curiosity. + +The arms that were emblazoned on the panel were peculiar; I remember +especially one device--it was the figure of a stork, painted in carmine, +upon what the heralds call a "field or." The bird was standing upon one +leg, and in the other claw held a stone. This is, I believe, the emblem +of vigilance. Its oddity struck me, and remained impressed upon my +memory. There were supporters besides, but I forget what they were. The +courtly manners of these people, the style of their servants, the +elegance of their traveling carriage, and the supporters to their arms, +satisfied me that they were noble. + +The lady, you may be sure, was not the less interesting on that account. +What a fascination a title exercises upon the imagination! I do not mean +on that of snobs or moral flunkies. Superiority of rank is a powerful +and genuine influence in love. The idea of superior refinement is +associated with it. The careless notice of the squire tells more upon +the heart of the pretty milk-maid than years of honest Dobbin's manly +devotion, and so on and up. It is an unjust world! + +But in this case there was something more. I was conscious of being +good-looking. I really believe I was; and there could be no mistake +about my being nearly six feet high. Why need this lady have thanked me? +Had not her husband, for such I assumed him to be, thanked me quite +enough and for both? I was instinctively aware that the lady was looking +on me with no unwilling eyes; and, through her veil, I felt the power of +her gaze. + +She was now rolling away, with a train of dust behind her wheels in the +golden sunlight, and a wise young gentleman followed her with ardent +eyes and sighed profoundly as the distance increased. + +I told the postilions on no account to pass the carriage, but to keep it +steadily in view, and to pull up at whatever posting-house it should +stop at. We were soon in the little town, and the carriage we followed +drew up at the Belle Etoile, a comfortable old inn. They got out of the +carriage and entered the house. + +At a leisurely pace we followed. I got down, and mounted the steps +listlessly, like a man quite apathetic and careless. + +Audacious as I was, I did not care to inquire in what room I should find +them. I peeped into the apartment to my right, and then into that on my +left. _My_ people were not there. I ascended the stairs. A +drawing-room door stood open. I entered with the most innocent air in +the world. It was a spacious room, and, beside myself, contained but one +living figure--a very pretty and lady-like one. There was the very +bonnet with which I had fallen in love. The lady stood with her back +toward me. I could not tell whether the envious veil was raised; she was +reading a letter. + +I stood for a minute in fixed attention, gazing upon her, in vague hope +that she might turn about and give me an opportunity of seeing her +features. She did not; but with a step or two she placed herself before +a little cabriole-table, which stood against the wall, from which rose +a tall mirror in a tarnished frame. + +I might, indeed, have mistaken it for a picture; for it now reflected a +half-length portrait of a singularly beautiful woman. + +She was looking down upon a letter which she held in her slender +fingers, and in which she seemed absorbed. + +The face was oval, melancholy, sweet. It had in it, nevertheless, a +faint and undefinably sensual quality also. Nothing could exceed the +delicacy of its features, or the brilliancy of its tints. The eyes, +indeed, were lowered, so that I could not see their color; nothing but +their long lashes and delicate eyebrows. She continued reading. She must +have been deeply interested; I never saw a living form so motionless--I +gazed on a tinted statue. + +Being at that time blessed with long and keen vision, I saw this +beautiful face with perfect distinctness. I saw even the blue veins that +traced their wanderings on the whiteness of her full throat. + +I ought to have retreated as noiselessly as I came in, before my +presence was detected. But I was too much interested to move from the +spot, for a few moments longer; and while they were passing, she raised +her eyes. Those eyes were large, and of that hue which modern poets term +"violet." + +These splendid melancholy eyes were turned upon me from the glass, with +a haughty stare, and hastily the lady lowered her black veil, and turned +about. + +I fancied that she hoped I had not seen her. I was watching every look +and movement, the minutest, with an attention as intense as if an ordeal +involving my life depended on them. + + + + +Chapter II + +THE INN-YARD OF THE BELLE ETOILE + + +The face was, indeed, one to fall in love with at first sight. Those +sentiments that take such sudden possession of young men were now +dominating my curiosity. My audacity faltered before her; and I felt +that my presence in this room was probably an impertinence. This point +she quickly settled, for the same very sweet voice I had heard before, +now said coldly, and this time in French, "Monsieur cannot be aware that +this apartment is not public." + +I bowed very low, faltered some apologies, and backed to the door. + +I suppose I looked penitent, and embarrassed. I certainly felt so; for +the lady said, by way it seemed of softening matters, "I am happy, +however, to have an opportunity of again thanking Monsieur for the +assistance, so prompt and effectual, which he had the goodness to render +us today." + +It was more the altered tone in which it was spoken, than the speech +itself, that encouraged me. It was also true that she need not have +recognized me; and if she had, she certainly was not obliged to thank me +over again. + +All this was indescribably flattering, and all the more so that it +followed so quickly on her slight reproof. The tone in which she spoke +had become low and timid, and I observed that she turned her head +quickly towards a second door of the room; I fancied that the gentleman +in the black wig, a jealous husband perhaps, might reappear through it. +Almost at the same moment, a voice at once reedy and nasal was heard +snarling some directions to a servant, and evidently approaching. It was +the voice that had thanked me so profusely, from the carriage windows, +about an hour before. + +"Monsieur will have the goodness to retire," said the lady, in a tone +that resembled entreaty, at the same time gently waving her hand toward +the door through which I had entered. Bowing again very low, I stepped +back, and closed the door. + +I ran down the stairs, very much elated. I saw the host of the Belle +Etoile which, as I said, was the sign and designation of my inn. + +I described the apartment I had just quitted, said I liked it, and asked +whether I could have it. + +He was extremely troubled, but that apartment and two adjoining rooms +were engaged. + +"By whom?" + +"People of distinction." + +"But who are they? They must have names or titles." + +"Undoubtedly, Monsieur, but such a stream is rolling into Paris, that we +have ceased to inquire the names or titles of our guests--we designate +them simply by the rooms they occupy." + +"What stay do they make?" + +"Even that, Monsieur, I cannot answer. It does not interest us. Our +rooms, while this continues, can never be, for a moment, disengaged." + +"I should have liked those rooms so much! Is one of them a sleeping +apartment?" + +"Yes, sir, and Monsieur will observe that people do not usually engage +bedrooms unless they mean to stay the night." + +"Well, I can, I suppose, have some rooms, any, I don't care in what part +of the house?" + +"Certainly, Monsieur can have two apartments. They are the last at +present disengaged." + +I took them instantly. + +It was plain these people meant to make a stay here; at least they would +not go till morning. I began to feel that I was all but engaged in an +adventure. + +I took possession of my rooms, and looked out of the window, which I +found commanded the inn-yard. Many horses were being liberated from the +traces, hot and weary, and others fresh from the stables being put to. A +great many vehicles--some private carriages, others, like mine, of that +public class which is equivalent to our old English post-chaise, were +standing on the pavement, waiting their turn for relays. Fussy servants +were to-ing and fro-ing, and idle ones lounging or laughing, and the +scene, on the whole, was animated and amusing. + +Among these objects, I thought I recognized the traveling carriage, and +one of the servants of the "persons of distinction" about whom I was, +just then, so profoundly interested. + +I therefore ran down the stairs, made my way to the back door; and so, +behold me, in a moment, upon the uneven pavement, among all these sights +and sounds which in such a place attend upon a period of extraordinary +crush and traffic. By this time the sun was near its setting, and threw +its golden beams on the red brick chimneys of the offices, and made the +two barrels, that figured as pigeon-houses, on the tops of poles, look +as if they were on fire. Everything in this light becomes picturesque; +and things interest us which, in the sober grey of morning, are dull +enough. + +After a little search I lighted upon the very carriage of which I was in +quest. A servant was locking one of the doors, for it was made with the +security of lock and key. I paused near, looking at the panel of the +door. + +"A very pretty device that red stork!" I observed, pointing to the +shield on the door, "and no doubt indicates a distinguished family?" + +The servant looked at me for a moment, as he placed the little key in +his pocket, and said with a slightly sarcastic bow and smile, "Monsieur +is at liberty to conjecture." + +Nothing daunted, I forthwith administered that laxative which, on +occasion, acts so happily upon the tongue--I mean a "tip." + +The servant looked at the Napoleon in his hand, and then in my face, +with a sincere expression of surprise. "Monsieur is very generous!" + +"Not worth mentioning--who are the lady and gentleman who came here in +this carriage, and whom, you may remember, I and my servant assisted +today in an emergency, when their horses had come to the ground?" + +"They are the Count, and the young lady we call the Countess--but I know +not, she may be his daughter." + +"Can you tell me where they live?" + +"Upon my honor, Monsieur, I am unable--I know not." + +"Not know where your master lives! Surely you know something more about +him than his name?" + +"Nothing worth relating, Monsieur; in fact, I was hired in Brussels, on +the very day they started. Monsieur Picard, my fellow-servant, Monsieur +the Comte's gentleman, he has been years in his service, and knows +everything; but he never speaks except to communicate an order. From him +I have learned nothing. We are going to Paris, however, and there I +shall speedily pick up all about them. At present I am as ignorant of +all that as Monsieur himself." + +"And where is Monsieur Picard?" + +"He has gone to the cutler's to get his razors set. But I do not think +he will tell anything." + +This was a poor harvest for my golden sowing. The man, I think, spoke +truth, and would honestly have betrayed the secrets of the family, if he +had possessed any. I took my leave politely; and mounting the stairs +again, I found myself once more in my room. + +Forthwith I summoned my servant. Though I had brought him with me from +England, he was a native of France--a useful fellow, sharp, bustling, +and, of course, quite familiar with the ways and tricks of his +countrymen. + +"St. Clair, shut the door; come here. I can't rest till I have made out +something about those people of rank who have got the apartments under +mine. Here are fifteen francs; make out the servants we assisted today +have them to a _petit souper_, and come back and tell me their +entire history. I have, this moment, seen one of them who knows nothing, +and has communicated it. The other, whose name I forget, is the unknown +nobleman's valet, and knows everything. Him you must pump. It is, of +course, the venerable peer, and not the young lady who accompanies him, +that interests me--you understand? Begone! fly! and return with all the +details I sigh for, and every circumstance that can possibly interest +me." + +It was a commission which admirably suited the tastes and spirits of my +worthy St. Clair, to whom, you will have observed, I had accustomed +myself to talk with the peculiar familiarity which the old French comedy +establishes between master and valet. + +I am sure he laughed at me in secret; but nothing could be more polite +and deferential. + +With several wise looks, nods and shrugs, he withdrew; and looking down +from my window, I saw him with incredible quickness enter the yard, +where I soon lost sight of him among the carriages. + + + + +Chapter III + +DEATH AND LOVE TOGETHER MATED + + +When the day drags, when a man is solitary, and in a fever of impatience +and suspense; when the minute hand of his watch travels as slowly as the +hour hand used to do, and the hour hand has lost all appreciable motion; +when he yawns, and beats the devil's tattoo, and flattens his handsome +nose against the window, and whistles tunes he hates, and, in short, +does not know what to do with himself, it is deeply to be regretted that +he cannot make a solemn dinner of three courses more than once in a day. +The laws of matter, to which we are slaves, deny us that resource. + +But in the times I speak of, supper was still a substantial meal, and +its hour was approaching. This was consolatory. Three-quarters of an +hour, however, still interposed. How was I to dispose of that interval? + +I had two or three idle books, it is true, as companions-companions; but +there are many moods in which one cannot read. My novel lay with my rug +and walking-stick on the sofa, and I did not care if the heroine and the +hero were both drowned together in the water barrel that I saw in the +inn-yard under my window. I took a turn or two up and down my room, and +sighed, looking at myself in the glass, adjusted my great white +"choker," folded and tied after Brummel, the immortal "Beau," put on a +buff waist-coat and my blue swallow-tailed coat with gilt buttons; I +deluged my pocket-handkerchief with Eau-de-Cologne (we had not then the +variety of bouquets with which the genius of perfumery has since blessed +us) I arranged my hair, on which I piqued myself, and which I loved to +groom in those days. That dark-brown _chevelure_, with a natural +curl, is now represented by a few dozen perfectly white hairs, and its +place--a smooth, bald, pink head--knows it no more. But let us forget +these mortifications. It was then rich, thick, and dark-brown. I was +making a very careful toilet. I took my unexceptionable hat from its +case, and placed it lightly on my wise head, as nearly as memory and +practice enabled me to do so, at that very slight inclination which the +immortal person I have mentioned was wont to give to his. A pair of +light French gloves and a rather club-like knotted walking-stick, such +as just then came into vogue for a year or two again in England, in the +phraseology of Sir Walter Scott's romances "completed my equipment." + +All this attention to effect, preparatory to a mere lounge in the yard, +or on the steps of the Belle Etoile, was a simple act of devotion to the +wonderful eyes which I had that evening beheld for the first time, and +never, never could forget! In plain terms, it was all done in the vague, +very vague hope that those eyes might behold the unexceptionable get-up +of a melancholy slave, and retain the image, not altogether without +secret approbation. + +As I completed my preparations the light failed me; the last level +streak of sunlight disappeared, and a fading twilight only remained. I +sighed in unison with the pensive hour, and threw open the window, +intending to look out for a moment before going downstairs. I perceived +instantly that the window underneath mine was also open, for I heard two +voices in conversation, although I could not distinguish what they were +saying. + +The male voice was peculiar; it was, as I told you, reedy and nasal. I +knew it, of course, instantly. The answering voice spoke in those sweet +tones which I recognized only too easily. The dialogue was only for a +minute; the repulsive male voice laughed, I fancied, with a kind of +devilish satire, and retired from the window, so that I almost ceased to +hear it. + +The other voice remained nearer the window, but not so near as at first. + +It was not an altercation; there was evidently nothing the least +exciting in the colloquy. What would I not have given that it had been a +quarrel--a violent one--and I the redresser of wrongs, and the defender +of insulted beauty! Alas! so far as I could pronounce upon the character +of the tones I heard, they might be as tranquil a pair as any in +existence. In a moment more the lady began to sing an odd little +chanson. I need not remind you how much farther the voice is heard +singing than speaking. I could distinguish the words. The voice was of +that exquisitely sweet kind which is called, I believe, a +semi-contralto; it had something pathetic, and something, I fancied, a +little mocking in its tones. I venture a clumsy, but adequate +translation of the words: + + "Death and Love, together mated, + Watch and wait in ambuscade; + At early morn, or else belated, + They meet and mark the man or maid. + + Burning sigh, or breath that freezes, + Numbs or maddens man or maid; + Death or Love the victim seizes, + Breathing from their ambuscade." + + +"Enough, Madame!" said the old voice, with sudden severity. "We do not +desire, I believe, to amuse the grooms and hostlers in the yard with our +music." + +The lady's voice laughed gaily. + +"You desire to quarrel, Madame!" And the old man, I presume, shut down +the window. Down it went, at all events, with a rattle that might easily +have broken the glass. + +Of all thin partitions, glass is the most effectual excluder of sound. I +heard no more, not even the subdued hum of the colloquy. + +What a charming voice this Countess had! How it melted, swelled, and +trembled! How it moved, and even agitated me! What a pity that a hoarse +old jackdaw should have power to crow down such a Philomel! "Alas! what +a life it is!" I moralized, wisely. "That beautiful Countess, with the +patience of an angel and the beauty of a Venus and the accomplishments +of all the Muses, a slave! She knows perfectly who occupies the +apartments over hers; she heard me raise my window. One may conjecture +pretty well for whom that music was intended--aye, old gentleman, and +for whom you suspected it to be intended." + +In a very agreeable flutter I left my room and, descending the stairs, +passed the Count's door very much at my leisure. There was just a chance +that the beautiful songstress might emerge. I dropped my stick on the +lobby, near their door, and you may be sure it took me some little time +to pick it up! Fortune, nevertheless, did not favor me. I could not stay +on the lobby all night picking up my stick, so I went down to the hall. + +I consulted the clock, and found that there remained but a quarter of an +hour to the moment of supper. + +Everyone was roughing it now, every inn in confusion; people might do at +such a juncture what they never did before. Was it just possible that, +for once, the Count and Countess would take their chairs at the +table-d'hote? + + + + +Chapter IV + +MONSIEUR DROQVILLE + + +Full of this exciting hope I sauntered out upon the steps of the Belle +Etoile. It was now night, and a pleasant moonlight over everything. I +had entered more into my romance since my arrival, and this poetic light +heightened the sentiment. What a drama if she turned out to be the +Count's daughter, and in love with me! What a delightful--_tragedy_ +if she turned out to be the Count's wife! In this luxurious mood I was +accosted by a tall and very elegantly made gentleman, who appeared to be +about fifty. His air was courtly and graceful, and there was in his +whole manner and appearance something so distinguished that it was +impossible not to suspect him of being a person of rank. + +He had been standing upon the steps, looking out, like me, upon the +moonlight effects that transformed, as it were, the objects and +buildings in the little street. He accosted me, I say, with the +politeness, at once easy and lofty, of a French nobleman of the old +school. He asked me if I were not Mr. Beckett? I assented; and he +immediately introduced himself as the Marquis d'Harmonville (this +information he gave me in a low tone), and asked leave to present me +with a letter from Lord R----, who knew my father slightly, and had +once done me, also, a trifling kindness. + +This English peer, I may mention, stood very high in the political +world, and was named as the most probable successor to the distinguished +post of English Minister at Paris. I received it with a low bow, and +read: + + My Dear Beckett, + +I beg to introduce my very dear friend, the Marquis d'Harmonville, who +will explain to you the nature of the services it may be in your power +to render him and us. + +He went on to speak of the Marquis as a man whose great wealth, whose +intimate relations with the old families, and whose legitimate influence +with the court rendered him the fittest possible person for those +friendly offices which, at the desire of his own sovereign, and of our +government, he has so obligingly undertaken. It added a great deal to my +perplexity, when I read, further: + +By-the-bye, Walton was here yesterday, and told me that your seat was +likely to be attacked; something, he says, is unquestionably going on at +Domwell. You know there is an awkwardness in my meddling ever so +cautiously. But I advise, if it is not very officious, your making +Haxton look after it and report immediately. I fear it is serious. I +ought to have mentioned that, for reasons that you will see, when you +have talked with him for five minutes, the Marquis--with the concurrence +of all our friends--drops his title, for a few weeks, and is at present +plain Monsieur Droqville. I am this moment going to town, and can say no +more. + + Yours faithfully, + R---- + + +I was utterly puzzled. I could scarcely boast of Lord R----'s I +acquaintance. I knew no one named Haxton, and, except my hatter, no one +called Walton; and this peer wrote as if we were intimate friends! I +looked at the back of the letter, and the mystery was solved. And now, +to my consternation--for I was plain Richard Beckett--I read: + + "_To George Stanhope Beckett, Esq., M.P._" + +I looked with consternation in the face of the Marquis. + +"What apology can I offer to Monsieur the Mar---- to Monsieur Droqville? +It is true my name is Beckett--it is true I am known, though very +slightly, to Lord R----; but the letter was not intended for me. My name +is Richard Beckett--this is to Mr. Stanhope Beckett, the member for +Shillingsworth. What can I say, or do, in this unfortunate situation? I +can only give you my honor as a gentleman, that, for me, the letter, +which I now return, shall remain as unviolated a secret as before I +opened it. I am so shocked and grieved that such a mistake should have +occurred!" + +I dare say my honest vexation and good faith were pretty legibly written +in my countenance; for the look of gloomy embarrassment which had for a +moment settled on the face of the Marquis, brightened; he smiled, +kindly, and extended his hand. + +"I have not the least doubt that Monsieur Beckett will respect my little +secret. As a mistake was destined to occur, I have reason to thank my +good stars that it should have been with a gentleman of honor. Monsieur +Beckett will permit me, I hope, to place his name among those of my +friends?" + +I thanked the Marquis very much for his kind expressions. He went on to +say: + +"If, Monsieur, I can persuade you to visit me at Claironville, in +Normandy, where I hope to see, on the 15th of August, a great many +friends, whose acquaintance it might interest you to make, I shall be +too happy." + +I thanked him, of course, very gratefully for his hospitality. He +continued: "I cannot, for the present, see my friends, for reasons which +you may surmise, at my house in Paris. But Monsieur will be so good as +to let me know the hotel he means to stay at in Paris; and he will find +that although the Marquis d'Harmonville is not in town, that Monsieur +Droqville will not lose sight of him." + +With many acknowledgments I gave him, the information he desired. + +"And in the meantime," he continued, "if you think of any way in which +Monsieur Droqville can be of use to you, our communication shall not be +interrupted, and I shall so manage matters that you can easily let me +know." + +I was very much flattered. The Marquis had, as we say, taken a fancy to +me. Such likings at first sight often ripen into lasting friendships. To +be sure it was just possible that the Marquis might think it prudent to +keep the involuntary depositary of a political secret, even so vague a +one, in good humor. + +Very graciously the Marquis took his leave, going up the stairs of the +Belle Etoile. + +I remained upon the steps for a minute, lost in speculation upon this +new theme of interest. But the wonderful eyes, the thrilling voice, the +exquisite figure of the beautiful lady who had taken possession of my +imagination, quickly re-asserted their influence. I was again gazing at +the sympathetic moon, and descending the steps I loitered along the +pavements among strange objects, and houses that were antique and +picturesque, in a dreamy state, thinking. + +In a little while I turned into the inn-yard again. There had come a +lull. Instead of the noisy place it was an hour or two before, the yard +was perfectly still and empty, except for the carriages that stood here +and there. Perhaps there was a servants' table-d'hote just then. I was +rather pleased to find solitude; and undisturbed I found out my +lady-love's carriage, in the moonlight. I mused, I walked round it; I +was as utterly foolish and maudlin as very young men, in my situation, +usually are. The blinds were down, the doors, I suppose, locked. The +brilliant moonlight revealed everything, and cast sharp, black shadows +of wheel, and bar, and spring, on the pavement. I stood before the +escutcheon painted on the door, which I had examined in the daylight. I +wondered how often her eyes had rested on the same object. I pondered in +a charming dream. A harsh, loud voice, over my shoulder, said suddenly: +"A red stork--good! The stork is a bird of prey; it is vigilant, greedy, +and catches gudgeons. Red, too!--blood red! Hal ha! the symbol is +appropriate." + +I had turned about, and beheld the palest face I ever saw. It was broad, +ugly, and malignant. The figure was that of a French officer, in +undress, and was six feet high. Across the nose and eyebrow there was a +deep scar, which made the repulsive face grimmer. + +The officer elevated his chin and his eyebrows, with a scoffing chuckle, +and said: "I have shot a stork, with a rifle bullet, when he thought +himself safe in the clouds, for mere sport!" (He shrugged, and laughed +malignantly.) "See, Monsieur; when a man like me--a man of energy, you +understand, a man with all his wits about him, a man who has made the +tour of Europe under canvas, and, _parbleu_! often without it-- +resolves to discover a secret, expose a crime, catch a thief, spit a +robber on the point of his sword, it is odd if he does not succeed. Ha! +ha! ha! Adieu, Monsieur!" + +He turned with an angry whisk on his heel, and swaggered with long +strides out of the gate. + + + + +Chapter V + +SUPPER AT THE BELLE ETOILE + + +The French army were in a rather savage temper just then. The English, +especially, had but scant courtesy to expect at their hands. It was +plain, however, that the cadaverous gentleman who had just apostrophized +the heraldry of the Count's carriage, with such mysterious acrimony, had +not intended any of his malevolence for me. He was stung by some old +recollection, and had marched off, seething with fury. + +I had received one of those unacknowledged shocks which startle us, +when, fancying ourselves perfectly alone, we discover on a sudden that +our antics have been watched by a spectator, almost at our elbow. In +this case the effect was enhanced by the extreme repulsiveness of the +face, and, I may add, its proximity, for, as I think, it almost touched +mine. The enigmatical harangue of this person, so full of hatred and +implied denunciation, was still in my ears. Here at all events was new +matter for the industrious fancy of a lover to work upon. + +It was time now to go to the table-d'hote. Who could tell what lights +the gossip of the supper-table might throw upon the subject that +interested me so powerfully! + +I stepped into the room, my eyes searching the little assembly, about +thirty people, for the persons who specially interested me. It was not +easy to induce people, so hurried and overworked as those of the Belle +Etoile just now, to send meals up to one's private apartments, in the +midst of this unparalleled confusion; and, therefore, many people who +did not like it might find themselves reduced to the alternative of +supping at the table-d'hote or starving. + +The Count was not there, nor his beautiful companion; but the Marquis +d'Harmonville, whom I hardly expected to see in so public a place, +signed, with a significant smile, to a vacant chair beside himself. I +secured it, and he seemed pleased, and almost immediately entered into +conversation with me. + +"This is, probably, your first visit to France?" he said. + +I told him it was, and he said: + +"You must not think me very curious and impertinent; but Paris is about +the most dangerous capital a high-spirited and generous young gentleman +could visit without a Mentor. If you have not an experienced friend as a +companion during your visit--." He paused. + +I told him I was not so provided, but that I had my wits about me; that +I had seen a good deal of life in England, and that I fancied human +nature was pretty much the same in all parts of the world. The Marquis +shook his head, smiling. + +"You will find very marked differences, notwithstanding," he said. +"Peculiarities of intellect and peculiarities of character, undoubtedly, +do pervade different nations; and this results, among the criminal +classes, in a style of villainy no less peculiar. In Paris the class who +live by their wits is three or four times as great as in London; and +they live much better; some of them even splendidly. They are more +ingenious than the London rogues; they have more animation and +invention, and the dramatic faculty, in which your countrymen are +deficient, is everywhere. These invaluable attributes place them upon a +totally different level. They can affect the manners and enjoy the +luxuries of people of distinction. They live, many of them, by play." + +"So do many of our London rogues." + +"Yes, but in a totally different way. They are the _habitues_ of +certain gaming-tables, billiard-rooms, and other places, including your +races, where high play goes on; and by superior knowledge of chances, by +masking their play, by means of confederates, by means of bribery, and +other artifices, varying with the subject of their imposture, they rob +the unwary. But here it is more elaborately done, and with a really +exquisite _finesse_. There are people whose manners, style, +conversation, are unexceptionable, living in handsome houses in the best +situations, with everything about them in the most refined taste, and +exquisitely luxurious, who impose even upon the Parisian bourgeois, who +believe them to be, in good faith, people of rank and fashion, because +their habits are expensive and refined, and their houses are frequented +by foreigners of distinction, and, to a degree, by foolish young +Frenchmen of rank. At all these houses play goes on. The ostensible host +and hostess seldom join in it; they provide it simply to plunder their +guests, by means of their accomplices, and thus wealthy strangers are +inveigled and robbed." + +"But I have heard of a young Englishman, a son of Lord Rooksbury, who +broke two Parisian gaming tables only last year." + +"I see," he said, laughing, "you are come here to do likewise. I, +myself, at about your age, undertook the same spirited enterprise. I +raised no less a sum than five hundred thousand francs to begin with; I +expected to carry all before me by the simple expedient of going on +doubling my stakes. I had heard of it, and I fancied that the sharpers, +who kept the table, knew nothing of the matter. I found, however, that +they not only knew all about it, but had provided against the +possibility of any such experiments; and I was pulled up before I had +well begun by a rule which forbids the doubling of an original stake +more than four times consecutively." + +"And is that rule in force still?" I inquired, chapfallen. + +He laughed and shrugged, "Of course it is, my young friend. People who +live by an art always understand it better than an amateur. I see you +had formed the same plan, and no doubt came provided." + +I confessed I had prepared for conquest upon a still grander scale. +I had arrived with a purse of thirty thousand pounds sterling. + +"Any acquaintance of my very dear friend, Lord R----, interests me; and, +besides my regard for him, I am charmed with you; so you will pardon +all my, perhaps, too officious questions and advice." + +I thanked him most earnestly for his valuable counsel, and begged that +he would have the goodness to give me all the advice in his power. + +"Then if you take my advice," said he, "you will leave your money in the +bank where it lies. Never risk a Napoleon in a gaming house. The night I +went to break the bank I lost between seven and eight thousand pounds +sterling of your English money; and my next adventure, I had obtained an +introduction to one of those elegant gaming-houses which affect to be +the private mansions of persons of distinction, and was saved from ruin +by a gentleman whom, ever since, I have regarded with increasing respect +and friendship. It oddly happens he is in this house at this moment. I +recognized his servant, and made him a visit in his apartments here, and +found him the same brave, kind, honorable man I always knew him. But +that he is living so entirely out of the world, now, I should have made +a point of introducing you. Fifteen years ago he would have been the man +of all others to consult. The gentleman I speak of is the Comte de St. +Alyre. He represents a very old family. He is the very soul of honor, +and the most sensible man in the world, except in one particular." + +"And that particular?" I hesitated. I was now deeply interested. + +"Is that he has married a charming creature, at least five-and-forty +years younger than himself, and is, of course, although I believe +absolutely without cause, horribly jealous." + +"And the lady?" + +"The Countess is, I believe, in every way worthy of so good a man," he +answered, a little dryly. "I think I heard her sing this evening." + +"Yes, I daresay; she is very accomplished." After a few moments' silence +he continued. + +"I must not lose sight of you, for I should be sorry, when next you meet +my friend Lord R----, that you had to tell him you had been pigeoned in +Paris. A rich Englishman as you are, with so large a sum at his Paris +bankers, young, gay, generous, a thousand ghouls and harpies will be +contending who shall be the first to seize and devour you." + +At this moment I received something like a jerk from the elbow of the +gentleman at my right. It was an accidental jog, as he turned in his +seat. + +"On the honor of a soldier, there is no man's flesh in this company +heals so fast as mine." + +The tone in which this was spoken was harsh and stentorian, and almost +made me bounce. I looked round and recognized the officer whose large +white face had half scared me in the inn-yard, wiping his mouth +furiously, and then with a gulp of Magon, he went on: + +"No one! It's not blood; it is ichor! it's miracle! Set aside stature, +thew, bone, and muscle--set aside courage, and by all the angels of +death, I'd fight a lion naked, and dash his teeth down his jaws with my +fist, and flog him to death with his own tail! Set aside, I say, all +those attributes, which I am allowed to possess, and I am worth six men +in any campaign, for that one quality of healing as I do--rip me up, +punch me through, tear me to tatters with bomb-shells, and nature has me +whole again, while your tailor would fine--draw an old coat. +_Parbleu_! gentlemen, if you saw me naked, you would laugh! Look at +my hand, a saber-cut across the palm, to the bone, to save my head, +taken up with three stitches, and five days afterwards I was playing +ball with an English general, a prisoner in Madrid, against the wall of +the convent of the Santa Maria de la Castita! At Arcola, by the great +devil himself! that was an action. Every man there, gentlemen, swallowed +as much smoke in five minutes as would smother you all in this room! I +received, at the same moment, two musket balls in the thighs, a grape +shot through the calf of my leg, a lance through my left shoulder, a +piece of a shrapnel in the left deltoid, a bayonet through the cartilage +of my right ribs, a cut-cut that carried away a pound of flesh from my +chest, and the better part of a congreve rocket on my forehead. Pretty +well, ha, ha! and all while you'd say bah! and in eight days and a half +I was making a forced march, without shoes, and only one gaiter, the +life and soul of my company, and as sound as a roach!" + +"Bravo! Bravissimo! Per Bacco! un gallant' uomo!" exclaimed, in a +martial ecstasy, a fat little Italian, who manufactured toothpicks and +wicker cradles on the island of Notre Dame; "your exploits shall resound +through Europe! and the history of those wars should be written in your +blood!" + +"Never mind! a trifle!" exclaimed the soldier. "At Ligny, the other day, +where we smashed the Prussians into ten hundred thousand milliards of +atoms, a bit of a shell cut me across the leg and opened an artery. It +was spouting as high as the chimney, and in half a minute I had lost +enough to fill a pitcher. I must have expired in another minute, if I +had not whipped off my sash like a flash of lightning, tied it round my +leg above the wound, whipt a bayonet out of the back of a dead Prussian, +and passing it under, made a tourniquet of it with a couple of twists, +and so stayed the haemorrhage and saved my life. But, _sacrebleu_! +gentlemen, I lost so much blood, I have been as pale as the bottom of a +plate ever since. No matter. A trifle. Blood well spent, gentlemen." He +applied himself now to his bottle of _vin ordinaire_. + +The Marquis had closed his eyes, and looked resigned and disgusted, +while all this was going on. + +"_Garcon_," said the officer, for the first time speaking in a low +tone over the back of his chair to the waiter; "who came in that +traveling carriage, dark yellow and black, that stands in the middle of +the yard, with arms and supporters emblazoned on the door, and a red +stork, as red as my facings?" + +The waiter could not say. + +The eye of the eccentric officer, who had suddenly grown grim and +serious, and seemed to have abandoned the general conversation to other +people, lighted, as it were accidentally, on me. + +"Pardon me, Monsieur," he said. "Did I not see you examining the panel +of that carriage at the same time that I did so, this evening? Can you +tell me who arrived in it?" + +"I rather think the Count and Countess de St. Alyre." + +"And are they here, in the Belle Etoile?" he asked. + +"They have got apartments upstairs," I answered. + +He started up, and half pushed his chair from the table. He quickly sat +down again, and I could hear him _sacre_-ing and muttering to +himself, and grinning and scowling. I could not tell whether he was +alarmed or furious. + +I turned to say a word or two to the Marquis, but he was gone. Several +other people had dropped out also, and the supper party soon broke up. +Two or three substantial pieces of wood smoldered on the hearth, for the +night had turned out chilly. I sat down by the fire in a great armchair +of carved oak, with a marvelously high back that looked as old as the +days of Henry IV. + +"_Garcon_," said I, "do you happen to know who that officer is?" + +"That is Colonel Gaillarde, Monsieur." + +"Has he been often here?" + +"Once before, Monsieur, for a week; it is a year since." + +"He is the palest man I ever saw." + +"That is true, Monsieur; he has been often taken for a _revenant_." + +"Can you give me a bottle of really good Burgundy?" + +"The best in France, Monsieur." + +"Place it, and a glass by my side, on this table, if you please. I may +sit here for half-an-hour." + +"Certainly, Monsieur." + +I was very comfortable, the wine excellent, and my thoughts glowing and +serene. "Beautiful Countess! Beautiful Countess! shall we ever be better +acquainted?" + + + + +Chapter VI + +THE NAKED SWORD + + +A man who has been posting all day long, and changing the air he +breathes every half hour, who is well pleased with himself, and has +nothing on earth to trouble him, and who sits alone by a fire in a +comfortable chair after having eaten a hearty supper, may be pardoned +if he takes an accidental nap. + +I had filled my fourth glass when I fell asleep. My head, I daresay, +hung uncomfortably; and it is admitted that a variety of French dishes +is not the most favorable precursor to pleasant dreams. + +I had a dream as I took mine ease in mine inn on this occasion. I +fancied myself in a huge cathedral, without light, except from four +tapers that stood at the corners of a raised platform hung with black, +on which lay, draped also in black, what seemed to me the dead body of +the Countess de St. Alyre. The place seemed empty, it was cold, and I +could see only (in the halo of the candles) a little way round. + +The little I saw bore the character of Gothic gloom, and helped my fancy +to shape and furnish the black void that yawned all round me. I heard a +sound like the slow tread of two persons walking up the flagged aisle. A +faint echo told of the vastness of the place. An awful sense of +expectation was upon me, and I was horribly frightened when the body +that lay on the catafalque said (without stirring), in a whisper that +froze me, "They come to place me in the grave alive; save me." + +I found that I could neither speak nor move. I was horribly frightened. + +The two people who approached now emerged from the darkness. One, the +Count de St. Alyre, glided to the head of the figure and placed his long +thin hands under it. The white-faced Colonel, with the scar across his +face, and a look of infernal triumph, placed his hands under her feet, +and they began to raise her. + +With an indescribable effort I broke the spell that bound me, and +started to my feet with a gasp. + +I was wide awake, but the broad, wicked face of Colonel Gaillarde was +staring, white as death, at me from the other side of the hearth. "Where +is she?" I shuddered. + +"That depends on who she is, Monsieur," replied the Colonel, curtly. + +"Good heavens!" I gasped, looking about me. + +The Colonel, who was eyeing me sarcastically, had had his _demitasse_ +of _cafe noir_, and now drank his _tasse_, diffusing a pleasant +perfume of brandy. + +"I fell asleep and was dreaming," I said, lest any strong language, +founded on the _role_ he played in my dream, should have escaped +me. "I did not know for some moments where I was." + +"You are the young gentleman who has the apartments over the Count and +Countess de St. Alyre?" he said, winking one eye, close in meditation, +and glaring at me with the other. + +"I believe so--yes," I answered. + +"Well, younker, take care you have not worse dreams than that some +night," he said, enigmatically, and wagged his head with a chuckle. +"Worse dreams," he repeated. + +"What does Monsieur the Colonel mean?" I inquired. + +"I am trying to find that out myself," said the Colonel; "and I think I +shall. When _I_ get the first inch of the thread fast between my +finger and thumb, it goes hard but I follow it up, bit by bit, little by +little, tracing it this way and that, and up and down, and round about, +until the whole clue is wound up on my thumb, and the end, and its +secret, fast in my fingers. Ingenious! Crafty as five foxes! wide awake +as a weasel! _Parbleu_! if I had descended to that occupation I +should have made my fortune as a spy. Good wine here?" he glanced +interrogatively at my bottle. + +"Very good," said I. "Will Monsieur the Colonel try a glass?" + +He took the largest he could find, and filled it, raised it with a bow, +and drank it slowly. "Ah! ah! Bah! That is not it," he exclaimed, with +some disgust, filling it again. "You ought to have told _me_ to +order your Burgundy, and they would not have brought you that stuff." + +I got away from this man as soon as I civilly could, and, putting on my +hat, I walked out with no other company than my sturdy walking-stick. I +visited the inn-yard, and looked up to the windows of the Countess's +apartments. They were closed, however, and I had not even the +unsubstantial consolation of contemplating the light in which that +beautiful lady was at that moment writing, or reading, or sitting and +thinking of--anyone you please. + +I bore this serious privation as well as I could, and took a little +saunter through the town. I shan't bore you with moonlight effects, nor +with the maunderings of a man who has fallen in love at first sight with +a beautiful face. My ramble, it is enough to say, occupied about half an +hour, and, returning by a slight detour, I found myself in a little +square, with about two high gabled houses on each side, and a rude stone +statue, worn by centuries of rain, on a pedestal in the center of the +pavement. Looking at this statue was a slight and rather tall man, whom +I instantly recognized as the Marquis d'Harmonville: he knew me almost +as quickly. He walked a step towards me, shrugged and laughed: + +"You are surprised to find Monsieur Droqville staring at that old stone +figure by moonlight. Anything to pass the time. You, I see, suffer from +_ennui_, as I do. These little provincial towns! Heavens! what an +effort it is to live in them! If I could regret having formed in early +life a friendship that does me honor, I think its condemning me to a +sojourn in such a place would make me do so. You go on towards Paris, I +suppose, in the morning?" + +"I have ordered horses." + +"As for me I await a letter, or an arrival, either would emancipate me; +but I can't say how soon either event will happen." + +"Can I be of any use in this matter?" I began. + +"None, Monsieur, I thank you a thousand times. No, this is a piece in +which every _role_ is already cast. I am but an amateur, and +induced solely by friendship, to take a part." + +So he talked on, for a time, as we walked slowly toward the Belle +Etoile, and then came a silence, which I broke by asking him if he knew +anything of Colonel Gaillarde. + +"Oh! yes, to be sure. He is a little mad; he has had some bad injuries +of the head. He used to plague the people in the War Office to death. He +has always some delusion. They contrived some employment for him--not +regimental, of course--but in this campaign Napoleon, who could spare +nobody, placed him in command of a regiment. He was always a desperate +fighter, and such men were more than ever needed." + +There is, or was, a second inn in this town called l'Ecu de France. At +its door the Marquis stopped, bade me a mysterious good-night, and +disappeared. + +As I walked slowly toward my inn, I met, in the shadow of a row of +poplars, the garcon who had brought me my Burgundy a little time ago. I +was thinking of Colonel Gaillarde, and I stopped the little waiter as he +passed me. + +"You said, I think, that Colonel Gaillarde was at the Belle Etoile for a +week at one time." + +"Yes, Monsieur." + +"Is he perfectly in his right mind?" + +The waiter stared. "Perfectly, Monsieur." + +"Has he been suspected at any time of being out of his mind?" + +"Never, Monsieur; he is a little noisy, but a very shrewd man." + +"What is a fellow to think?" I muttered, as I walked on. + +I was soon within sight of the lights of the Belle Etoile. A carriage, +with four horses, stood in the moonlight at the door, and a furious +altercation was going on in the hall, in which the yell of Colonel +Gaillarde out-topped all other sounds. + +Most young men like, at least, to witness a row. But, intuitively, I +felt that this would interest me in a very special manner. I had only +fifty yards to run, when I found myself in the hall of the old inn. The +principal actor in this strange drama was, indeed, the Colonel, who +stood facing the old Count de St. Alyre, who, in his traveling costume, +with his black silk scarf covering the lower part of his face, +confronted him; he had evidently been intercepted in an endeavor to +reach his carriage. A little in the rear of the Count stood the +Countess, also in traveling costume, with her thick black veil down, and +holding in her delicate fingers a white rose. You can't conceive a more +diabolical effigy of hate and fury than the Colonel; the knotted veins +stood out on his forehead, his eyes were leaping from their sockets, he +was grinding his teeth, and froth was on his lips. His sword was drawn +in his hand, and he accompanied his yelling denunciations with stamps +upon the floor and flourishes of his weapon in the air. + +The host of the Belle Etoile was talking to the Colonel in soothing +terms utterly thrown away. Two waiters, pale with fear, stared uselessly +from behind. The Colonel screamed and thundered, and whirled his sword. +"I was not sure of your red birds of prey; I could not believe you would +have the audacity to travel on high roads, and to stop at honest inns, +and lie under the same roof with honest men. You! _you! both_--vampires, +wolves, ghouls. Summon the _gendarmes_, I say. By St. Peter and all +the devils, if either of you try to get out of that door I'll take your +heads off." + +For a moment I had stood aghast. Here was a situation! I walked up to +the lady; she laid her hand wildly upon my arm. "Oh! Monsieur," she +whispered, in great agitation, "that dreadful madman! What are we to do? +He won't let us pass; he will kill my husband." + +"Fear nothing, Madame," I answered, with romantic devotion, and stepping +between the Count and Gaillarde, as he shrieked his invective, "Hold +your tongue, and clear the way, you ruffian, you bully, you coward!" I +roared. + +A faint cry escaped the lady, which more than repaid the risk I ran, as +the sword of the frantic soldier, after a moment's astonished pause, +flashed in the air to cut me down. + + + + +Chapter VII + +THE WHITE ROSE + + +I was too quick for Colonel Gaillarde. As he raised his sword, reckless +of all consequences but my condign punishment and quite resolved to +cleave me to the teeth, I struck him across the side of his head with my +heavy stick, and while he staggered back I struck him another blow, +nearly in the same place, that felled him to the floor, where he lay as +if dead. + +I did not care one of his own regimental buttons, whether he was dead or +not; I was, at that moment, carried away by such a tumult of delightful +and diabolical emotions! + +I broke his sword under my foot, and flung the pieces across the street. +The old Count de St. Alyre skipped nimbly without looking to the right +or left, or thanking anybody, over the floor, out of the door, down the +steps, and into his carriage. Instantly I was at the side of the +beautiful Countess, thus left to shift for herself; I offered her my +arm, which she took, and I led her to the carriage. She entered, and I +shut the door. All this without a word. + +I was about to ask if there were any commands with which she would honor +me--my hand was laid upon the lower edge of the window, which was open. + +The lady's hand was laid upon mine timidly and excitedly. Her lips +almost touched my cheek as she whispered hurriedly: + +"I may never see you more, and, oh! that I could forget you. +Go--farewell--for God's sake, go!" + +I pressed her hand for a moment. She withdrew it, but tremblingly +pressed into mine the rose which she had held in her fingers during the +agitating scene she had just passed through. + +All this took place while the Count was commanding, entreating, cursing +his servants, tipsy, and out of the way during the crisis, my conscience +afterwards insinuated, by my clever contrivance. They now mounted to +their places with the agility of alarm. The postilions' whips cracked, +the horses scrambled into a trot, and away rolled the carriage, with its +precious freightage, along the quaint main street, in the moonlight, +toward Paris. + +I stood on the pavement till it was quite lost to eye and ear in the +distance. + +With a deep sigh, I then turned, my white rose folded in my +handkerchief--the little parting _gage_--the + + Favor secret, sweet, and precious, + +which no mortal eye but hers and mine had seen conveyed to me. + +The care of the host of the Belle Etoile, and his assistants, had raised +the wounded hero of a hundred fights partly against the wall, and +propped him at each side with portmanteaus and pillows, and poured a +glass of brandy, which was duly placed to his account, into his big +mouth, where, for the first time, such a godsend remained unswallowed. + +A bald-headed little military surgeon of sixty, with spectacles, who had +cut off eighty-seven legs and arms to his own share, after the battle of +Eylau, having retired with his sword and his saw, his laurels and his +sticking-plaster to this, his native town, was called in, and rather +thought the gallant Colonel's skull was fractured; at all events, there +was concussion of the seat of thought, and quite enough work for his +remarkable self-healing powers to occupy him for a fortnight. + +I began to grow a little uneasy. A disagreeable surprise, if my +excursion, in which I was to break banks and hearts, and, as you see, +heads, should end upon the gallows or the guillotine. I was not clear, +in those times of political oscillation, which was the established +apparatus. + +The Colonel was conveyed, snorting apoplectically, to his room. + +I saw my host in the apartment in which we had supped. Wherever you +employ a force of any sort, to carry a point of real importance, reject +all nice calculations of economy. Better to be a thousand per cent, over +the mark, than the smallest fraction of a unit under it. I instinctively +felt this. + +I ordered a bottle of my landlord's very best wine; made him partake +with me, in the proportion of two glasses to one; and then told him that +he must not decline a trifling _souvenir_ from a guest who had been +so charmed with all he had seen of the renowned Belle Etoile. Thus +saying, I placed five-and-thirty Napoleons in his hand: at touch of +which his countenance, by no means encouraging before, grew sunny, his +manners thawed, and it was plain, as he dropped the coins hastily into +his pocket, that benevolent relations had been established between us. + +I immediately placed the Colonel's broken head upon the _tapis_. We +both agreed that if I had not given him that rather smart tap of my +walking-cane, he would have beheaded half the inmates of the Belle +Etoile. There was not a waiter in the house who would not verify that +statement on oath. + +The reader may suppose that I had other motives, beside the desire to +escape the tedious inquisition of the law, for desiring to recommence my +journey to Paris with the least possible delay. Judge what was my horror +then to learn that, for love or money, horses were nowhere to be had +that night. The last pair in the town had been obtained from the Ecu de +France by a gentleman who dined and supped at the Belle Etoile, and was +obliged to proceed to Paris that night. + +Who was the gentleman? Had he actually gone? Could he possibly be +induced to wait till morning? + +The gentleman was now upstairs getting his things together, and his name +was Monsieur Droqville. + +I ran upstairs. I found my servant St. Clair in my room. At sight of +him, for a moment, my thoughts were turned into a different channel. + +"Well, St. Clair, tell me this moment who the lady is?" I demanded. + +"The lady is the daughter or wife, it matters not which, of the Count +de St. Alyre--the old gentleman who was so near being sliced like a +cucumber tonight, I am informed, by the sword of the general whom +Monsieur, by a turn of fortune, has put to bed of an apoplexy." + +"Hold your tongue, fool! The man's beastly drunk--he's sulking--he +could talk if he liked--who cares? Pack up my things. Which are Monsieur +Droqville's apartments?" + +He knew, of course; he always knew everything. + +Half an hour later Monsieur Droqville and I were traveling towards Paris +in my carriage and with his horses. I ventured to ask the Marquis +d'Harmonville, in a little while, whether the lady, who accompanied the +Count, was certainly the Countess. "Has he not a daughter?" + +"Yes; I believe a very beautiful and charming young lady--I cannot +say--it may have been she, his daughter by an earlier marriage. I saw +only the Count himself today." + +The Marquis was growing a little sleepy, and, in a little while, he +actually fell asleep in his corner. I dozed and nodded; but the Marquis +slept like a top. He awoke only for a minute or two at the next +posting-house where he had fortunately secured horses by sending on his +man, he told me. "You will excuse my being so dull a companion," he +said, "but till tonight I have had but two hours' sleep, for more than +sixty hours. I shall have a cup of coffee here; I have had my nap. +Permit me to recommend you to do likewise. Their coffee is really +excellent." He ordered two cups of _cafe noir_, and waited, with +his head from the window. "We will keep the cups," he said, as he +received them from the waiter, "and the tray. Thank you." + +There was a little delay as he paid for these things; and then he took +in the little tray, and handed me a cup of coffee. + +I declined the tray; so he placed it on his own knees, to act as a +miniature table. + +"I can't endure being waited for and hurried," he said, "I like to sip +my coffee at leisure." + +I agreed. It really _was_ the very perfection of coffee. + +"I, like Monsieur le Marquis, have slept very little for the last two or +three nights; and find it difficult to keep awake. This coffee will do +wonders for me; it refreshes one so." + +Before we had half done, the carriage was again in motion. + +For a time our coffee made us chatty, and our conversation was animated. + +The Marquis was extremely good-natured, as well as clever, and gave me a +brilliant and amusing account of Parisian life, schemes, and dangers, +all put so as to furnish me with practical warnings of the most valuable +kind. + +In spite of the amusing and curious stories which the Marquis related +with so much point and color, I felt myself again becoming gradually +drowsy and dreamy. + +Perceiving this, no doubt, the Marquis good-naturedly suffered our +conversation to subside into silence. The window next him was open. He +threw his cup out of it; and did the same kind office for mine, and +finally the little tray flew after, and I heard it clank on the road; a +valuable waif, no doubt, for some early wayfarer in wooden shoes. + +I leaned back in my corner; I had my beloved souvenir--my white +rose--close to my heart, folded, now, in white paper. It inspired all +manner of romantic dreams. I began to grow more and more sleepy. But +actual slumber did not come. I was still viewing, with my half-closed +eyes, from my corner, diagonally, the interior of the carriage. + +I wished for sleep; but the barrier between waking and sleeping seemed +absolutely insurmountable; and, instead, I entered into a state of novel +and indescribable indolence. + +The Marquis lifted his dispatch-box from the floor, placed it on his +knees, unlocked it, and took out what proved to be a lamp, which he hung +with two hooks, attached to it, to the window opposite to him. He +lighted it with a match, put on his spectacles, and taking out a bundle +of letters began to read them carefully. + +We were making way very slowly. My impatience had hitherto employed four +horses from stage to stage. We were in this emergency, only too happy to +have secured two. But the difference in pace was depressing. + +I grew tired of the monotony of seeing the spectacled Marquis reading, +folding, and docketing, letter after letter. I wished to shut out the +image which wearied me, but something prevented my being able to shut my +eyes. I tried again and again; but, positively, I had lost the power of +closing them. + +I would have rubbed my eyes, but I could not stir my hand, my will no +longer acted on my body--I found that I could not move one joint, or +muscle, no more than I could, by an effort of my will, have turned the +carriage about. + +Up to this I had experienced no sense of horror. Whatever it was, simple +night-mare was not the cause. I was awfully frightened! Was I in a fit? + +It was horrible to see my good-natured companion pursue his occupation +so serenely, when he might have dissipated my horrors by a single shake. + +I made a stupendous exertion to call out, but in vain; I repeated the +effort again and again, with no result. + +My companion now tied up his letters, and looked out of the window, +humming an air from an opera. He drew back his head, and said, turning +to me: + +"Yes, I see the lights; we shall be there in two or three minutes." + +He looked more closely at me, and with a kind smile, and a little shrug, +he said, "Poor child! how fatigued he must have been--how profoundly he +sleeps! when the carriage stops he will waken." + +He then replaced his letters in the box-box, locked it, put his +spectacles in his pocket, and again looked out of the window. + +We had entered a little town. I suppose it was past two o'clock by this +time. The carriage drew up, I saw an inn-door open, and a light issuing +from it. + +"Here we are!" said my companion, turning gaily to me. But I did not +awake. + +"Yes, how tired he must have been!" he exclaimed, after he had waited +for an answer. My servant was at the carriage door, and opened it. + +"Your master sleeps soundly, he is so fatigued! It would be cruel to +disturb him. You and I will go in, while they change the horses, and +take some refreshment, and choose something that Monsieur Beckett will +like to take in the carriage, for when he awakes by-and-by, he will, I +am sure, be hungry." + +He trimmed his lamp, poured in some oil; and taking care not to disturb +me, with another kind smile and another word of caution to my servant he +got out, and I heard him talking to St. Clair, as they entered the +inn-door, and I was left in my corner, in the carriage, in the same +state. + + + + +Chapter VIII + +A THREE MINUTES' VISIT + + +I have suffered extreme and protracted bodily pain, at different periods +of my life, but anything like that misery, thank God, I never endured +before or since. I earnestly hope it may not resemble any type of death +to which we are liable. I was, indeed, a spirit in prison; and +unspeakable was my dumb and unmoving agony. + +The power of thought remained clear and active. Dull terror filled my +mind. How would this end? Was it actual death? + +You will understand that my faculty of observing was unimpaired. I could +hear and see anything as distinctly as ever I did in my life. It was +simply that my will had, as it were, lost its hold of my body. + +I told you that the Marquis d'Harmonville had not extinguished his +carriage lamp on going into this village inn. I was listening intently, +longing for his return, which might result, by some lucky accident, in +awaking me from my catalepsy. + +Without any sound of steps approaching, to announce an arrival, the +carriage-door suddenly opened, and a total stranger got in silently and +shut the door. + +The lamp gave about as strong a light as a wax-candle, so I could see +the intruder perfectly. He was a young man, with a dark grey loose +surtout, made with a sort of hood, which was pulled over his head. I +thought, as he moved, that I saw the gold band of a military undress cap +under it; and I certainly saw the lace and buttons of a uniform, on the +cuffs of the coat that were visible under the wide sleeves of his +outside wrapper. + +This young man had thick moustaches and an imperial, and I observed that +he had a red scar running upward from his lip across his cheek. + +He entered, shut the door softly, and sat down beside me. It was all +done in a moment; leaning toward me, and shading his eyes with his +gloved hand, he examined my face closely for a few seconds. + +This man had come as noiselessly as a ghost; and everything he did was +accomplished with the rapidity and decision that indicated a +well-defined and pre-arranged plan. His designs were evidently sinister. +I thought he was going to rob and, perhaps, murder me. I lay, +nevertheless, like a corpse under his hands. He inserted his hand in my +breast pocket, from which he took my precious white rose and all the +letters it contained, among which was a paper of some consequence to me. + +My letters he glanced at. They were plainly not what he wanted. My +precious rose, too, he laid aside with them. It was evidently about the +paper I have mentioned that he was concerned; for the moment he opened +it he began with a pencil, in a small pocket-book, to make rapid notes +of its contents. + +This man seemed to glide through his work with a noiseless and cool +celerity which argued, I thought, the training of the police department. + +He re-arranged the papers, possibly in the very order in which he had +found them, replaced them in my breast-pocket, and was gone. His visit, +I think, did not quite last three minutes. Very soon after his +disappearance I heard the voice of the Marquis once more. He got in, and +I saw him look at me and smile, half-envying me, I fancied, my sound +repose. If he had but known all! + +He resumed his reading and docketing by the light of the little lamp +which had just subserved the purposes of a spy. + +We were now out of the town, pursuing our journey at the same moderate +pace. We had left the scene of my police visit, as I should have termed +it, now two leagues behind us, when I suddenly felt a strange throbbing +in one ear, and a sensation as if air passed through it into my throat. +It seemed as if a bubble of air, formed deep in my ear, swelled, and +burst there. The indescribable tension of my brain seemed all at once to +give way; there was an odd humming in my head, and a sort of vibration +through every nerve of my body, such as I have experienced in a limb +that has been, in popular phraseology, asleep. I uttered a cry and half +rose from my seat, and then fell back trembling, and with a sense of +mortal faintness. + +The Marquis stared at me, took my hand, and earnestly asked if I was +ill. I could answer only with a deep groan. + +Gradually the process of restoration was completed; and I was able, +though very faintly, to tell him how very ill I had been; and then to +describe the violation of my letters, during the time of his absence +from the carriage. + +"Good heaven!" he exclaimed, "the miscreant did not get at my box-box?" + +I satisfied him, so far as I had observed, on that point. He placed the +box on the seat beside him, and opened and examined its contents very +minutely. + +"Yes, undisturbed; all safe, thank heaven!" he murmured. "There are +half-a-dozen letters here that I would not have some people read for a +great deal." + +He now asked with a very kind anxiety all about the illness I complained +of. When he had heard me, he said: + +"A friend of mine once had an attack as like yours as possible. It was +on board ship, and followed a state of high excitement. He was a brave +man like you; and was called on to exert both his strength and his +courage suddenly. An hour or two after, fatigue overpowered him, and he +appeared to fall into a sound sleep. He really sank into a state which +he afterwards described so that I think it must have been precisely the +same affection as yours." + +"I am happy to think that my attack was not unique. Did he ever +experience a return of it?" + +"I knew him for years after, and never heard of any such thing. What +strikes me is a parallel in the predisposing causes of each attack. Your +unexpected and gallant hand-to-hand encounter, at such desperate odds, +with an experienced swordsman, like that insane colonel of dragoons, +your fatigue, and, finally, your composing yourself, as my other friend +did, to sleep." + +"I wish," he resumed, "one could make out who the _coquin_ was who +examined your letters. It is not worth turning back, however, because we +should learn nothing. Those people always manage so adroitly. I am +satisfied, however, that he must have been an agent of the police. A +rogue of any other kind would have robbed you." + +I talked very little, being ill and exhausted, but the Marquis talked on +agreeably. + +"We grow so intimate," said he, at last, "that I must remind you that I +am not, for the present, the Marquis d'Harmonville, but only Monsieur +Droqville; nevertheless, when we get to Paris, although I cannot see you +often I may be of use. I shall ask you to name to me the hotel at which +you mean to put up; because the Marquis being, as you are aware, on his +travels, the Hotel d'Harmonville is, for the present, tenanted only by +two or three old servants, who must not even see Monsieur Droqville. +That gentleman will, nevertheless, contrive to get you access to the box +of Monsieur le Marquis, at the Opera, as well, possibly, as to other +places more difficult; and so soon as the diplomatic office of the +Marquis d'Harmonville is ended, and he at liberty to declare himself, he +will not excuse his friend, Monsieur Beckett, from fulfilling his +promise to visit him this autumn at the Chateau d'Harmonville." + +You may be sure I thanked the Marquis. + +The nearer we got to Paris, the more I valued his protection. The +countenance of a great man on the spot, just then, taking so kind an +interest in the stranger whom he had, as it were, blundered upon, might +make my visit ever so many degrees more delightful than I had +anticipated. + +Nothing could be more gracious than the manner and looks of the Marquis; +and, as I still thanked him, the carriage suddenly stopped in front of +the place where a relay of horses awaited us, and where, as it turned +out, we were to part. + + + + +Chapter IX + +GOSSIP AND COUNSEL + + +My eventful journey was over at last. I sat in my hotel window looking +out upon brilliant Paris, which had, in a moment, recovered all its +gaiety, and more than its accustomed bustle. Everyone had read of the +kind of excitement that followed the catastrophe of Napoleon, and the +second restoration of the Bourbons. I need not, therefore, even if, at +this distance, I could, recall and describe my experiences and +impressions of the peculiar aspect of Paris, in those strange times. It +was, to be sure, my first visit. But often as I have seen it since, I +don't think I ever saw that delightful capital in a state, pleasurably +so excited and exciting. + +I had been two days in Paris, and had seen all sorts of sights, and +experienced none of that rudeness and insolence of which others +complained from the exasperated officers of the defeated French army. + +I must say this, also. My romance had taken complete possession of me; +and the chance of seeing the object of my dream gave a secret and +delightful interest to my rambles and drives in the streets and +environs, and my visits to the galleries and other sights of the +metropolis. + +I had neither seen nor heard of Count or Countess, nor had the Marquis +d'Harmonville made any sign. I had quite recovered the strange +indisposition under which I had suffered during my night journey. + +It was now evening, and I was beginning to fear that my patrician +acquaintance had quite forgotten me, when the waiter presented me the +card of "Monsieur Droqville"; and, with no small elation and hurry, I +desired him to show the gentleman up. + +In came the Marquis d'Harmonville, kind and gracious as ever. + +"I am a night-bird at present," said he, so soon as we had exchanged the +little speeches which are usual. "I keep in the shade during the +daytime, and even now I hardly ventured to come in a close carriage. The +friends for whom I have undertaken a rather critical service, have so +ordained it. They think all is lost if I am known to be in Paris. First, +let me present you with these orders for my box. I am so vexed that I +cannot command it oftener during the next fortnight; during my absence I +had directed my secretary to give it for any night to the first of my +friends who might apply, and the result is, that I find next to nothing +left at my disposal." + +I thanked him very much. + +"And now a word in my office of Mentor. You have not come here, of +course, without introductions?" + +I produced half-a-dozen letters, the addresses of which he looked at. + +"Don't mind these letters," he said. "I will introduce you. I will take +you myself from house to house. One friend at your side is worth many +letters. Make no intimacies, no acquaintances, until then. You young men +like best to exhaust the public amusements of a great city, before +embarrassing yourselves with the engagements of society. Go to all +these. It will occupy you, day and night, for at least three weeks. When +this is over, I shall be at liberty, and will myself introduce you to +the brilliant but comparatively quiet routine of society. Place yourself +in my hands; and in Paris remember, when once in society, you are always +there." + +I thanked him very much, and promised to follow his counsels implicitly. +He seemed pleased, and said: "I shall now tell you some of the places +you ought to go to. Take your map, and write letters or numbers upon the +points I will indicate, and we will make out a little list. All the +places that I shall mention to you are worth seeing." + +In this methodical way, and with a great deal of amusing and scandalous +anecdote, he furnished me with a catalogue and a guide, which, to a +seeker of novelty and pleasure, was invaluable. + +"In a fortnight, perhaps in a week," he said, "I shall be at leisure to +be of real use to you. In the meantime, be on your guard. You must not +play; you will be robbed if you do. Remember, you are surrounded, here, +by plausible swindlers and villains of all kinds, who subsist by +devouring strangers. Trust no one but those you know." + +I thanked him again, and promised to profit by his advice. But my heart +was too full of the beautiful lady of the Belle Etoile, to allow our +interview to close without an effort to learn something about her. I +therefore asked for the Count and Countess de St. Alyre, whom I had had +the good fortune to extricate from an extremely unpleasant row in the +hall of the inn. + +Alas! he had not seen them since. He did not know where they were +staying. They had a fine old house only a few leagues from Paris; but he +thought it probable that they would remain, for a few days at least, in +the city, as preparations would, no doubt, be necessary, after so long +an absence, for their reception at home. + +"How long have they been away?" + +"About eight months, I think." + +"They are poor, I think you said?" + +"What _you_ would consider poor. But, Monsieur, the Count has an +income which affords them the comforts and even the elegancies of life, +living as they do, in a very quiet and retired way, in this cheap +country." + +"Then they are very happy?" + +"One would say they _ought_ to be happy." + +"And what prevents?" + +"He is jealous." + +"But his wife--she gives him no cause." + +"I am afraid she does." + +"How, Monsieur?" + +"I always thought she was a little too--_a great deal_ too--" + +"Too _what_, Monsieur?" + +"Too handsome. But although she has remarkable fine eyes, exquisite +features, and the most delicate complexion in the world, I believe that +she is a woman of probity. You have never seen her?" + +"There was a lady, muffled up in a cloak, with a very thick veil on, the +other night, in the hall of the Belle Etoile, when I broke that fellow's +head who was bullying the old Count. But her veil was so thick I could +not see a feature through it!" My answer was diplomatic, you observe. +"She may have been the Count's daughter. Do they quarrel?" + +"Who, he and his wife?" + +"Yes." + +"A little." + +Oh! and what do they quarrel about?" + +"It is a long story; about the lady's diamonds. They are valuable--they +are worth, La Perelleuse says, about a million of francs. The Count +wishes them sold and turned into revenue, which he offers to settle as +she pleases. The Countess, whose they are, resists, and for a reason +which, I rather think, she can't disclose to him." + +"And pray what is that?" I asked, my curiosity a good deal piqued. + +"She is thinking, I conjecture, how well she will look in them when she +marries her second husband." + +"Oh?--yes, to be sure. But the Count de St. Alyre is a good man?" + +"Admirable, and extremely intelligent." + +"I should wish so much to be presented to the Count: you tell me he's +so--" + +"So agreeably married. But they are living quite out of the world. He +takes her now and then to the Opera, or to a public entertainment; but +that is all." + +"And he must remember so much of the old _regime_, and so many of +the scenes of the revolution!" + +"Yes, the very man for a philosopher, like you! And he falls asleep +after dinner; and his wife don't. But, seriously, he has retired from +the gay and the great world, and has grown apathetic; and so has his +wife; and nothing seems to interest her now, not even--her husband!" + +The Marquis stood up to take his leave. + +"Don't risk your money," said he. "You will soon have an opportunity of +laying out some of it to great advantage. Several collections of really +good pictures, belonging to persons who have mixed themselves up in this +Bonapartist restoration, must come within a few weeks to the hammer. You +can do wonders when these sales commence. There will be startling +bargains! Reserve yourself for them. I shall let you know all about it. +By-the-by," he said, stopping short as he approached the door, "I was so +near forgetting. There is to be next week, the very thing you would +enjoy so much, because you see so little of it in England--I mean a +_bal masque_, conducted, it is said, with more than usual splendor. +It takes place at Versailles--all the world will be there; there is such +a rush for cards! But I think I may promise you one. Good-night! Adieu!" + + + + +Chapter X + +THE BLACK VEIL + + +Speaking the language fluently, and with unlimited money, there was +nothing to prevent my enjoying all that was enjoyable in the French +capital. You may easily suppose how two days were passed. At the end of +that time, and at about the same hour, Monsieur Droqville called again. + +Courtly, good-natured, gay, as usual, he told me that the masquerade +ball was fixed for the next Wednesday, and that he had applied for a +card for me. + +How awfully unlucky. I was so afraid I should not be able to go. + +He stared at me for a moment with a suspicious and menacing look, which +I did not understand, in silence, and then inquired rather sharply. And +will Monsieur Beckett be good enough to say why not? + +I was a little surprised, but answered the simple truth: I had made an +engagement for that evening with two or three English friends, and did +not see how I could. + +"Just so! You English, wherever you are, always look out for your +English boors, your beer and _'bifstek'_; and when you come here, +instead of trying to learn something of the people you visit, and +pretend to study, you are guzzling and swearing, and smoking with one +another, and no wiser or more polished at the end of your travels than +if you had been all the time carousing in a booth at Greenwich." + +He laughed sarcastically, and looked as if he could have poisoned me. + +"There it is," said he, throwing the card on the table. "Take it or +leave it, just as you please. I suppose I shall have my trouble for my +pains; but it is not usual when a man such as I takes trouble, asks a +favor, and secures a privilege for an acquaintance, to treat him so." + +This was astonishingly impertinent. + +I was shocked, offended, penitent. I had possibly committed unwittingly +a breach of good breeding, according to French ideas, which almost +justified the brusque severity of the Marquis's undignified rebuke. + +In a confusion, therefore, of many feelings, I hastened to make my +apologies, and to propitiate the chance friend who had showed me so much +disinterested kindness. + +I told him that I would, at any cost, break through the engagement in +which I had unluckily entangled myself; that I had spoken with too +little reflection, and that I certainly had not thanked him at all in +proportion to his kindness, and to my real estimate of it. + +"Pray say not a word more; my vexation was entirely on your account; and +I expressed it, I am only too conscious, in terms a great deal too +strong, which, I am sure, your good nature will pardon. Those who know +me a little better are aware that I sometimes say a good deal more than +I intend; and am always sorry when I do. Monsieur Beckett will forget +that his old friend Monsieur Droqville has lost his temper in his cause, +for a moment, and--we are as good friends as before." + +He smiled like the Monsieur Droqville of the Belle Etoile, and extended +his hand, which I took very respectfully and cordially. + +Our momentary quarrel had left us only better friends. + +The Marquis then told me I had better secure a bed in some hotel at +Versailles, as a rush would be made to take them; and advised my going +down next morning for the purpose. + +I ordered horses accordingly for eleven o'clock; and, after a little +more conversation, the Marquis d'Harmonville bade me good-night, and ran +down the stairs with his handkerchief to his mouth and nose, and, as I +saw from my window, jumped into his close carriage again and drove away. + +Next day I was at Versailles. As I approached the door of the Hotel de +France it was plain that I was not a moment too soon, if, indeed, I were +not already too late. + +A crowd of carriages were drawn up about the entrance, so that I had no +chance of approaching except by dismounting and pushing my way among the +horses. The hall was full of servants and gentlemen screaming to the +proprietor, who in a state of polite distraction was assuring them, one +and all, that there was not a room or a closet disengaged in his entire +house. + +I slipped out again, leaving the hall to those who were shouting, +expostulating, and wheedling, in the delusion that the host might, if he +pleased, manage something for them. I jumped into my carriage and drove, +at my horses' best pace, to the Hotel du Reservoir. The blockade about +this door was as complete as the other. The result was the same. It was +very provoking, but what was to be done? My postilion had, a little +officiously, while I was in the hall talking with the hotel authorities, +got his horses, bit by bit, as other carriages moved away, to the very +steps of the inn door. + +This arrangement was very convenient so far as getting in again was +concerned. But, this accomplished, how were we to get on? There were +carriages in front, and carriages behind, and no less than four rows of +carriages, of all sorts, outside. + +I had at this time remarkably long and clear sight, and if I had been +impatient before, guess what my feelings were when I saw an open +carriage pass along the narrow strip of roadway left open at the other +side, a barouche in which I was certain I recognized the veiled Countess +and her husband. This carriage had been brought to a walk by a cart +which occupied the whole breadth of the narrow way, and was moving with +the customary tardiness of such vehicles. + +I should have done more wisely if I had jumped down on the +_trottoir_, and run round the block of carriages in front of the +barouche. But, unfortunately, I was more of a Murat than a Moltke, and +preferred a direct charge upon my object to relying on _tactique_. +I dashed across the back seat of a carriage which was next mine, I don't +know how; tumbled through a sort of gig, in which an old gentleman and a +dog were dozing; stepped with an incoherent apology over the side of an +open carriage, in which were four gentlemen engaged in a hot dispute; +tripped at the far side in getting out, and fell flat across the backs +of a pair of horses, who instantly began plunging and threw me head +foremost in the dust. + +To those who observed my reckless charge, without being in the secret of +my object, I must have appeared demented. Fortunately, the interesting +barouche had passed before the catastrophe, and covered as I was with +dust, and my hat blocked, you may be sure I did not care to present +myself before the object of my Quixotic devotion. + +I stood for a while amid a storm of _sacre_-ing, tempered +disagreeably with laughter; and in the midst of these, while endeavoring +to beat the dust from my clothes with my handkerchief, I heard a voice +with which I was acquainted call, "Monsieur Beckett." + +I looked and saw the Marquis peeping from a carriage-window. It was a +welcome sight. In a moment I was at his carriage side. + +"You may as well leave Versailles," he said; "you have learned, no +doubt, that there is not a bed to hire in either of the hotels; and I +can add that there is not a room to let in the whole town. But I have +managed something for you that will answer just as well. Tell your +servant to follow us, and get in here and sit beside me." + +Fortunately an opening in the closely-packed carriages had just +occurred, and mine was approaching. + +I directed the servant to follow us; and the Marquis having said a word +to his driver, we were immediately in motion. + +"I will bring you to a comfortable place, the very existence of which is +known to but few Parisians, where, knowing how things were here, I +secured a room for you. It is only a mile away, and an old comfortable +inn, called the Le Dragon Volant. It was fortunate for you that my +tiresome business called me to this place so early." + +I think we had driven about a mile-and-a-half to the further side of the +palace when we found ourselves upon a narrow old road, with the woods of +Versailles on one side, and much older trees, of a size seldom seen in +France, on the other. + +We pulled up before an antique and solid inn, built of Caen stone, in a +fashion richer and more florid than was ever usual in such houses, and +which indicated that it was originally designed for the private mansion +of some person of wealth, and probably, as the wall bore many carved +shields and supporters, of distinction also. A kind of porch, less +ancient than the rest, projected hospitably with a wide and florid arch, +over which, cut in high relief in stone, and painted and gilded, was the +sign of the inn. This was the Flying Dragon, with wings of brilliant red +and gold, expanded, and its tail, pale green and gold, twisted and +knotted into ever so many rings, and ending in a burnished point barbed +like the dart of death. + +"I shan't go in--but you will find it a comfortable place; at all events +better than nothing. I would go in with you, but my incognito forbids. +You will, I daresay, be all the better pleased to learn that the inn is +haunted--I should have been, in my young days, I know. But don't allude +to that awful fact in hearing of your host, for I believe it is a sore +subject. Adieu. If you want to enjoy yourself at the ball, take my +advice and go in a domino. I think I shall look in; and certainly, if I +do, in the same costume. How shall we recognize one another? Let me see, +something held in the fingers--a flower won't do, so many people will +have flowers. Suppose you get a red cross a couple of inches long-- +you're an Englishman--stitched or pinned on the breast of your domino, +and I a white one? Yes, that will do very well; and whatever room you go +into keep near the door till we meet. I shall look for you at all the +doors I pass; and you, in the same way, for me; and we _must_ find +each other soon. So that is understood. I can't enjoy a thing of that +kind with any but a young person; a man of my age requires the contagion +of young spirits and the companionship of someone who enjoys everything +spontaneously. Farewell; we meet tonight." + +By this time I was standing on the road; I shut the carriage-door; bid +him good-bye; and away he drove. + + + + +Chapter XI + +THE DRAGON VOLANT + + +I took one look about me. + +The building was picturesque; the trees made it more so. The antique and +sequestered character of the scene contrasted strangely with the glare +and bustle of the Parisian life, to which my eye and ear had become +accustomed. + +Then I examined the gorgeous old sign for a minute or two. Next I +surveyed the exterior of the house more carefully. It was large and +solid, and squared more with my ideas of an ancient English hostelrie, +such as the Canterbury Pilgrims might have put up at, than a French +house of entertainment. Except, indeed, for a round turret, that rose at +the left flank of the house, and terminated in the extinguisher-shaped +roof that suggests a French chateau. + +I entered and announced myself as Monsieur Beckett, for whom a room had +been taken. I was received with all the consideration due to an English +milord, with, of course, an unfathomable purse. + +My host conducted me to my apartment. It was a large room, a little +somber, paneled with dark wainscoting, and furnished in a stately and +somber style, long out of date. There was a wide hearth, and a heavy +mantelpiece, carved with shields, in which I might, had I been curious +enough, have discovered a correspondence with the heraldry on the outer +walls. There was something interesting, melancholy, and even depressing +in all this. I went to the stone-shafted window, and looked out upon a +small park, with a thick wood, forming the background of a chateau which +presented a cluster of such conical-topped turrets as I have just now +mentioned. + +The wood and chateau were melancholy objects. They showed signs of +neglect, and almost of decay; and the gloom of fallen grandeur, and a +certain air of desertion hung oppressively over the scene. + +I asked my host the name of the chateau. + +"That, Monsieur, is the Chateau de la Carque," he answered. + +"It is a pity it is so neglected," I observed. "I should say, perhaps, a +pity that its proprietor is not more wealthy?" + +"Perhaps so, Monsieur." + +"_Perhaps_?" I repeated, and looked at him. "Then I suppose he is +not very popular." + +"Neither one thing nor the other, Monsieur," he answered; "I meant only +that we could not tell what use he might make of riches." + +"And who is he?" I inquired. + +"The Count de St. Alyre." + +"Oh! The Count! You are quite sure?" I asked, very eagerly. + +It was now the innkeeper's turn to look at me. + +"_Quite_ sure, Monsieur, the Count de St. Alyre." + +"Do you see much of him in this part of the world?" + +"Not a great deal, Monsieur; he is often absent for a considerable +time." + +"And is he poor?" I inquired. + +"I pay rent to him for this house. It is not much; but I find he cannot +wait long for it," he replied, smiling satirically. + +"From what I have heard, however, I should think he cannot be very +poor?" I continued. + +"They say, Monsieur, he plays. I know not. He certainly is not rich. +About seven months ago, a relation of his died in a distant place. His +body was sent to the Count's house here, and by him buried in Pere la +Chaise, as the poor gentleman had desired. The Count was in profound +affliction; although he got a handsome legacy, they say, by that death. +But money never seems to do him good for any time." + +"He is old, I believe?" + +"Old? We call him the 'Wandering Jew,' except, indeed, that he has not +always the five _sous_ in his pocket. Yet, Monsieur, his courage +does not fail him. He has taken a young and handsome wife." + +"And she?" I urged-- + +"Is the Countess de St. Alyre." + +"Yes; but I fancy we may say something more? She has attributes?" + +"Three, Monsieur, three, at least most amiable." + +"Ah! And what are they?" + +"Youth, beauty, and--diamonds." + +I laughed. The sly old gentleman was foiling my curiosity. + +"I see, my friend," said I, "you are reluctant--" + +"To quarrel with the Count," he concluded. "True. You see, Monsieur, he +could vex me in two or three ways, so could I him. But, on the whole, it +is better each to mind his business, and to maintain peaceful relations; +you understand." + +It was, therefore, no use trying, at least for the present. Perhaps he +had nothing to relate. Should I think differently, by-and-by, I could +try the effect of a few Napoleons. Possibly he meant to extract them. + +The host of the Dragon Volant was an elderly man, thin, bronzed, +intelligent, and with an air of decision, perfectly military. I learned +afterwards that he had served under Napoleon in his early Italian +campaigns. + +"One question, I think you may answer," I said, "without risking a +quarrel. Is the Count at home?" + +"He has many homes, I conjecture," said the host evasively. "But--but I +think I may say, Monsieur, that he is, I believe, at present staying at +the Chateau de la Carque." + +I looked out of the window, more interested than ever, across the +undulating grounds to the chateau, with its gloomy background of +foliage. + +"I saw him today, in his carriage at Versailles," I said. + +"Very natural." + +"Then his carriage, and horses, and servants, are at the chateau?" + +"The carriage he puts up here, Monsieur, and the servants are hired for +the occasion. There is but one who sleeps at the chateau. Such a life +must be terrifying for Madame the Countess," he replied. + +"The old screw!" I thought. "By this torture, he hopes to extract her +diamonds. What a life! What fiends to contend with--jealousy and +extortion!" + +The knight having made his speech to himself, cast his eyes once more +upon the enchanter's castle, and heaved a gentle sigh--a sigh of +longing, of resolution, and of love. + +What a fool I was! And yet, in the sight of angels, are we any wiser as +we grow older? It seems to me, only, that our illusions change as we go +on; but, still, we are madmen all the same. + +"Well, St. Clair," said I, as my servant entered, and began to arrange +my things. + +"You have got a bed?" + +"In the cock-loft, Monsieur, among the spiders, and, _par ma foi_! +the cats and the owls. But we agree very well. _Vive la bagatelle_!" + +"I had no idea it was so full." + +"Chiefly the servants, Monsieur, of those persons who were fortunate +enough to get apartments at Versailles." + +"And what do you think of the Dragon Volant?" + +"The Dragon Volant! Monsieur; the old fiery dragon! The devil himself, +if all is true! On the faith of a Christian, Monsieur, they say that +diabolical miracles have taken place in this house." + +"What do you mean? _Revenants_?" + +"Not at all, sir; I wish it was no worse. _Revenants_? No! People +who have never returned--who vanished, before the eyes of half-a-dozen +men all looking at them." + +"What do you mean, St. Clair? Let us hear the story, or miracle, or +whatever it is." + +"It is only this, Monsieur, that an ex-master-of-the-horse of the late +king, who lost his head--Monsieur will have the goodness to recollect, +in the revolution--being permitted by the Emperor to return to France, +lived here in this hotel, for a month, and at the end of that time +vanished, visibly, as I told you, before the faces of half-a-dozen +credible witnesses! The other was a Russian nobleman, six feet high and +upwards, who, standing in the center of the room, downstairs, describing +to seven gentlemen of unquestionable veracity the last moments of Peter +the Great, and having a glass of _eau de vie_ in his left hand, and +his _tasse de cafe,_ nearly finished, in his right, in like manner +vanished. His boots were found on the floor where he had been standing; +and the gentleman at his right found, to his astonishment, his cup of +coffee in his fingers, and the gentleman at his left, his glass of +_eau de vie_--" + +"Which he swallowed in his confusion," I suggested. + +"Which was preserved for three years among the curious articles of this +house, and was broken by the _cure_ while conversing with +Mademoiselle Fidone in the housekeeper's room; but of the Russian +nobleman himself, nothing more was ever seen or heard. _Parbleu_! +when _we_ go out of the Dragon Volant, I hope it may be by the +door. I heard all this, Monsieur, from the postilion who drove us." + +"Then it _must_ be true!" said I, jocularly: but I was beginning to +feel the gloom of the view, and of the chamber in which I stood; there +had stolen over me, I know not how, a presentiment of evil; and my joke +was with an effort, and my spirit flagged. + + + + +Chapter XII + +THE MAGICIAN + + +No more brilliant spectacle than this masked ball could be imagined. +Among other _salons_ and galleries, thrown open, was the enormous +Perspective of the "Grande Galerie des Glaces," lighted up on that +occasion with no less than four thousand wax candles, reflected and +repeated by all the mirrors, so that the effect was almost dazzling. The +grand suite of _salons_ was thronged with masques, in every +conceivable costume. There was not a single room deserted. Everyplace +was animated with music voices, brilliant colors, flashing jewels, the +hilarity of extemporized comedy, and all the spirited incidents of a +cleverly sustained masquerade. I had never seen before anything in the +least comparable to this magnificent _fete._ I moved along, +indolently, in my domino and mask, loitering, now and then, to enjoy a +clever dialogue, a farcical song, or an amusing monologue, but, at the +same time, keeping my eyes about me, lest my friend in the black domino, +with the little white cross on his breast, should pass me by. + +I had delayed and looked about me, specially, at every door I passed, as +the Marquis and I had agreed; but he had not yet appeared. + +While I was thus employed, in the very luxury of lazy amusement, I saw a +gilded sedan chair, or, rather, a Chinese palanquin, exhibiting the +fantastic exuberance of "Celestial" decoration, borne forward on gilded +poles by four richly-dressed Chinese; one with a wand in his hand +marched in front, and another behind; and a slight and solemn man, with +a long black beard, a tall fez, such as a dervish is represented as +wearing, walked close to its side. A strangely-embroidered robe fell +over his shoulders, covered with hieroglyphic symbols; the embroidery +was in black and gold, upon a variegated ground of brilliant colors. The +robe was bound about his waist with a broad belt of gold, with +cabalistic devices traced on it in dark red and black; red stockings, +and shoes embroidered with gold, and pointed and curved upward at the +toes, in Oriental fashion, appeared below the skirt of the robe. The +man's face was dark, fixed, and solemn, and his eyebrows black, and +enormously heavy--he carried a singular-looking book under his arm, a +wand of polished black wood in his other hand, and walked with his chin +sunk on his breast, and his eyes fixed upon the floor. The man in front +waved his wand right and left to clear the way for the advancing +palanquin, the curtains of which were closed; and there was something so +singular, strange and solemn about the whole thing, that I felt at once +interested. + +I was very well pleased when I saw the bearers set down their burthen +within a few yards of the spot on which I stood. + +The bearers and the men with the gilded wands forthwith clapped their +hands, and in silence danced round the palanquin a curious and +half-frantic dance, which was yet, as to figures and postures, perfectly +methodical. This was soon accompanied by a clapping of hands and a +ha-ha-ing, rhythmically delivered. + +While the dance was going on a hand was lightly laid on my arm, and, +looking round, a black domino with a white cross stood beside me. + +"I am so glad I have found you," said the Marquis; "and at this moment. +This is the best group in the rooms. _You_ must speak to the +wizard. About an hour ago I lighted upon them, in another _salon,_ +and consulted the oracle by putting questions. I never was more amazed. +Although his answers were a little disguised it was soon perfectly plain +that he knew every detail about the business, which no one on earth had +heard of but myself, and two or three other men, about the most cautious +Persons in France. I shall never forget that shock. I saw other people +who consulted him, evidently as much surprised and more frightened than +I. I came with the Count de St. Alyre and the Countess." + +He nodded toward a thin figure, also in a domino. It was the Count. + +"Come," he said to me, "I'll introduce you." + +I followed, you may suppose, readily enough. + +The Marquis presented me, with a very prettily-turned allusion to my +fortunate intervention in his favor at the Belle Etoile; and the Count +overwhelmed me with polite speeches, and ended by saying, what pleased +me better still: + +"The Countess is near us, in the next salon but one, chatting with her +old friend the Duchesse d'Argensaque; I shall go for her in a few +minutes; and when I bring her here, she shall make your acquaintance; +and thank you, also, for your assistance, rendered with so much courage +when we were so very disagreeably interrupted." + +"You must, positively, speak with the magician," said the Marquis to the +Count de St. Alyre, "you will be so much amused. _I_ did so; and, I +assure you, I could not have anticipated such answers! I don't know what +to believe." + +"Really! Then, by all means, let us try," he replied. + +We three approached, together, the side of the palanquin, at which the +black-bearded magician stood. + +A young man, in a Spanish dress, who, with a friend at his side, had +just conferred with the conjuror, was saying, as he passed us by: + +"Ingenious mystification! Who is that in the palanquin? He seems to know +everybody!" + +The Count, in his mask and domino, moved along, stiffly, with us, toward +the palanquin. A clear circle was maintained by the Chinese attendants, +and the spectators crowded round in a ring. + +One of these men--he who with a gilded wand had preceded the +procession--advanced, extending his empty hand, palm upward. + +"Money?" inquired the Count. + +"Gold," replied the usher. + +The Count placed a piece of money in his hand; and I and the Marquis +were each called on in turn to do likewise as we entered the circle. We +paid accordingly. + +The conjuror stood beside the palanquin, its silk curtain in his hand; +his chin sunk, with its long, jet-black beard, on his chest; the outer +hand grasping the black wand, on which he leaned; his eyes were lowered, +as before, to the ground; his face looked absolutely lifeless. Indeed, I +never saw face or figure so moveless, except in death. The first +question the Count put, was: "Am I married, or unmarried?" + +The conjuror drew back the curtain quickly, and placed his ear toward a +richly-dressed Chinese, who sat in the litter; withdrew his head, and +closed the curtain again; and then answered: "Yes." + +The same preliminary was observed each time, so that the man with the +black wand presented himself, not as a prophet, but as a medium; and +answered, as it seemed, in the words of a greater than himself. + +Two or three questions followed, the answers to which seemed to amuse +the Marquis very much; but the point of which I could not see, for I +knew next to nothing of the Count's peculiarities and adventures. + +"Does my wife love me?" asked he, playfully. + +"As well as you deserve." + +"Whom do I love best in the world?" + +"Self." + +"Oh! That I fancy is pretty much the case with everyone. But, putting +myself out of the question, do I love anything on earth better than my +wife?" + +"Her diamonds." + +"Oh!" said the Count. The Marquis, I could see, laughed. + +"Is it true," said the Count, changing the conversation peremptorily, +"that there has been a battle in Naples?" + +"No; in France." + +"Indeed," said the Count, satirically, with a glance round. + +"And may I inquire between what powers, and on what particular quarrel?" + +"Between the Count and Countess de St. Alyre, and about a document they +subscribed on the 25th July, 1811." + +The Marquis afterwards told me that this was the date of their marriage +settlement. + +The Count stood stock-still for a minute or so; and one could fancy that +they saw his face flushing through his mask. + +Nobody, but we two, knew that the inquirer was the Count de St. Alyre. + +I thought he was puzzled to find a subject for his next question; and, +perhaps, repented having entangled himself in such a colloquy. If so, he +was relieved; for the Marquis, touching his arms, whispered. + +"Look to your right, and see who is coming." + +I looked in the direction indicated by the Marquis, and I saw a gaunt +figure stalking toward us. It was not a masque. The face was broad, +scarred, and white. In a word, it was the ugly face of Colonel +Gaillarde, who, in the costume of a corporal of the Imperial Guard, with +his left arm so adjusted as to look like a stump, leaving the lower part +of the coat-sleeve empty, and pinned up to the breast. There were strips +of very real sticking-plaster across his eyebrow and temple, where my +stick had left its mark, to score, hereafter, among the more honorable +scars of war. + + + + +Chapter XIII + +THE ORACLE TELLS ME WONDERS + + +I forgot for a moment how impervious my mask and domino were to the hard +stare of the old campaigner, and was preparing for an animated scuffle. +It was only for a moment, of course; but the count cautiously drew a +little back as the gasconading corporal, in blue uniform, white vest, +and white gaiters--for my friend Gaillarde was as loud and swaggering in +his assumed character as in his real one of a colonel of dragoons--drew +near. He had already twice all but got himself turned out of doors for +vaunting the exploits of Napoleon le Grand, in terrific mock-heroics, +and had very nearly come to hand-grips with a Prussian hussar. In fact, +he would have been involved in several sanguinary rows already, had not +his discretion reminded him that the object of his coming there at all, +namely, to arrange a meeting with an affluent widow, on whom he believed +he had made a tender impression, would not have been promoted by his +premature removal from the festive scene of which he was an ornament, in +charge of a couple of _gendarmes_. + +"Money! Gold! Bah! What money can a wounded soldier like your humble +servant have amassed, with but his sword-hand left, which, being +necessarily occupied, places not a finger at his command with which to +scrape together the spoils of a routed enemy?" + +"No gold from him," said the magician. "His scars frank him." + +"Bravo, Monsieur le prophete! Bravissimo! Here I am. Shall I begin, +_mon sorcier_, without further loss of time, to question you?" + +Without waiting for an answer, he commenced, in stentorian tones. After +half-a-dozen questions and answers, he asked: "Whom do I pursue at +present?" + +"Two persons." + +"Ha! Two? Well, who are they?" + +"An Englishman, whom if you catch, he will kill you; and a French widow, +whom if you find, she will spit in your face." + +"Monsieur le magicien calls a spade a spade, and knows that his cloth +protects him. No matter! Why do I pursue them?" + +"The widow has inflicted a wound on your heart, and the Englishman a +wound on your head. They are each separately too strong for you; take +care your pursuit does not unite them." + +"Bah! How could that be?" + +"The Englishman protects ladies. He has got that fact into your head. +The widow, if she sees, will marry him. It takes some time, she will +reflect, to become a colonel, and the Englishman is unquestionably +young." + +"I will cut his cock's-comb for him," he ejaculated with an oath and a +grin; and in a softer tone he asked, "Where is she?" + +"Near enough to be offended if you fail." + +"So she ought, by my faith. You are right, Monsieur le prophete! A +hundred thousand thanks! Farewell!" And staring about him, and +stretching his lank neck as high as he could, he strode away with his +scars, and white waistcoat and gaiters, and his bearskin shako. + +I had been trying to see the person who sat in the palanquin. I had only +once an opportunity of a tolerably steady peep. What I saw was singular. +The oracle was dressed, as I have said, very richly, in the Chinese +fashion. He was a figure altogether on a larger scale than the +interpreter, who stood outside. The features seemed to me large and +heavy, and the head was carried with a downward inclination! The eyes +were closed, and the chin rested on the breast of his embroidered +pelisse. The face seemed fixed, and the very image of apathy. Its +character and _pose_ seemed an exaggerated repetition of the +immobility of the figure who communicated with the noisy outer world. +This face looked blood-red; but that was caused, I concluded, by the +light entering through the red silk curtains. All this struck me almost +at a glance; I had not many seconds in which to make my observation. The +ground was now clear, and the Marquis said, "Go forward, my friend." + +I did so. When I reached the magician, as we called the man with the +black wand, I glanced over my shoulder to see whether the Count was +near. + +No, he was some yards behind; and he and the Marquis, whose curiosity +seemed to be by this time satisfied, were now conversing generally upon +some subject of course quite different. + +I was relieved, for the sage seemed to blurt out secrets in an +unexpected way; and some of mine might not have amused the Count. + +I thought for a moment. I wished to test the prophet. A +Church-of-England man was a _rara avis_ in Paris. + +"What is my religion?" I asked. + +"A beautiful heresy," answered the oracle instantly. + +"A heresy?--and pray how is it named?" + +"Love." + +"Oh! Then I suppose I am a polytheist, and love a great many?" + +"One." + +"But, seriously," I asked, intending to turn the course of our colloquy +a little out of an embarrassing channel, "have I ever learned any words +of devotion by heart?" + +"Yes." + +"Can you repeat them?" + +"Approach." + +I did, and lowered my ear. + +The man with the black wand closed the curtains, and whispered, slowly +and distinctly, these words which, I need scarcely tell you, I instantly +recognized: + +_"I may never see you more; and, oh! I that I could forget +you!--go--farewell--for God's sake, go!"_ + +I started as I heard them. They were, you know, the last words whispered +to me by the Countess. + +"Good Heavens! How miraculous! Words heard most assuredly, by no ear on +earth but my own and the lady's who uttered them, till now!" + +I looked at the impassive face of the spokesman with the wand. There was +no trace of meaning, or even of a consciousness that the words he had +uttered could possibly interest me. + +"What do I most long for?" I asked, scarcely knowing what I said. + +"Paradise." + +"And what prevents my reaching it?" + +"A black veil." + +Stronger and stronger! The answers seemed to me to indicate the minutest +acquaintance with every detail of my little romance, of which not even +the Marquis knew anything! And I, the questioner, masked and robed so +that my own brother could not have known me! + +"You said I loved someone. Am I loved in return?" I asked. + +"Try." + +I was speaking lower than before, and stood near the dark man with the +beard, to prevent the necessity of his speaking in a loud key. + +"Does anyone love me?" I repeated. + +"Secretly," was the answer. + +"Much or little?" I inquired. + +"Too well." + +"How long will that love last?" + +"Till the rose casts its leaves." + +The rose--another allusion! + +"Then--darkness!" I sighed. "But till then I live in light." + +"The light of violet eyes." + +Love, if not a religion, as the oracle had just pronounced it, is, at +least, a superstition. How it exalts the imagination! How it enervates +the reason! How credulous it makes us! + +All this which, in the case of another I should have laughed at, most +powerfully affected me in my own. It inflamed my ardor, and half crazed +my brain, and even influenced my conduct. + +The spokesman of this wonderful trick--if trick it were--now waved me +backward with his wand, and as I withdrew, my eyes still fixed upon the +group, and this time encircled with an aura of mystery in my fancy; +backing toward the ring of spectators, I saw him raise his hand +suddenly, with a gesture of command, as a signal to the usher who +carried the golden wand in front. + +The usher struck his wand on the ground, and, in a shrill voice, +proclaimed: "The great Confu is silent for an hour." + +Instantly the bearers pulled down a sort of blind of bamboo, which +descended with a sharp clatter, and secured it at the bottom; and then +the man in the tall fez, with the black beard and wand, began a sort of +dervish dance. In this the men with the gold wands joined, and finally, +in an outer ring, the bearers, the palanquin being the center of the +circles described by these solemn dancers, whose pace, little by little, +quickened, whose gestures grew sudden, strange, frantic, as the motion +became swifter and swifter, until at length the whirl became so rapid +that the dancers seemed to fly by with the speed of a mill-wheel, and +amid a general clapping of hands, and universal wonder, these strange +performers mingled with the crowd, and the exhibition, for the time at +least, ended. + +The Marquis d'Harmonville was standing not far away, looking on the +ground, as one could judge by his attitude and musing. I approached, and +he said: + +"The Count has just gone away to look for his wife. It is a pity she was +not here to consult the prophet; it would have been amusing, I daresay, +to see how the Count bore it. Suppose we follow him. I have asked him to +introduce you." + +With a beating heart, I accompanied the Marquis d'Harmonville. + + + + +Chapter XIV + +MADEMOISELLE DE LA VALLIERE + + +We wandered through the _salons_, the Marquis and I. It was no easy +matter to find a friend in rooms so crowded. + +"Stay here," said the Marquis, "I have thought of a way of finding him. +Besides, his jealousy may have warned him that there is no particular +advantage to be gained by presenting you to his wife; I had better go +and reason with him, as you seem to wish an introduction so very much." + +This occurred in the room that is now called the "Salon d'Apollon." The +paintings remained in my memory, and my adventure of that evening was +destined to occur there. + +I sat down upon a sofa, and looked about me. Three or four persons +beside myself were seated on this roomy piece of gilded furniture. They +were chatting all very gaily; all--except the person who sat next me, +and she was a lady. Hardly two feet interposed between us. The lady sat +apparently in a reverie. Nothing could be more graceful. She wore the +costume perpetuated in Collignan's full-length portrait of Mademoiselle +de la Valiere. It is, as you know, not only rich, but elegant. Her hair +was powdered, but one could perceive that it was naturally a dark brown. +One pretty little foot appeared, and could anything be more exquisite +than her hand? + +It was extremely provoking that this lady wore her mask, and did not, as +many did, hold it for a time in her hand. + +I was convinced that she was pretty. Availing myself of the privilege of +a masquerade, a microcosm in which it is impossible, except by voice and +allusion, to distinguish friend from foe, I spoke: + +"It is not easy, Mademoiselle, to deceive me," I began. + +"So much the better for Monsieur," answered the mask, quietly. + +"I mean," I said, determined to tell my fib, "that beauty is a gift +more difficult to conceal than Mademoiselle supposes." + +"Yet Monsieur has succeeded very well," she said in the same sweet +and careless tones. + +"I see the costume of this, the beautiful Mademoiselle de la Valiere, +upon a form that surpasses her own; I raise my eyes, and I behold a +mask, and yet I recognize the lady; beauty is like that precious stone +in the 'Arabian Nights,' which emits, no matter how concealed, a light +that betrays it." + +"I know the story," said the young lady. "The light betrayed it, not in +the sun but in darkness. Is there so little light in these rooms, +Monsieur, that a poor glowworm can show so brightly? I thought we were +in a luminous atmosphere, wherever a certain Countess moved?" + +Here was an awkward speech! How was I to answer? This lady might be, as +they say some ladies are, a lover of mischief, or an intimate of the +Countess de St. Alyre. Cautiously, therefore, I inquired, + +"What Countess?" + +"If you know me, you must know that she is my dearest friend. Is she not +beautiful?" + +"How can I answer, there are so many countesses." + +"Everyone who knows me, knows who my best beloved friend is. You don't +know me?" + +"That is cruel. I can scarcely believe I am mistaken." + +"With whom were you walking, just now?" she asked. + +"A gentleman, a friend," I answered. + +"I saw him, of course, a friend; but I think I know him, and should like +to be certain. Is he not a certain Marquis?" + +Here was another question that was extremely awkward. + +"There are so many people here, and one may walk, at one time with one, +and at another with a different one, that--" + +"That an unscrupulous person has no difficulty in evading a simple +question like mine. Know then, once for all, that nothing disgusts a +person of spirit so much as suspicion. You, Monsieur, are a gentleman of +discretion. I shall respect you accordingly." + +"Mademoiselle would despise me, were I to violate a confidence." + +"But you don't deceive me. You imitate your friend's diplomacy. I hate +diplomacy. It means fraud and cowardice. Don't you think I know him? The +gentleman with the cross of white ribbon on his breast? I know the +Marquis d'Harmonville perfectly. You see to what good purpose your +ingenuity has been expended." + +"To that conjecture I can answer neither yes nor no." + +"You need not. But what was your motive in mortifying a lady?" + +"It is the last thing on earth I should do." + +"You affected to know me, and you don't; through caprice, or +listlessness, or curiosity, you wished to converse, not with a lady, but +with a costume. You admired, and you pretend to mistake me for another. +But who is quite perfect? Is truth any longer to be found on earth?" + +"Mademoiselle has formed a mistaken opinion of me." + +"And you also of me; you find me less foolish than you supposed. I know +perfectly whom you intend amusing with compliments and melancholy +declamation, and whom, with that amiable purpose, you have been +seeking." + +"Tell me whom you mean," I entreated. "Upon one condition." + +"What is that?" + +"That you will confess if I name the lady." + +"You describe my object unfairly," I objected. "I can't admit that I +proposed speaking to any lady in the tone you describe." + +"Well, I shan't insist on that; only if I name the lady, you will +promise to admit that I am right." + +"_Must_ I promise?" + +"Certainly not, there is no compulsion; but your promise is the only +condition on which I will speak to you again." + +I hesitated for a moment; but how could she possibly tell? The Countess +would scarcely have admitted this little romance to anyone; and the mask +in the La Valliere costume could not possibly know who the masked domino +beside her was. + +"I consent," I said, "I promise." + +"You must promise on the honor of a gentleman." + +"Well, I do; on the honor of a gentleman." + +"Then this lady is the Countess de St. Alyre." + +I was unspeakably surprised; I was disconcerted; but I remembered my +promise, and said: + +"The Countess de St. Alyre _is_, unquestionably, the lady to whom I +hoped for an introduction tonight; but I beg to assure you, also on the +honor of a gentleman, that she has not the faintest imaginable suspicion +that I was seeking such an honor, nor, in all probability, does she +remember that such a person as I exists. I had the honor to render her +and the Count a trifling service, too trifling, I fear, to have earned +more than an hour's recollection." + +"The world is not so ungrateful as you suppose; or if it be, there are, +nevertheless, a few hearts that redeem it. I can answer for the Countess +de St. Alyre, she never forgets a kindness. She does not show all she +feels; for she is unhappy, and cannot." + +"Unhappy! I feared, indeed, that might be. But for all the rest that you +are good enough to suppose, it is but a flattering dream." + +"I told you that I am the Countess's friend, and being so I must know +something of her character; also, there are confidences between us, and +I may know more than you think of those trifling services of which you +suppose the recollection is so transitory." + +I was becoming more and more interested. I was as wicked as other young +men, and the heinousness of such a pursuit was as nothing, now that +self-love and all the passions that mingle in such a romance were +roused. The image of the beautiful Countess had now again quite +superseded the pretty counterpart of La Valliee, who was before me. I +would have given a great deal to hear, in solemn earnest, that she did +remember the champion who, for her sake, had thrown himself before the +saber of an enraged dragoon, with only a cudgel in his hand, and +conquered. + +"You say the Countess is unhappy," said I. "What causes her +unhappiness?" + +"Many things. Her husband is old, jealous, and tyrannical. Is not that +enough? Even when relieved from his society, she is lonely." + +"But you are her friend?" I suggested. + +"And you think one friend enough?" she answered; "she has one alone, to +whom she can open her heart." + +"Is there room for another friend?" + +"Try." + +"How can I find a way?" + +"She will aid you." + +"How?" + +She answered by a question. "Have you secured rooms in either of the +hotels of Versailles?" + +"No, I could not. I am lodged in the Dragon Volant, which stands at the +verge of the grounds of the Chateau de la Carque." + +"That is better still. I need not ask if you have courage for an +adventure. I need not ask if you are a man of honor. A lady may trust +herself to you, and fear nothing. There are few men to whom the +interview, such as I shall arrange, could be granted with safety. You +shall meet her at two o'clock this morning in the Park of the Chateau de +la Carque. What room do you occupy in the Dragon Volant?" + +I was amazed at the audacity and decision of this girl. Was she, as we +say in England, hoaxing me? + +"I can describe that accurately," said I. "As I look from the rear of +the house, in which my apartment is, I am at the extreme right, next the +angle; and one pair of stairs up, from the hall." + +"Very well; you must have observed, if you looked into the park, two or +three clumps of chestnut and lime trees, growing so close together as to +form a small grove. You must return to your hotel, change your dress, +and, preserving a scrupulous secrecy as to why or where you go, leave +the Dragon Volant, and climb the park wall, unseen; you will easily +recognize the grove I have mentioned; there you will meet the Countess, +who will grant you an audience of a few minutes, who will expect the +most scrupulous reserve on your part, and who will explain to you, in a +few words, a great deal which I could not so well tell you here." + +I cannot describe the feeling with which I heard these words. I was +astounded. Doubt succeeded. I could not believe these agitating words. + +"Mademoiselle will believe that if I only dared assure myself that so +great a happiness and honor were really intended for me, my gratitude +would be as lasting as my life. But how dare I believe that Mademoiselle +does not speak, rather from her own sympathy or goodness, than from a +certainty that the Countess de St. Alyre would concede so great an +honor?" + +"Monsieur believes either that I am not, as I pretend to be, in the +secret which he hitherto supposed to be shared by no one but the +Countess and himself, or else that I am cruelly mystifying him. That I +am in her confidence, I swear by all that is dear in a whispered +farewell. By the last companion of this flower!" and she took for a +moment in her fingers the nodding head of a white rosebud that was +nestled in her bouquet. "By my own good star, and hers--or shall I call +it our 'belle etoile?' Have I said enough?" + +"Enough?" I repeated, "more than enough--a thousand thanks." + +"And being thus in her confidence, I am clearly her friend; and being a +friend would it be friendly to use her dear name so; and all for sake of +practicing a vulgar trick upon you--a stranger?" + +"Mademoiselle will forgive me. Remember how very precious is the hope of +seeing, and speaking to the Countess. Is it wonderful, then, that I +should falter in my belief? You have convinced me, however, and will +forgive my hesitation." + +"You will be at the place I have described, then, at two o'clock?" + +"Assuredly," I answered. + +"And Monsieur, I know, will not fail through fear. No, he need not +assure me; his courage is already proved." + +"No danger, in such a case, will be unwelcome to me." + +"Had you not better go now, Monsieur, and rejoin your friend?" + +"I promised to wait here for my friend's return. The Count de St. Alyre +said that he intended to introduce me to the Countess." + +"And Monsieur is so simple as to believe him?" + +"Why should I not?" + +"Because he is jealous and cunning. You will see. He will never +introduce you to his wife. He will come here and say he cannot find her, +and promise another time." + +"I think I see him approaching, with my friend. No--there is no lady +with him." + +"I told you so. You will wait a long time for that happiness, if it is +never to reach you except through his hands. In the meantime, you had +better not let him see you so near me. He will suspect that we have been +talking of his wife; and that will whet his jealousy and his vigilance." + +I thanked my unknown friend in the mask, and withdrawing a few steps, +came, by a little "circumbendibus," upon the flank of the Count. I +smiled under my mask as he assured me that the Duchess de la Roqueme had +changed her place, and taken the Countess with her; but he hoped, at +some very early time, to have an opportunity of enabling her to make my +acquaintance. + +I avoided the Marquis d'Harmonville, who was following the Count. I was +afraid he might propose accompanying me home, and had no wish to be +forced to make an explanation. + +I lost myself quickly, therefore, in the crowd, and moved, as rapidly as +it would allow me, toward the Galerie des Glaces, which lay in the +direction opposite to that in which I saw the Count and my friend the +Marquis moving. + + + + +Chapter XV + +STRANGE STORY OF THE DRAGON VOLANT + + +These _fetes_ were earlier in those days, and in France, than our +modern balls are in London. I consulted my watch. It was a little past +twelve. + +It was a still and sultry night; the magnificent suite of rooms, vast as +some of them were, could not be kept at a temperature less than +oppressive, especially to people with masks on. In some places the crowd +was inconvenient, and the profusion of lights added to the heat. I +removed my mask, therefore, as I saw some other people do, who were as +careless of mystery as I. I had hardly done so, and began to breathe +more comfortably, when I heard a friendly English voice call me by my +name. It was Tom Whistlewick, of the --th Dragoons. He had unmasked, +with a very flushed face, as I did. He was one of those Waterloo heroes, +new from the mint of glory, whom, as a body, all the world, except +France, revered; and the only thing I knew against him, was a habit of +allaying his thirst, which was excessive at balls, _fetes_, musical +parties, and all gatherings, where it was to be had, with champagne; +and, as he introduced me to his friend, Monsieur Carmaignac, I observed +that he spoke a little thick. Monsieur Carmaignac was little, lean, and +as straight as a ramrod. He was bald, took snuff, and wore spectacles; +and, as I soon learned, held an official position. + +Tom was facetious, sly, and rather difficult to understand, in his +present pleasant mood. He was elevating his eyebrows and screwing his +lips oddly, and fanning himself vaguely with his mask. + +After some agreeable conversation I was glad to observe that he +preferred silence, and was satisfied with the _role_ of listener, +as I and Monsieur Carmaignac chatted; and he seated himself, with +extraordinary caution and indecision, upon a bench, beside us, and +seemed very soon to find a difficulty in keeping his eyes open. + +"I heard you mention," said the French gentleman, "that you had engaged +an apartment in the Dragon Volant, about half a league from this. When I +was in a different police department, about four years ago, two very +strange cases were connected with that house. One was of a wealthy +_emigre_, permitted to return to France by the Em--by Napoleon. He +vanished. The other--equally strange--was the case of a Russian of rank +and wealth. He disappeared just as mysteriously." + +"My servant," I said, "gave me a confused account of some occurrences, +and, as well as I recollect, he described the same persons--I mean a +returned French nobleman and a Russian gentleman. But he made the whole +story so marvelous--I mean in the supernatural sense--that, I confess, I +did not believe a word of it." + +"No, there was nothing supernatural; but a great deal inexplicable," +said the French gentleman. "Of course, there may be theories; but the +thing was never explained, nor, so far as I know, was a ray of light +ever thrown upon it." + +"Pray let me hear the story," I said. "I think I have a claim, as it +affects my quarters. You don't suspect the people of the house?" + +"Oh! it has changed hands since then. But there seemed to be a fatality +about a particular room." + +"Could you describe that room?" + +"Certainly. It is a spacious, paneled bedroom, up one pair of stairs, in +the back of the house, and at the extreme right, as you look from its +windows." + +"Ho! Really? Why, then, I have got the very room!" I said, beginning to +be more interested--perhaps the least bit in the world, disagreeably. +"Did the people die, or were they actually spirited away?" + +"No, they did not die--they disappeared very oddly. I'll tell you the +particulars--I happen to know them exactly, because I made an official +visit, on the first occasion, to the house, to collect evidence; and +although I did not go down there, upon the second, the papers came +before me, and I dictated the official letter dispatched to the +relations of the people who had disappeared; they had applied to the +government to investigate the affair. We had letters from the same +relations more than two years later, from which we learned that the +missing men had never turned up." + +He took a pinch of snuff, and looked steadily at me. + +"Never! I shall relate all that happened, so far as we could discover. +The French noble, who was the Chevalier Chateau Blassemare, unlike most +_emigres_ had taken the matter in time, sold a large portion of his +property before the revolution had proceeded so far as to render that +next to impossible, and retired with a large sum. He brought with him +about half a million of francs, the greater part of which he invested in +the French funds; a much larger sum remained in Austrian land and +securities. You will observe then that this gentleman was rich, and +there was no allegation of his having lost money, or being in any way +embarrassed. You see?" + +I assented. + +"This gentleman's habits were not expensive in proportion to his means. +He had suitable lodgings in Paris; and for a time, society, and +theaters, and other reasonable amusements, engrossed him. He did not +play. He was a middleaged man, affecting youth, with the vanities which +are usual in such persons; but, for the rest, he was a gentle and polite +person, who disturbed nobody--a person, you see, not likely to provoke +an enmity." + +"Certainly not," I agreed. + +"Early in the summer of 1811 he got an order permitting him to copy +a picture in one of these _salons_, and came down here, to +Versailles, for the purpose. His work was getting on slowly. After a +time he left his hotel here, and went, by way of change, to the Dragon +Volant; there he took, by special choice, the bedroom which has fallen +to you by chance. From this time, it appeared, he painted little; and +seldom visited his apartments in Paris. One night he saw the host of the +Dragon Volant, and told him that he was going into Paris, to remain for +a day or two, on very particular business; that his servant would +accompany him, but that he would retain his apartments at the Dragon +Volant, and return in a few days. He left some clothes there, but packed +a portmanteau, took his dressing case and the rest, and, with his +servant behind his carriage, drove into Paris. You observe all this, +Monsieur?" + +"Most attentively," I answered. + +"Well, Monsieur, as soon as they were approaching his lodgings, he +stopped the carriage on a sudden, told his servant that he had changed +his mind; that he would sleep elsewhere that night, that he had very +particular business in the north of France, not far from Rouen, that he +would set out before daylight on his journey, and return in a fortnight. +He called a _fiacre_, took in his hand a leather bag which, the +servant said, was just large enough to hold a few shirts and a coat, but +that it was enormously heavy, as he could testify, for he held it in his +hand, while his master took out his purse to count thirty-six Napoleons, +for which the servant was to account when he should return. He then sent +him on, in the carriage; and he, with the bag I have mentioned, got into +the _fiacre_. Up to that, you see, the narrative is quite clear." + +"Perfectly," I agreed. + +"Now comes the mystery," said Monsieur Carmaignac. "After that, the +Count Chateau Blassemare was never more seen, so far as we can make out, +by acquaintance or friend. We learned that the day before the Count's +stockbroker had, by his direction, sold all his stock in the French +funds, and handed him the cash it realized. The reason he gave him for +this measure tallied with what he said to his servant. He told him that +he was going to the north of France to settle some claims, and did not +know exactly how much might be required. The bag, which had puzzled the +servant by its weight, contained, no doubt, a large sum in gold. Will +Monsieur try my snuff?" + +He politely tendered his open snuff-box, of which I partook, +experimentally. + +"A reward was offered," he continued, "when the inquiry was instituted, +for any information tending to throw a light upon the mystery, which +might be afforded by the driver of the _fiacre_ 'employed on the +night of' (so-and-so), 'at about the hour of half-past ten, by a +gentleman, with a black-leather bag-bag in his hand, who descended from +a private carriage, and gave his servant some money, which he counted +twice over.' About a hundred-and-fifty drivers applied, but not one of +them was the right man. We did, however, elicit a curious and unexpected +piece of evidence in quite another quarter. What a racket that plaguey +harlequin makes with his sword!" + +"Intolerable!" I chimed in. + +The harlequin was soon gone, and he resumed. + +"The evidence I speak of came from a boy, about twelve years old, who +knew the appearance of the Count perfectly, having been often employed +by him as a messenger. He stated that about half-past twelve o'clock, on +the same night--upon which you are to observe, there was a brilliant +moon--he was sent, his mother having been suddenly taken ill, for the +_sage femme_ who lived within a stone's throw of the Dragon Volant. +His father's house, from which he started, was a mile away, or more, +from that inn, in order to reach which he had to pass round the park of +the Cheteau de la Carque, at the site most remote from the point to +which he was going. It passes the old churchyard of St. Aubin, which is +separated from the road only by a very low fence, and two or three +enormous old trees. The boy was a little nervous as he approached this +ancient cemetery; and, under the bright moonlight, he saw a man whom he +distinctly recognized as the Count, whom they designated by a sobriquet +which means 'the man of smiles.' He was looking rueful enough now, and +was seated on the side of a tombstone, on which he had laid a pistol, +while he was ramming home the charge of another. + +"The boy got cautiously by, on tiptoe, with his eyes all the time on the +Count Chateau Blassernare, or the man he mistook for him--his dress was +not what he usually wore, but the witness swore that he could not be +mistaken as to his identity. He said his face looked grave and stern; +but though he did not smile, it was the same face he knew so well. +Nothing would make him swerve from that. If that were he, it was the +last time he was seen. He has never been heard of since. Nothing could +be heard of him in the neighborhood of Rouen. There has been no evidence +of his death; and there is no sign that he is living." + +"That certainly is a most singular case," I replied, and was about to +ask a question or two, when Tom Whistlewick who, without my observing +it, had been taking a ramble, returned, a great deal more awake, and a +great deal less tipsy. + +"I say, Carmaignac, it is getting late, and I must go; I really must, +for the reason I told you--and, Beckett, we must soon meet again." + +"I regret very much, Monsieur, my not being able at present to relate to +you the other case, that of another tenant of the very same room--a case +more mysterious and sinister than the last--and which occurred in the +autumn of the same year." + +"Will you both do a very good-natured thing, and come and dine with me +at the Dragon Volant tomorrow?" + +So, as we pursued our way along the Galerie des Glaces, I extracted +their promise. + +"By Jove!" said Whistlewick, when this was done; "look at that pagoda, +or sedan chair, or whatever it is, just where those fellows set it down, +and not one of them near it! I can't imagine how they tell fortunes so +devilish well. Jack Nuffles--I met him here tonight--says they are +gypsies--where are they, I wonder? I'll go over and have a peep at the +prophet." + +I saw him plucking at the blinds, which were constructed something on +the principle of Venetian blinds; the red curtains were inside; but they +did not yield, and he could only peep under one that did not come quite +down. + +When he rejoined us, he related: "I could scarcely see the old fellow, +it's so dark. He is covered with gold and red, and has an embroidered +hat on like a mandarin's; he's fast asleep; and, by Jove, he smells like +a polecat! It's worth going over only to have it to say. Fiew! pooh! oh! +It is a perfume. Faugh!" + +Not caring to accept this tempting invitation, we got along slowly +toward the door. I bade them good-night, reminding them of their +promise. And so found my way at last to my carriage; and was soon +rolling slowly toward the Dragon Volant, on the loneliest of roads, +under old trees, and the soft moonlight. + +What a number of things had happened within the last two hours! what a +variety of strange and vivid pictures were crowded together in that +brief space! What an adventure was before me! + +The silent, moonlighted, solitary road, how it contrasted with the +many-eddied whirl of pleasure from whose roar and music, lights, +diamonds and colors I had just extricated myself. + +The sight of lonely nature at such an hour, acts like a sudden sedative. +The madness and guilt of my pursuit struck me with a momentary +compunction and horror. I wished I had never entered the labyrinth which +was leading me, I knew not whither. It was too late to think of that +now; but the bitter was already stealing into my cup; and vague +anticipations lay, for a few minutes, heavy on my heart. It would not +have taken much to make me disclose my unmanly state of mind to my +lively friend Alfred Ogle, nor even to the milder ridicule of the +agreeable Tom Whistlewick. + + + + +Chapter XVI + +THE PARC OF THE CHATEAU DE LA CARQUE + + +There was no danger of the Dragon Volant's closing its doors on that +occasion till three or four in the morning. There were quartered there +many servants of great people, whose masters would not leave the ball +till the last moment, and who could not return to their corners in the +Dragon Volant till their last services had been rendered. + +I knew, therefore, I should have ample time for my mysterious excursion +without exciting curiosity by being shut out. + +And now we pulled up under the canopy of boughs, before the sign of the +Dragon Volant, and the light that shone from its hall-door. + +I dismissed my carriage, ran up the broad stair-case, mask in hand, with +my domino fluttering about me, and entered the large bedroom. The black +wainscoting and stately furniture, with the dark curtains of the very +tall bed, made the night there more somber. + +An oblique patch of moonlight was thrown upon the floor from the window +to which I hastened. I looked out upon the landscape slumbering in those +silvery beams. There stood the outline of the Chateau de la Carque, its +chimneys and many turrets with their extinguisher-shaped roofs black +against the soft grey sky. There, also, more in the foreground, about +midway between the window where I stood and the chateau, but a little to +the left, I traced the tufted masses of the grove which the lady in the +mask had appointed as the trysting-place, where I and the beautiful +Countess were to meet that night. + +I took "the bearings" of this gloomy bit of wood, whose foliage +glimmered softly at top in the light of the moon. + +You may guess with what a strange interest and swelling of the heart I +gazed on the unknown scene of my coming adventure. + +But time was flying, and the hour already near. I threw my robe upon a +sofa; I groped out a pair of hoots, which I substituted for those thin +heelless shoes, in those days called "pumps," without which a gentleman +could not attend an evening party. I put on my hat and, lastly, I took a +pair of loaded pistols, which I had been advised were satisfactory +companions in the then unsettled state of French society; swarms of +disbanded soldiers, some of them alleged to be desperate characters, +being everywhere to be met with. These preparations made, I confess I +took a looking-glass to the window to see how I looked in the moonlight; +and being satisfied, I replaced it, and ran downstairs. + +In the hall I called for my servant. + +"St. Clair," said I; "I mean to take a little moonlight ramble, only ten +minutes or so. You must not go to bed until I return. If the night is +very beautiful, I may possibly extend my ramble a little." + +So down the steps I lounged, looking first over my right, and then over +my left shoulder, like a man uncertain which direction to take, and I +sauntered up the road, gazing now at the moon, and now at the thin white +clouds in the opposite direction, whistling, all the time, an air which +I had picked up at one of the theatres. + +When I had got a couple of hundred yards away from the Dragon Volant, my +minstrelsy totally ceased; and I turned about, and glanced sharply down +the road, that looked as white as hoar-frost under the moon, and saw the +gable of the old inn, and a window, partly concealed by the foliage, +with a dusky light shining from it. + +No sound of footstep was stirring; no sign of human figure in sight. I +consulted my watch, which the light was sufficiently strong to enable me +to do. It now wanted but eight minutes of the appointed hour. A thick +mantle of ivy at this point covered the wall and rose in a clustering +head at top. + +It afforded me facilities for scaling the wall, and a partial screen for +my operations if any eye should chance to be looking that way. And now +it was done. I was in the park of the Chateau de la Carque, as nefarious +a poacher as ever trespassed on the grounds of unsuspicious lord! + +Before me rose the appointed grove, which looked as black as a clump of +gigantic hearse plumes. It seemed to tower higher and higher at every +step; and cast a broader and blacker shadow toward my feet. On I +marched, and was glad when I plunged into the shadow which concealed me. +Now I was among the grand old lime and chestnut trees--my heart beat +fast with expectation. + +This grove opened, a little, near the middle; and, in the space thus +cleared, there stood with a surrounding flight of steps a small Greek +temple or shrine, with a statue in the center. It was built of white +marble with fluted Corinthian columns, and the crevices were tufted with +grass; moss had shown itself on pedestal and cornice, and signs of long +neglect and decay were apparent in its discolored and weather-worn +marble. A few feet in front of the steps a fountain, fed from the great +ponds at the other side of the chateau, was making a constant tinkle and +splashing in a wide marble basin, and the jet of water glimmered like a +shower of diamonds in the broken moonlight. The very neglect and +half-ruinous state of all this made it only the prettier, as well as +sadder. I was too intently watching for the arrival of the lady, in the +direction of the chateau, to study these things; but the half-noted +effect of them was romantic, and suggested somehow the grotto and the +fountain, and the apparition of Egeria. + +As I watched a voice spoke to me, a little behind my left shoulder. I +turned, almost with a start, and the masque, in the costume of +Mademoiselle de la Valliere, stood there. + +"The Countess will be here presently," she said. The lady stood upon the +open space, and the moonlight fell unbroken upon her. Nothing could be +more becoming; her figure looked more graceful and elegant than ever. +"In the meantime I shall tell you some peculiarities of her situation. +She is unhappy; miserable in an ill--assorted marriage, with a jealous +tyrant who now would constrain her to sell her diamonds, which are--" + +"Worth thirty thousand pounds sterling. I heard all that from a friend. +Can I aid the Countess in her unequal struggle? Say but how the greater +the danger or the sacrifice, the happier will it make me. _Can_ I +aid her?" + +"If you despise a danger--which, yet, is not a danger; if you despise, +as she does, the tyrannical canons of the world; and if you are +chivalrous enough to devote yourself to a lady's cause, with no reward +but her poor gratitude; if you can do these things you can aid her, and +earn a foremost place, not in her gratitude only, but in her +friendship." + +At those words the lady in the mask turned away and seemed to weep. + +I vowed myself the willing slave of the Countess. "But," I added, "you +told me she would soon be here." + +"That is, if nothing unforeseen should happen; but with the eye of the +Count de St. Alyre in the house, and open, it is seldom safe to stir." + +"Does she wish to see me?" I asked, with a tender hesitation. + +"First, say have you really thought of her, more than once, since the +adventure of the Belle Etoile?" + +"She never leaves my thoughts; day and night her beautiful eyes haunt +me; her sweet voice is always in my ear." + +"Mine is said to resemble hers," said the mask. + +"So it does," I answered. "But it is only a resemblance." + +"Oh! then mine is better?" + +"Pardon me, Mademoiselle, I did not say that. Yours is a sweet voice, +but I fancy a little higher." + +"A little shriller, you would say," answered the De la Valliere, I +fancied a good deal vexed. + +"No, not shriller: your voice is not shrill, it is beautifully sweet; +but not so pathetically sweet as hers." + +"That is prejudice, Monsieur; it is not true." + +I bowed; I could not contradict a lady. + +"I see, Monsieur, you laugh at me; you think me vain, because I claim in +some points to be equal to the Countess de St. Alyre. I challenge you to +say, my hand, at least, is less beautiful than hers." As she thus spoke +she drew her glove off, and extended her hand, back upward, in the +moonlight. + +The lady seemed really nettled. It was undignified and irritating; for +in this uninteresting competition the precious moments were flying, and +my interview leading apparently to nothing. + +"You will admit, then, that my hand is as beautiful as hers?" + +"I cannot admit it. Mademoiselle," said I, with the honesty of +irritation. "I will not enter into comparisons, but the Countess de St. +Alyre is, in all respects, the most beautiful lady I ever beheld." + +The masque laughed coldly, and then, more and more softly, said, with a +sigh, "I will prove all I say." And as she spoke she removed the mask: +and the Countess de St. Alyre, smiling, confused, bashful, more +beautiful than ever, stood before me! + +"Good Heavens!" I exclaimed. "How monstrously stupid I have been. And it +was to Madame la Comtesse that I spoke for so long in the _salon!_" +I gazed on her in silence. And with a low sweet laugh of good nature she +extended her hand. I took it and carried it to my lips. + +"No, you must not do that," she said quietly, "we are not old enough +friends yet. I find, although you were mistaken, that you do remember +the Countess of the Belle Etoile, and that you are a champion true and +fearless. Had you yielded to the claims just now pressed upon you by the +rivalry of Mademoiselle de la Valiere, in her mask, the Countess de St. +Alyre should never have trusted or seen you more. I now am sure that you +are true, as well as brave. You now know that I have not forgotten you; +and, also, that if you would risk your life for me, I, too, would brave +some danger, rather than lose my friend forever. I have but a few +moments more. Will you come here again tomorrow night, at a quarter past +eleven? I will be here at that moment; you must exercise the most +scrupulous care to prevent suspicion that you have come here, Monsieur. +_You owe that to me_." + +She spoke these last words with the most solemn entreaty. + +I vowed again and again that I would die rather than permit the least +rashness to endanger the secret which made all the interest and value of +my life. + +She was looking, I thought, more and more beautiful every moment. My +enthusiasm expanded in proportion. + +"You must come tomorrow night by a different route," she said; "and if +you come again, we can change it once more. At the other side of the +chateau there is a little churchyard, with a ruined chapel. The +neighbors are afraid to pass it by night. The road is deserted there, +and a stile opens a way into these grounds. Cross it and you can find a +covert of thickets, to within fifty steps of this spot." + +I promised, of course, to observe her instructions implicitly. + +"I have lived for more than a year in an agony of irresolution. I have +decided at last. I have lived a melancholy life; a lonelier life than is +passed in the cloister. I have had no one to confide in; no one to +advise me; no one to save me from the horrors of my existence. I have +found a brave and prompt friend at last. Shall I ever forget the heroic +tableau of the hall of the Belle Etoile? Have you--have you really kept +the rose I gave you, as we parted? Yes--you swear it. You need not; I +trust you. Richard, how often have I in solitude repeated your name, +learned from my servant. Richard, my hero! Oh! Richard! Oh, my king! I +love you!" + +I would have folded her to my heart--thrown myself at her feet. But this +beautiful and--shall I say it--inconsistent woman repelled me. + +"No, we must not waste our moments in extravagances. Understand my case. +There is no such thing as indifference in the married state. Not to love +one's husband," she continued, "is to hate him. The Count, ridiculous in +all else, is formidable in his jealousy. In mercy, then, to me, observe +caution. Affect to all you speak to, the most complete ignorance of all +the people in the Chateau de la Carque; and, if anyone in your presence +mentions the Count or Countess de St. Alyre, be sure you say you never +saw either. I shall have more to say to you tomorrow night. I have +reasons that I cannot now explain, for all I do, and all I postpone. +Farewell. Go! Leave me." + +She waved me back, peremptorily. I echoed her "farewell," and obeyed. + +This interview had not lasted, I think, more than ten minutes. I scaled +the park wall again, and reached the Dragon Volant before its doors were +closed. + +I lay awake in my bed, in a fever of elation. I saw, till the dawn +broke, and chased the vision, the beautiful Countess de St. Alyre, +always in the dark, before me. + + + + +Chapter XVII + +THE TENANT OF THE PALANQUIN + + +The Marquis called on me next day. My late breakfast was still upon the +table. He had come, he said, to ask a favor. An accident had happened to +his carriage in the crowd on leaving the ball, and he begged, if I were +going into Paris, a seat in mine. I was going in, and was extremely glad +of his company. He came with me to my hotel; we went up to my rooms. I +was surprised to see a man seated in an easy chair, with his back +towards us, reading a newspaper. He rose. It was the Count de St. Alyre, +his gold spectacles on his nose; his black wig, in oily curls, lying +close to his narrow head, and showing like carved ebony over a repulsive +visage of boxwood. His black muffler had been pulled down. His. right +arm was in a sling. I don't know whether there was anything unusual in +his countenance that day, or whether it was but the effect of prejudice +arising from all I had heard in my mysterious interview in his park, but +I thought his countenance was more strikingly forbidding than I had seen +it before. + +I was not callous enough in the ways of sin to meet this man, injured at +least in intent, thus suddenly, without a momentary disturbance. + +He smiled. + +"I called, Monsieur Beckett, in the hope of finding you here," he +croaked, "and I meditated, I fear, taking a great liberty, but my friend +the Marquis d'Harmonville, on whom I have perhaps some claim, will +perhaps give me the assistance I require so much." + +"With great pleasure," said the Marquis, "but not till after six +o'clock. I must go this moment to a meeting of three or four people whom +I cannot disappoint, and I know, perfectly, we cannot break up earlier." + +"What am I to do?" exclaimed the Count, "an hour would have done it all. +Was ever _contretemps_ so unlucky?" + +"I'll give you an hour, with pleasure," said I. + +"How very good of you, Monsieur, I hardly dare to hope it. The business, +for so gay and charming a man as Monsieur Beckett, is a little +_funeste_. Pray read this note which reached me this morning." + +It certainly was not cheerful. It was a note stating that the body of +his, the Count's cousin, Monsieur de St. Amand, who had died at his +house, the Chateau Clery, had been, in accordance with his written +directions, sent for burial at Pere la Chaise, and, with the permission +of the Count de St. Alyre, would reach his house (the Chateau de la +Carque) at about ten o'clock on the night following, to be conveyed +thence in a hearse, with any member of the family who might wish to +attend the obsequies. + +"I did not see the poor gentleman twice in my life," said the Count, +"but this office, as he has no other kinsman, disagreeable as it is, I +could scarcely decline, and so I want to attend at the office to have +the book signed, and the order entered. But here is another misery. By +ill luck I have sprained my thumb, and can't sign my name for a week to +come. However, one name answers as well as another. Yours as well as +mine. And as you are so good as to come with me, all will go right." + +Away we drove. The Count gave me a memorandum of the Christian and +surnames of the deceased, his age, the complaint he died of, and the +usual particulars; also a note of the exact position in which a grave, +the dimensions of which were described, of the ordinary simple kind, was +to be dug, between two vaults belonging to the family of St. Amand. The +funeral, it was stated, would arrive at half--past one o'clock A.M. (the +next night but one); and he handed me the money, with extra fees, for a +burial by night. It was a good deal; and I asked him, as he entrusted +the whole affair to me, in whose name I should take the receipt. + +"Not in mine, my good friend. They wanted me to become an executor, +which I, yesterday, wrote to decline; and I am informed that if the +receipt were in my name it would constitute me an executor in the eye of +the law, and fix me in that position. Take it, pray, if you have no +objection, in your own name." + +This, accordingly, I did. + +You will see, by--and--by, why I am obliged to mention all these +particulars. + +The Count, meanwhile, was leaning back in the carriage, with his black +silk muffler up to his nose, and his hat shading his eyes, while he +dozed in his corner; in which state I found him on my return. + +Paris had lost its charm for me. I hurried through the little business I +had to do, longed once more for my quiet room in the Dragon Volant, the +melancholy woods of the Chateau de la Carque, and the tumultuous and +thrilling influence of proximity to the object of my wild but wicked +romance. + +I was delayed some time by my stockbroker. I had a very large sum, as I +told you, at my banker's, uninvested. I cared very little for a few +day's interest--very little for the entire sum, compared with the image +that occupied my thoughts, and beckoned me with a white arm, through the +dark, toward the spreading lime trees and chestnuts of the Chateau de la +Carque. But I had fixed this day to meet him, and was relieved when he +told me that I had better let it lie in my banker's hands for a few days +longer, as the funds would certainly fall immediately. This accident, +too, was not without its immediate bearing on my subsequent adventures. + +When I reached the Dragon Volant, I found, in my sitting-room, a good +deal to my chagrin, my two guests, whom I had quite forgotten. I +inwardly cursed my own stupidity for having embarrassed myself with +their agreeable society. It could not be helped now, however, and a word +to the waiters put all things in train for dinner. + +Tom Whistlewick was in great force; and he commenced almost immediately +with a very odd story. + +He told me that not only Versailles, but all Paris was in a ferment, in +consequence of a revolting, and all but sacrilegious practical joke, +played of on the night before. + +The pagoda, as he persisted in calling the palanquin, had been left +standing on the spot where we last saw it. Neither conjuror, nor usher, +nor bearers had ever returned. When the ball closed, and the company at +length retired, the servants who attended to put out the lights, and +secure the doors, found it still there. + +It was determined, however, to let it stand where it was until next +morning, by which time, it was conjectured, its owners would send +messengers to remove it. + +None arrived. The servants were then ordered to take it away; and its +extraordinary weight, for the first time, reminded them of its forgotten +human occupant. Its door was forced; and, judge what was their disgust, +when they discovered, not a living man, but a corpse! Three or four days +must have passed since the death of the burly man in the Chinese tunic +and painted cap. Some people thought it was a trick designed to insult +the Allies, in whose honor the ball was got up. Others were of opinion +that it was nothing worse than a daring and cynical jocularity which, +shocking as it was, might yet be forgiven to the high spirits and +irrepressible buffoonery of youth. Others, again, fewer in number, and +mystically given, insisted that the corpse was _bona fide_ +necessary to the exhibition, and that the disclosures and allusions +which had astonished so many people were distinctly due to necromancy. + +"The matter, however, is now in the hands of the police," observed +Monsieur Carmaignac, "and we are not the body they were two or three +months ago, if the offenders against propriety and public feeling are +not traced and convicted, unless, indeed, they have been a great deal +more cunning than such fools generally are." + +I was thinking within myself how utterly inexplicable was my colloquy +with the conjuror, so cavalierly dismissed by Monsieur Carmaignac as a +"fool"; and the more I thought the more marvelous it seemed. + +"It certainly was an original joke, though not a very clear one," said +Whistlewick. + +"Not even original," said Carmaignac. "Very nearly the same thing was +done, a hundred years ago or more, at a state ball in Paris; and the +rascals who played the trick were never found out." + +In this Monsieur Carmaignac, as I afterwards discovered, spoke truly; +for, among my books of French anecdote and memoirs, the very incident is +marked by my own hand. + +While we were thus talking the waiter told us that dinner was served, +and we withdrew accordingly; my guests more than making amends for my +comparative taciturnity. + + + + +Chapter XVIII + +THE CHURCHYARD + + +Our dinner was really good, so were the wines; better, perhaps, at this +out-of-the-way inn, than at some of the more pretentious hotels in +Paris. The moral effect of a really good dinner is immense--we all felt +it. The serenity and good nature that follow are more solid and +comfortable than the tumultuous benevolences of Bacchus. + +My friends were happy, therefore, and very chatty; which latter relieved +me of the trouble of talking, and prompted them to entertain me and one +another incessantly with agreeable stories and conversation, of which, +until suddenly a subject emerged which interested me powerfully, I +confess, so much were my thoughts engaged elsewhere, I heard next to +nothing. + +"Yes," said Carmaignac, continuing a conversation which had escaped me, +"there was another case, beside that Russian nobleman, odder still. I +remembered it this morning, but cannot recall the name. He was a tenant +of the very same room. By-the-by, Monsieur, might it not be as well," he +added, turning to me with a laugh, half joke whole earnest, as they say, +"if you were to get into another apartment, now that the house is no +longer crowded? that is, if you mean to make any stay here." + +"A thousand thanks! no. I'm thinking of changing my hotel; and I can run +into town so easily at night; and though I stay here for this night at +least, I don't expect to vanish like those others. But you say there is +another adventure, of the same kind, connected with the same room. Do +let us hear it. But take some wine first." + +The story he told was curious. + +"It happened," said Carmaignac, "as well as I recollect, before either +of the other cases. A French gentleman--I wish I could remember his +name--the son of a merchant, came to this inn (the Dragon Volant), +and was put by the landlord into the same room of which we have been +speaking. _Your_ apartment, Monsieur. He was by no means young--past +forty--and very far from good-looking. The people here said that he was +the ugliest man, and the most good-natured, that ever lived. He played +on the fiddle, sang, and wrote poetry. His habits were odd and desultory. +He would sometimes sit all day in his room writing, singing, and +fiddling, and go out at night for a walk. An eccentric man! He was +by no means a millionaire, but he had a _modicum bonum_, you +understand--a trifle more than half a million of francs. He consulted +his stockbroker about investing this money in foreign stocks, and drew +the entire sum from his banker. You now have the situation of affairs +when the catastrophe occurred." + +"Pray fill your glass," I said. + +"Dutch courage, Monsieur, to face the catastrophe!" said Whistlewick, +filling his own. + +"Now, that was the last that ever was heard of his money," resumed +Carmaignac. "You shall hear about himself. The night after this +financial operation he was seized with a poetic frenzy: he sent for the +then landlord of this house, and told him that he long meditated an +epic, and meant to commence that night, and that he was on no account to +be disturbed until nine o'clock in the morning. He had two pairs of wax +candles, a little cold supper on a side-table, his desk open, paper +enough upon it to contain the entire Henriade, and a proportionate store +of pens and ink. + +"Seated at this desk he was seen by the waiter who brought him a cup of +coffee at nine o'clock, at which time the intruder said he was writing +fast enough to set fire to the paper--that was his phrase; he did not +look up, he appeared too much engrossed. But when the waiter came back, +half an hour afterwards, the door was locked; and the poet, from within, +answered that he must not be disturbed. + +"Away went the _garcon_, and next morning at nine o'clock knocked +at his door and, receiving no answer, looked through the key-hole; the +lights were still burning, the window-shutters were closed as he had +left them; he renewed his knocking, knocked louder, no answer came. He +reported this continued and alarming silence to the innkeeper, who, +finding that his guest had not left his key in the lock, succeeded in +finding another that opened it. The candles were just giving up the +ghost in their sockets, but there was light enough to ascertain that the +tenant of the room was gone! The bed had not been disturbed; the +window-shutter was barred. He must have let himself out, and, locking +the door on the outside, put the key in his pocket, and so made his way +out of the house. Here, however, was another difficulty: the Dragon +Volant shut its doors and made all fast at twelve o'clock; after that +hour no one could leave the house, except by obtaining the key and +letting himself out, and of necessity leaving the door unsecured, or +else by collusion and aid of some person in the house. + +"Now it happened that, some time after the doors were secured, at +half-past twelve, a servant who had not been apprised of his order to be +left undisturbed, seeing a light shine through the key-hole, knocked at +the door to inquire whether the poet wanted anything. He was very little +obliged to his disturber, and dismissed him with a renewed charge that +he was not to be interrupted again during the night. This incident +established the fact that he was in the house after the doors had been +locked and barred. The inn-keeper himself kept the keys, and swore that +he found them hung on the wall above his head, in his bed, in their +usual place, in the morning; and that nobody could have taken them away +without awakening him. That was all we could discover. The Count de St. +Alyre, to whom this house belongs, was very active and very much +chagrined. But nothing was discovered." + +"And nothing heard since of the epic poet?" I asked. + +"Nothing--not the slightest clue--he never turned up again. I suppose he +is dead; if he is not, he must have got into some devilish bad scrape, +of which we have heard nothing, that compelled him to abscond with all +the secrecy and expedition in his power. All that we know for certain is +that, having occupied the room in which you sleep, he vanished, nobody +ever knew how, and never was heard of since." + +"You have now mentioned three cases," I said, "and all from the same +room." + +"Three. Yes, all equally unintelligible. When men are murdered, the +great and immediate difficulty the assassins encounter is how to conceal +the body. It is very hard to believe that three persons should have been +consecutively murdered in the same room, and their bodies so effectually +disposed of that no trace of them was ever discovered." + +From this we passed to other topics, and the grave Monsieur Carmaignac +amused us with a perfectly prodigious collection of scandalous anecdote, +which his opportunities in the police department had enabled him to +accumulate. + +My guests happily had engagements in Paris, and left me about ten. + +I went up to my room, and looked out upon the grounds of the Chateau de +la Carque. The moonlight was broken by clouds, and the view of the park +in this desultory light acquired a melancholy and fantastic character. + +The strange anecdotes recounted of the room in which I stood by Monsieur +Carmaignac returned vaguely upon my mind, drowning in sudden shadows the +gaiety of the more frivolous stories with which he had followed them. I +looked round me on the room that lay in ominous gloom, with an almost +disagreeable sensation. I took my pistols now with an undefined +apprehension that they might be really needed before my return tonight. +This feeling, be it understood, in no wise chilled my ardor. Never had +my enthusiasm mounted higher. My adventure absorbed and carried me away; +but it added a strange and stern excitement to the expedition. + +I loitered for a time in my room. I had ascertained the exact point at +which the little churchyard lay. It was about a mile away. I did not +wish to reach it earlier than necessary. + +I stole quietly out and sauntered along the road to my left, and thence +entered a narrower track, still to my left, which, skirting the park +wall and describing a circuitous route all the way, under grand old +trees, passes the ancient cemetery. That cemetery is embowered in trees +and occupies little more than half an acre of ground to the left of the +road, interposing between it and the park of the Chateau de la Carque. + +Here, at this haunted spot, I paused and listened. The place was utterly +silent. A thick cloud had darkened the moon, so that I could distinguish +little more than the outlines of near objects, and that vaguely enough; +and sometimes, as it were, floating in black fog, the white surface of a +tombstone emerged. + +Among the forms that met my eye against the iron-grey of the horizon, +were some of those shrubs or trees that grow like our junipers, some six +feet high, in form like a miniature poplar, with the darker foliage of +the yew. I do not know the name of the plant, but I have often seen it +in such funereal places. + +Knowing that I was a little too early, I sat down upon the edge of a +tombstone to wait, as, for aught I knew, the beautiful Countess might +have wise reasons for not caring that I should enter the grounds of the +chateau earlier than she had appointed. In the listless state induced by +waiting, I sat there, with my eyes on the object straight before me, +which chanced to be that faint black outline I have described. It was +right before me, about half-a-dozen steps away. + +The moon now began to escape from under the skirt of the cloud that had +hid her face for so long; and, as the light gradually improved, the tree +on which I had been lazily staring began to take a new shape. It was no +longer a tree, but a man standing motionless. Brighter and brighter grew +the moonlight, clearer and clearer the image became, and at last stood +out perfectly distinctly. It was Colonel Gaillarde. Luckily, he was not +looking toward me. I could only see him in profile; but there was no +mistaking the white moustache, the _farouche_ visage, and the gaunt +six-foot stature. There he was, his shoulder toward me, listening and +watching, plainly, for some signal or person expected, straight in front +of him. + +If he were, by chance, to turn his eyes in my direction, I knew that I +must reckon upon an instantaneous renewal of the combat only commenced +in the hall of Belle Etoile. In any case, could malignant fortune have +posted, at this place and hour, a more dangerous watcher? What ecstasy +to him, by a single discovery, to hit me so hard, and blast the Countess +de St. Alyre, whom he seemed to hate. + +He raised his arm; he whistled softly; I heard an answering whistle as +low; and, to my relief, the Colonel advanced in the direction of this +sound, widening the distance between us at every step; and immediately I +heard talking, but in a low and cautious key. I recognized, I thought, +even so, the peculiar voice of Gaillarde. I stole softly forward in the +direction in which those sounds were audible. In doing so, I had, of +course, to use the extremest caution. + +I thought I saw a hat above a jagged piece of ruined wall, and then a +second--yes, I saw two hats conversing; the voices came from under them. +They moved off, not in the direction of the park, but of the road, and I +lay along the grass, peeping over a grave, as a skirmisher might +observing the enemy. One after the other, the figures emerged full into +view as they mounted the stile at the roadside. The Colonel, who was +last, stood on the wall for awhile, looking about him, and then jumped +down on the road. I heard their steps and talk as they moved away +together, with their backs toward me, in the direction which led them +farther and farther from the Dragon Volant. + +I waited until these sounds were quite lost in distance before I entered +the park. I followed the instructions I had received from the Countess +de St. Alyre, and made my way among brushwood and thickets to the point +nearest the ruinous temple, and crossed the short intervening space of +open ground rapidly. + +I was now once more under the gigantic boughs of the old lime and +chestnut trees; softly, and with a heart throbbing fast, I approached +the little structure. + +The moon was now shining steadily, pouring down its radiance on the soft +foliage, and here and there mottling the verdure under my feet. + +I reached the steps; I was among its worn marble shafts. She was not +there, nor in the inner sanctuary, the arched windows of which were +screened almost entirely by masses of ivy. The lady had not yet arrived. + + + + +Chapter XIX + +THE KEY + + +I stood now upon the steps, watching and listening. In a minute or two I +heard the crackle of withered sticks trod upon, and, looking in the +direction, I saw a figure approaching among the trees, wrapped in a +mantle. + +I advanced eagerly. It was the Countess. She did not speak, but gave me +her hand, and I led her to the scene of our last interview. She +repressed the ardor of my impassioned greeting with a gentle but +peremptory firmness. She removed her hood, shook back her beautiful +hair, and, gazing on me with sad and glowing eyes, sighed deeply. Some +awful thought seemed to weigh upon her, + +"Richard, I must speak plainly. The crisis of my life has come. I am +sure you would defend me. I think you pity me; perhaps you even love +me." + +At these words I became eloquent, as young madmen in my plight do. She +silenced me, however, with the same melancholy firmness. + +"Listen, dear friend, and then say whether you can aid me. How madly I +am trusting you; and yet my heart tells me how wisely! To meet you here +as I do--what insanity it seems! How poorly you must think of me! But +when you know all, you will judge me fairly. Without your aid I cannot +accomplish my purpose. That purpose unaccomplished, I must die. I am +chained to a man whom I despise--whom I abhor. I have resolved to fly. I +have jewels, principally diamonds, for which I am offered thirty +thousand pounds of your English money. They are my separate property by +my marriage settlement; I will take them with me. You are a judge, no +doubt, of jewels. I was counting mine when the hour came, and brought +this in my hand to show you. Look." + +"It is magnificent!" I exclaimed, as a collar of diamonds twinkled and +flashed in the moonlight, suspended from her pretty fingers. I thought, +even at that tragic moment, that she prolonged the show, with a feminine +delight in these brilliant toys. + +"Yes," she said, "I shall part with them all. I will turn them into +money and break, forever, the unnatural and wicked bonds that tied me, +in the name of a sacrament, to a tyrant. A man young, handsome, +generous, brave, as you, can hardly be rich. Richard, you say you love +me; you shall share all this with me. We will fly together to +Switzerland; we will evade pursuit; in powerful friends will intervene +and arrange a separation, and shall, at length, be happy and reward my +hero." + +You may suppose the style, florid and vehement, in which poured forth my +gratitude, vowed the devotion of my life, and placed myself absolutely +at her disposal. + +"Tomorrow night," she said, "my husband will attend the remains of his +cousin, Monsieur de St. Amand, to Pere la Chaise. The hearse, he says, +will leave this at half-past nine. You must be here, where we stand, at +nine o'clock." + +I promised punctual obedience. + +"I will not meet you here; but you see a red light in the window of the +tower at that angle of the chateau?" + +I assented. + +"I placed it there, that, tomorrow night, when it comes, you may +recognize it. So soon as that rose-colored light appears at that window, +it will be a signal to you that the funeral has left the chateau, and +that you may approach safely. Come, then, to that window; I will open it +and admit you. Five minutes after a carriage-carriage, with four horses, +shall stand ready in the _porte-cochere_. I will place my diamonds +in your hands; and so soon as we enter the carriage our flight +commences. We shall have at least five hours' start; and with energy, +stratagem, and resource, I fear nothing. Are you ready to undertake all +this for my sake?" + +Again I vowed myself her slave. + +"My only difficulty," she said, "is how we shall quickly enough convert +my diamonds into money; I dare not remove them while my husband is in +the house." + +Here was the opportunity I wished for. I now told her that I had in my +banker's hands no less a sum than thirty thousand pounds, with which, in +the shape of gold and notes, I should come furnished, and thus the risk +and loss of disposing of her diamonds in too much haste would be +avoided. + +"Good Heaven!" she exclaimed, with a kind of disappointment. "You are +rich, then? and I have lost the felicity of making my generous friend +more happy. Be it so! since so it must be. Let us contribute, each, in +equal shares, to our common fund. Bring you, your money; I, my jewels. +There is a happiness to me even in mingling my resources with yours." + +On this there followed a romantic colloquy, all poetry and passion, such +as I should in vain endeavor to reproduce. Then came a very special +instruction. + +"I have come provided, too, with a key, the use of which I must +explain." + +It was a double key--a long, slender stem, with a key at each end--one +about the size which opens an ordinary room door; the other as small, +almost, as the key of a dressing-case. + +"You cannot employ too much caution tomorrow night. An interruption +would murder all my hopes. I have learned that you occupy the haunted +room in the Dragon Volant. It is the very room I would have wished you +in. I will tell you why--there is a story of a man who, having shut +himself up in that room one night, disappeared before morning. The truth +is, he wanted, I believe, to escape from creditors; and the host of the +Dragon Volant at that time, being a rogue, aided him in absconding. My +husband investigated the matter, and discovered how his escape was made. +It was by means of this key. Here is a memorandum and a plan describing +how they are to be applied. I have taken them from the Count's +escritoire. And now, once more I must leave to your ingenuity how to +mystify the people at the Dragon Volant. Be sure you try the keys first, +to see that the locks turn freely. I will have my jewels ready. You, +whatever we divide, had better bring your money, because it may be many +months before you can revisit Paris, or disclose our place of residence +to anyone: and our passports--arrange all that; in what names, and +whither, you please. And now, dear Richard" (she leaned her arm fondly +on my shoulder, and looked with ineffable passion in my eyes, with her +other hand clasped in mine), "my very life is in your hands; I have +staked all on your fidelity." + +As she spoke the last word, she, on a sudden, grew deadly pale, and +gasped, "Good God! who is here?" + +At the same moment she receded through the door in the marble screen, +close to which she stood, and behind which was a small roofless chamber, +as small as the shrine, the window of which was darkened by a clustering +mass of ivy so dense that hardly a gleam of light came through the +leaves. + +I stood upon the threshold which she had just crossed, looking in the +direction in which she had thrown that one terrified glance. No wonder +she was frightened. Quite close upon us, not twenty yards away, and +approaching at a quick step, very distinctly lighted by the moon, +Colonel Gaillarde and his companion were coming. The shadow of the +cornice and a piece of wall were upon me. Unconscious of this, I was +expecting the moment when, with one of his frantic yells, he should +spring forward to assail me. + +I made a step backward, drew one of my pistols from my pocket, and +cocked it. It was obvious he had not seen me. + +I stood, with my finger on the trigger, determined to shoot him dead if +he should attempt to enter the place where the Countess was. It would, +no doubt, have been a murder; but, in my mind, I had no question or +qualm about it. When once we engage in secret and guilty practices we +are nearer other and greater crimes than we at all suspect. + +"There's the statue," said the Colonel, in his brief discordant tones. +"That's the figure." + +"Alluded to in the stanzas?" inquired his companion. + +"The very thing. We shall see more next time. Forward, Monsieur; let us +march." And, much to my relief, the gallant Colonel turned on his heel +and marched through the trees, with his back toward the chateau, +striding over the grass, as I quickly saw, to the park wall, which they +crossed not far from the gables of the Dragon Volant. + +I found the Countess trembling in no affected, but a very real terror. +She would not hear of my accompanying her toward the chateau. But I told +her that I would prevent the return of the mad Colonel; and upon that +point, at least, that she need fear nothing. She quickly recovered, +again bade me a fond and lingering good-night, and left me, gazing after +her, with the key in my hand, and such a phantasmagoria floating in my +brain as amounted very nearly to madness. + +There was I, ready to brave all dangers, all right and reason, plunge +into murder itself, on the first summons, and entangle myself in +consequences inextricable and horrible (what cared I?) for a woman of +whom I knew nothing, but that she was beautiful and reckless! + +I have often thanked heaven for its mercy in conducting me through the +labyrinths in which I had all but lost myself. + + + + +Chapter XX + +A HIGH-CAULD-CAP + + +I was now upon the road, within two or three hundred yards of the Dragon +Volant. I had undertaken an adventure with a vengeance! And by way of +prelude, there not improbably awaited me, at my inn, another encounter, +perhaps, this time, not so lucky, with the grotesque sabreur. + +I was glad I had my pistols. I certainly was bound by no law to allow a +ruffian to cut me down, unresisting. + +Stooping boughs from the old park, gigantic poplars on the other side, +and the moonlight over all, made the narrow road to the inn-door +picturesque. + +I could not think very clearly just now; events were succeeding one +another so rapidly, and I, involved in the action of a drama so +extravagant and guilty, hardly knew myself or believed my own story, as +I slowly paced towards the still open door of the Flying Dragon. No sign +of the Colonel, visible or audible, was there. In the hall I inquired. +No gentleman had arrived at the inn for the last half hour. I looked +into the public room. It was deserted. The clock struck twelve, and I +heard the servant barring the great door. I took my candle. The lights +in this rural hostelry were by this time out, and the house had the air +of one that had settled to slumber for many hours. The cold moonlight +streamed in at the window on the landing as I ascended the broad +staircase; and I paused for a moment to look over the wooded grounds to +the turreted chateau, to me, so full of interest. I bethought me, +however, that prying eyes might read a meaning in this midnight gazing, +and possibly the Count himself might, in his jealous mood, surmise a +signal in this unwonted light in the stair-window of the Dragon Volant. + +On opening my room door, with a little start, I met an extremely old +woman with the longest face I ever saw; she had what used to be termed a +high-cauld-cap on, the white border of which contrasted with her brown +and yellow skin, and made her wrinkled face more ugly. She raised her +curved shoulders, and looked up in my face, with eyes unnaturally black +and bright. + +"I have lighted a little wood, Monsieur, because the night is chill." + +I thanked her, but she did not go. She stood with her candle in her +tremulous fingers. + +"Excuse an old woman, Monsieur," she said; "but what on earth can a +young English _milord_, with all Paris at his feet, find to amuse +him in the Dragon Volant?" + +Had I been at the age of fairy tales, and in daily intercourse with the +delightful Countess d'Aulnois, I should have seen in this withered +apparition, the _genius loci_, the malignant fairy, at the stamp of +whose foot the ill-fated tenants of this very room had, from time to +time, vanished. I was past that, however; but the old woman's dark eyes +were fixed on mine with a steady meaning that plainly told me that my +secret was known. I was embarrassed and alarmed; I never thought of +asking her what business that was of hers. + +"These old eyes saw you in the park of the chateau tonight." + +"_I_!" I began, with all the scornful surprise I could affect. + +"It avails nothing, Monsieur; I know why you stay here; and I tell you +to begone. Leave this house tomorrow morning, and never come again." + +She lifted her disengaged hand, as she looked at me with intense horror +in her eyes. + +"There is nothing on earth--I don't know what you mean," I answered, +"and why should you care about me?" + +"I don't care about you, Monsieur--I care about the honor of an ancient +family, whom I served in their happier days, when to be noble was to be +honored. But my words are thrown away, Monsieur; you are insolent. I +will keep my secret, and you, yours; that is all. You will soon find it +hard enough to divulge it." + +The old woman went slowly from the room and shut the door, before I had +made up my mind to say anything. I was standing where she had left me, +nearly five minutes later. The jealousy of Monsieur the Count, I +assumed, appears to this old creature about the most terrible thing in +creation. Whatever contempt I might entertain for the dangers which this +old lady so darkly intimated, it was by no means pleasant, you may +suppose, that a secret so dangerous should be so much as suspected by a +stranger, and that stranger a partisan of the Count de St. Alyre. + +Ought I not, at all risks, to apprise the Countess, who had trusted me +so generously, or, as she said herself, so madly, of the fact that our +secret was, at least, suspected by another? But was there not greater +danger in attempting to communicate? What did the beldame mean by +saying, "Keep your secret, and I'll keep mine?" + +I had a thousand distracting questions before me. My progress seemed +like a journey through the Spessart, where at every step some new goblin +or monster starts from the ground or steps from behind a tree. + +Peremptorily I dismissed these harassing and frightful doubts. I secured +my door, sat myself down at my table and, with a candle at each side, +placed before me the piece of vellum which contained the drawings and +notes on which I was to rely for full instructions as to how to use the +key. + +When I had studied this for awhile I made my investigation. The angle of +the room at the right side of the window was cut off by an oblique turn +in the wainscot. I examined this carefully, and, on pressure, a small +bit of the frame of the woodwork slid aside, and disclosed a key-hole. +On removing my finger, it shot back to its place again, with a spring. +So far I had interpreted my instructions successfully. A similar search, +next the door, and directly under this, was rewarded by a like +discovery. The small end of the key fitted this, as it had the upper +key-hole; and now, with two or three hard jerks at the key, a door in +the panel opened, showing a strip of the bare wall and a narrow, arched +doorway, piercing the thickness of the wall; and within which I saw a +screw staircase of stone. + +Candle in hand I stepped in. I do not know whether the quality of air, +long undisturbed, is peculiar; to me it has always seemed so, and the +damp smell of the old masonry hung in this atmosphere. My candle faintly +lighted the bare stone wall that enclosed the stair, the foot of which I +could not see. Down I went, and a few turns brought me to the stone +floor. Here was another door, of the simple, old, oak kind, deep sunk in +the thickness of the wall. The large end of the key fitted this. The +lock was stiff; I set the candle down upon the stair, and applied both +hands; it turned with difficulty and, as it revolved, uttered a shriek +that alarmed me for my secret. + +For some minutes I did not move. In a little time, however, I took +courage, and opened the door. The night-air floating in puffed out the +candle. There was a thicket of holly and underwood, as dense as a +jungle, close about the door. I should have been in pitch-darkness, were +it not that through the topmost leaves there twinkled, here and there, a +glimmer of moonshine. + +Softly, lest anyone should have opened his window at the sound of the +rusty bolt, I struggled through this till I gained a view of the open +grounds. Here I found that the brushwood spread a good way up the park, +uniting with the wood that approached the little temple I have +described. + +A general could not have chosen a more effectually-covered approach from +the Dragon Volant to the trysting-place where hitherto I had conferred +with the idol of my lawless adoration. + +Looking back upon the old inn I discovered that the stair I descended +was enclosed in one of those slender turrets that decorate such +buildings. It was placed at that angle which corresponded with the part +of the paneling of my room indicated in the plan I had been studying. + +Thoroughly satisfied with my experiment I made my way back to the door +with some little difficulty, remounted to my room, locked my secret door +again; kissed the mysterious key that her hand had pressed that night, +and placed it under my pillow, upon which, very soon after, my giddy +head was laid, not, for some time, to sleep soundly. + + + + +Chapter XXI + +I SEE THREE MEN IN A MIRROR + + +I awoke very early next morning, and was too excited to sleep again. As +soon as I could, without exciting remark, I saw my host. I told him that +I was going into town that night, and thence to ----, where I had to see +some people on business, and requested him to mention my being there to +any friend who might call. That I expected to be back in about a week, +and that in the meantime my servant, St. Clair, would keep the key of my +room and look after my things. + +Having prepared this mystification for my landlord, I drove into Paris, +and there transacted the financial part of the affair. The problem was +to reduce my balance, nearly thirty thousand pounds, to a shape in which +it would be not only easily portable, but available, wherever I might +go, without involving correspondence, or any other incident which would +disclose my place of residence for the time being. All these points were +as nearly provided for as, they could be. I need not trouble you about +my arrangements for passports. It is enough to say that the point I +selected for our flight was, in the spirit of romance, one of the most +beautiful and sequestered nooks in Switzerland. + +Luggage, I should start with none. The first considerable town we +reached next morning, would supply an extemporized wardrobe. It was now +two o'clock; _only_ two! How on earth was I to dispose of the +remainder of the day? + +I had not yet seen the cathedral of Notre Dame, and thither I drove. I +spent an hour or more there; and then to the Conciergerie, the Palais de +Justice, and the beautiful Sainte Chapelle. Still there remained some +time to get rid of, and I strolled into the narrow streets adjoining the +cathedral. I recollect seeing, in one of them, an old house with a mural +inscription stating that it had been the residence of Canon Fulbert, the +uncle of Abelard's Eloise. I don't know whether these curious old +streets, in which I observed fragments of ancient Gothic churches fitted +up as warehouses, are still extant. I lighted, among other dingy and +eccentric shops, upon one that seemed that of a broker of all sorts of +old decorations, armor, china, furniture. I entered the shop; it was +dark, dusty, and low. The proprietor was busy scouring a piece of inlaid +armor, and allowed me to poke about his shop, and examine the curious +things accumulated there, just as I pleased. Gradually I made my way to +the farther end of it, where there was but one window with many panes, +each with a bull's eye in it, and in the dirtiest Possible state. When I +reached this window, I turned about, and in a recess, standing at right +angles with the side wall of the shop, was a large mirror in an +old-fashioned dingy frame. Reflected in this I saw what in old houses I +have heard termed an "alcove," in which, among lumber and various dusty +articles hanging on the wall, there stood a table, at which three +persons were seated, as it seemed to me, in earnest conversation. Two of +these persons I instantly recognized; one was Colonel Gaillarde, the +other was the Marquis d'Harmonville. The third, who was fiddling with a +pen, was a lean, pale man, pitted with the small-pox, with lank black +hair, and about as mean-looking a person as I had ever seen in my life. +The Marquis looked up, and his glance was instantaneously followed by +his two companions. For a moment I hesitated what to do. But it was +plain that I was not recognized, as indeed I could hardly have been, the +light from the window being behind me, and the portion of the shop +immediately before me being very dark indeed. + +Perceiving this, I had presence of mind to affect being entirely +engrossed by the objects before me, and strolled slowly down the shop +again. I paused for a moment to hear whether I was followed, and was +relieved when I heard no step. You may be sure I did not waste more time +in that shop, where I had just made a discovery so curious and so +unexpected. + +It was no business of mine to inquire what brought Colonel Gaillarde and +the Marquis together, in so shabby and even dirty a place, or who the +mean person, biting the feather end of his pen, might be. Such +employments as the Marquis had accepted sometimes make strange +bed-fellows. + +I was glad to get away, and just as the sun set I had reached the steps +of the Dragon Volant, and dismissed the vehicle in which I arrived, +carrying in my hand a strong box, of marvelously small dimensions +considering all it contained, strapped in a leather cover which +disguised its real character. + +When I got to my room I summoned St. Clair. I told him nearly the same +story I had already told my host. I gave him fifty pounds, with orders +to expend whatever was necessary on himself, and in payment for my rooms +till my return. I then ate a slight and hasty dinner. My eyes were often +upon the solemn old clock over the chimney-piece, which was my sole +accomplice in keeping tryst in this iniquitous venture. The sky favored +my design, and darkened all things with a sea of clouds. + +The innkeeper met me in the hall, to ask whether I should want a vehicle +to Paris? I was prepared for this question, and instantly answered that +I meant to walk to Versailles and take a carriage there. I called St. +Clair. + +"Go," said I, "and drink a bottle of wine with your friends. I shall +call you if I should want anything; in the meantime, here is the key to +my room; I shall be writing some notes, so don't allow anyone to disturb +me for at least half an hour. At the end of that time you will probably +find that I have left this for Versailles; and should you not find me in +the room, you may take that for granted; and you take charge of +everything, and lock the door, you understand?" + +St. Clair took his leave, wishing me all happiness, and no doubt +promising himself some little amusement with my money. With my candle in +my hand, I hastened upstairs. It wanted now but five minutes to the +appointed time. I do not think there is anything of the coward in my +nature; but I confess, as the crisis approached, I felt something of the +suspense and awe of a soldier going into action. Would I have receded? +Not for all this earth could offer. + +I bolted my door, put on my greatcoat, and placed my pistols one in each +pocket. I now applied my key to the secret locks; drew the wainscot door +a little open, took my strong box under my arm, extinguished my candle, +unbolted my door, listened at it for a few moments to be sure that no +one was approaching, and then crossed the floor of my room swiftly, +entered the secret door, and closed the spring lock after me. I was upon +the screw-stair in total darkness, the key in my fingers. Thus far the +undertaking was successful. + + + + +Chapter XXII + +RAPTURE + + +Down the screw-stair I went in utter darkness; and having reached the +stone floor I discerned the door and groped out the key-hole. With more +caution, and less noise than upon the night before, I opened the door +and stepped out into the thick brushwood. It was almost as dark in this +jungle. + +Having secured the door I slowly pushed my way through the bushes, which +soon became less dense. Then, with more case, but still under thick +cover, I pursued in the track of the wood, keeping near its edge. + +At length, in the darkened air, about fifty yards away, the shafts of +the marble temple rose like phantoms before me, seen through the trunks +of the old trees. Everything favored my enterprise. I had effectually +mystified my servant and the people of the Dragon Volant, and so dark +was the night, that even had I alarmed the suspicions of all the tenants +of the inn, I might safely defy their united curiosity, though posted at +every window of the house. + +Through the trunks, over the roots of the old trees, I reached the +appointed place of observation. I laid my treasure in its leathern case +in the embrasure, and leaning my arms upon it, looked steadily in the +direction of the chateau. The outline of the building was scarcely +discernible, blending dimly, as it did, with the sky. No light in any +window was visible. I was plainly to wait; but for how long? + +Leaning on my box of treasure, gazing toward the massive shadow that +represented the chateau, in the midst of my ardent and elated longings, +there came upon me an odd thought, which you will think might well have +struck me long before. It seemed on a sudden, as it came, that the +darkness deepened, and a chill stole into the air around me. + +Suppose I were to disappear finally, like those other men whose stories +I had listened to! Had I not been at all the pains that mortal could to +obliterate every trace of my real proceedings, and to mislead everyone +to whom I spoke as to the direction in which I had gone? + +This icy, snake-like thought stole through my mind, and was gone. + +It was with me the full-blooded season of youth, conscious strength, +rashness, passion, pursuit, the adventure! Here were a pair of +double-barreled pistols, four lives in my hands? What could possibly +happen? The Count--except for the sake of my dulcinea, what was it to me +whether the old coward whom I had seen, in an ague of terror before the +brawling Colonel, interposed or not? I was assuming the worst that could +happen. But with an ally so clever and courageous as my beautiful +Countess, could any such misadventure befall? Bah! I laughed at all such +fancies. + +As I thus communed with myself, the signal light sprang up. The +rose-colored light, _couleur de rose_, emblem of sanguine hope and +the dawn of a happy day. + +Clear, soft, and steady, glowed the light from the window. The stone +shafts showed black against it. Murmuring words of passionate love as I +gazed upon the signal, I grasped my strong box under my arm, and with +rapid strides approached the Chateau de la Carque. No sign of light or +life, no human voice, no tread of foot, no bark of dog indicated a +chance of interruption. A blind was down; and as I came close to the +tall window, I found that half-a-dozen steps led up to it, and that a +large lattice, answering for a door, lay open. + +A shadow from within fell upon the blind; it was drawn aside, and as I +ascended the steps, a soft voice murmured--"Richard, dearest Richard, +come, oh! come! how I have longed for this moment!" + +Never did she look so beautiful. My love rose to passionate enthusiasm. +I only wished there were some real danger in the adventure worthy of +such a creature. When the first tumultuous greeting was over, she made +me sit beside her on a sofa. There we talked for a minute or two. She +told me that the Count had gone, and was by that time more than a mile +on his way, with the funeral, to Pere la Chaise. Here were her diamonds. +She exhibited, hastily, an open casket containing a profusion of the +largest brilliants. + +"What is this?" she asked. + +"A box containing money to the amount of thirty thousand pounds," I +answered. + +"What! all that money?" she exclaimed. + +"Every _sou_." + +"Was it not unnecessary to bring so much, seeing all these?" she said, +touching her diamonds. "It would have been kind of you to allow me to +provide for both, for a time at least. It would have made me happier +even than I am." + +"Dearest, generous angel!" Such was my extravagant declamation. "You +forget that it may be necessary, for a long time, to observe silence as +to where we are, and impossible to communicate safely with anyone." + +"You have then here this great sum--are you certain; have you counted +it?" + +"Yes, certainly; I received it today," I answered, perhaps showing a +little surprise in my face. "I counted it, of course, on drawing it from +my bankers." + +"It makes me feel a little nervous, traveling with so much money; but +these jewels make as great a danger; that can add but little to it. +Place them side by side; you shall take off your greatcoat when we are +ready to go, and with it manage to conceal these boxes. I should not +like the drivers to suspect that we were conveying such a treasure. I +must ask you now to close the curtains of that window, and bar the +shutters." + +I had hardly done this when a knock was heard at the room door. + +"I know who this is," she said, in a whisper to me. + +I saw that she was not alarmed. She went softly to the door, and a +whispered conversation for a minute followed. + +"My trusty maid, who is coming with us. She says we cannot safely go +sooner than ten minutes. She is bringing some coffee to the next room." + +She opened the door and looked in. + +"I must tell her not to take too much luggage. She is so odd! Don't +follow--stay where you are--it is better that she should not see you." + +She left the room with a gesture of caution. + +A change had come over the manner of this beautiful woman. For the last +few minutes a shadow had been stealing over her, an air of abstraction, +a look bordering on suspicion. Why was she pale? Why had there come that +dark look in her eyes? Why had her very voice become changed? Had +anything gone suddenly wrong? Did some danger threaten? + +This doubt, however, speedily quieted itself. If there had been anything +of the kind, she would, of course, have told me. It was only natural +that, as the crisis approached, she should become more and more nervous. +She did not return quite so soon as I had expected. To a man in my +situation absolute quietude is next to impossible. I moved restlessly +about the room. It was a small one. There was a door at the other end. I +opened it, rashly enough. I listened, it was perfectly silent. I was in +an excited, eager state, and every faculty engrossed about what was +coming, and in so far detached from the immediate present. I can't +account, in any other way, for my having done so many foolish things +that night, for I was, naturally, by no means deficient in cunning. +About the most stupid of those was, that instead of immediately closing +that door, which I never ought to have opened, I actually took a candle +and walked into the room. + +There I made, quite unexpectedly, a rather startling discovery. + + + + +Chapter XXIII + +A CUP OF COFFEE + + +The room was carpetless. On the floor were a quantity of shavings, and +some score of bricks. Beyond these, on a narrow table, lay an object +which I could hardly believe I saw aright. + +I approached and drew from it a sheet which had very slightly disguised +its shape. There was no mistake about it. It was a coffin; and on the +lid was a plate, with the inscription in French: + + PIERRE DE LA ROCHE ST. AMAND. + AGE DE XXIII ANS. + + +I drew back with a double shock. So, then, the funeral after all had not +yet left! Here lay the body. I had been deceived. This, no doubt, +accounted for the embarrassment so manifest in the Countess's manner. +She would have done more wisely had she told me the true state of the +case. + +I drew back from this melancholy room, and closed the door. Her distrust +of me was the worst rashness she could have committed. There is nothing +more dangerous than misapplied caution. In entire ignorance of the fact +I had entered the room, and there I might have lighted upon some of the +very persons it was our special anxiety that I should avoid. + +These reflections were interrupted, almost as soon as began, by the +return of the Countess de St. Alyre. I saw at a glance that she detected +in my face some evidence of what had happened, for she threw a hasty +look towards the door. + +"Have you seen anything--anything to disturb you, dear Richard? Have you +been out of this room?" + +I answered promptly, "Yes," and told her frankly what had happened. + +"Well, I did not like to make you more uneasy than necessary. Besides, +it is disgusting and horrible. The body is there; but the Count had +departed a quarter of an hour before I lighted the colored lamp, and +prepared to receive you. The body did not arrive till eight or ten +minutes after he had set out. He was afraid lest the people at Pere la +Chaise should suppose that the funeral was postponed. He knew that the +remains of poor Pierre would certainly reach this tonight, although an +unexpected delay has occurred; and there are reasons why he wishes the +funeral completed before tomorrow. The hearse with the body must leave +this in ten minutes. So soon as it is gone, we shall be free to set out +upon our wild and happy journey. The horses are to the carriage in the +_porte-cochere_. As for this _funeste_ horror" (she shuddered +very prettily), "let us think of it no more." + +She bolted the door of communication, and when she turned it was with +such a pretty penitence in her face and attitude, that I was ready to +throw myself at her feet. + +"It is the last time," she said, in a sweet sad little pleading, "I +shall ever practice a deception on my brave and beautiful Richard--my +hero! Am I forgiven?" + +Here was another scene of passionate effusion, and lovers' raptures and +declamations, but only murmured lest the ears of listeners should be +busy. + +At length, on a sudden, she raised her hand, as if to prevent my +stirring, her eyes fixed on me and her ear toward the door of the room +in which the coffin was placed, and remained breathless in that attitude +for a few moments. Then, with a little nod towards me, she moved on +tip-toe to the door, and listened, extending her hand backward as if to +warn me against advancing; and, after a little time, she returned, still +on tip-toe, and whispered to me, "They are removing the coffin--come +with me." + +I accompanied her into the room from which her maid, as she told me, had +spoken to her. Coffee and some old china cups, which appeared to me +quite beautiful, stood on a silver tray; and some liqueur glasses, with +a flask, which turned out to be noyau, on a salver beside it. + +"I shall attend you. I'm to be your servant here; I am to have my own +way; I shall not think myself forgiven by my darling if he refuses to +indulge me in anything." + +She filled a cup with coffee and handed it to me with her left hand; her +right arm she fondly passed over my shoulder, and with her fingers +through my curls, caressingly, she whispered, "Take this, I shall take +some just now." + +It was excellent; and when I had done she handed me the liqueur, which I +also drank. + +"Come back, dearest, to the next room," she said. "By this time those +terrible people must have gone away, and we shall be safer there, for +the present, than here." + +"You shall direct, and I obey; you shall command me, not only now, but +always, and in all things, my beautiful queen!" I murmured. + +My heroics were unconsciously, I daresay, founded upon my ideal of the +French school of lovemaking. I am, even now, ashamed as I recall the +bombast to which I treated the Countess de St. Alyre. + +"There, you shall have another miniature glass--a fairy glass--of +noyau," she said gaily. In this volatile creature, the funereal gloom of +the moment before, and the suspense of an adventure on which all her +future was staked, disappeared in a moment. She ran and returned with +another tiny glass, which, with an eloquent or tender little speech, I +placed to my lips and sipped. + +I kissed her hand, I kissed her lips, I gazed in her beautiful eyes, and +kissed her again unresisting. + +"You call me Richard, by what name am I to call my beautiful divinity?" +I asked. + +"You call me Eugenie, it is my name. Let us be quite real; that is, if +you love as entirely as I do." + +"Eugenie!" I exclaimed, and broke into a new rapture upon the name. + +It ended by my telling her how impatient I was to set out upon our +journey; and, as I spoke, suddenly an odd sensation overcame me. It was +not in the slightest degree like faintness. I can find no phrase to +describe it, but a sudden constraint of the brain; it was as if the +membrane in which it lies, if there be such a thing, contracted, and +became inflexible. + +"Dear Richard! what is the matter?" she exclaimed, with terror in her +looks. "Good Heavens! are you ill? I conjure you, sit down; sit in this +chair." She almost forced me into one; I was in no condition to offer +the least resistance. I recognized but too truly the sensations that +supervened. I was lying back in the chair in which I sat, without the +power, by this time, of uttering a syllable, of closing my eyelids, of +moving my eyes, of stirring a muscle. I had in a few seconds glided into +precisely the state in which I had passed so many appalling hours when +approaching Paris, in my night-drive with the Marquis d'Harmonville. + +Great and loud was the lady's agony. She seemed to have lost all sense +of fear. She called me by my name, shook me by the shoulder, raised my +arm and let it fall, all the time imploring of me, in distracting +sentences, to make the slightest sign of life, and vowing that if I did +not, she would make away with herself. + +These ejaculations, after a minute or two, suddenly subsided. The lady +was perfectly silent and cool. In a very business-like way she took a +candle and stood before me, pale indeed, very pale, but with an +expression only of intense scrutiny with a dash of horror in it. She +moved the candle before my eyes slowly, evidently watching the effect. +She then set it down, and rang a handball two or three times sharply. +She placed the two cases (I mean hers containing the jewels and my +strong box) side by side on the table; and I saw her carefully lock the +door that gave access to the room in which I had just now sipped my +coffee. + + + + +Chapter XXIV + +HOPE + + +She had scarcely set down my heavy box, which she seemed to have +considerable difficulty in raising on the table, when the door of the +room in which I had seen the coffin, opened, and a sinister and +unexpected apparition entered. + +It was the Count de St. Alyre, who had been, as I have told you, +reported to me to be, for some considerable time, on his way to Pee la +Chaise. He stood before me for a moment, with the frame of the doorway +and a background of darkness enclosing him like a portrait. His slight, +mean figure was draped in the deepest mourning. He had a pair of black +gloves in his hand, and his hat with crape round it. + +When he was not speaking his face showed signs of agitation; his mouth +was puckering and working. He looked damnably wicked and frightened. + +"Well, my dear Eugenie? Well, child--eh? Well, it all goes admirably?" + +"Yes," she answered, in a low, hard tone. "But you and Planard should +not have left that door open." + +This she said sternly. "He went in there and looked about wherever he +liked; it was fortunate he did not move aside the lid of the coffin." + +"Planard should have seen to that," said the Count, sharply. "_Ma +foi!_ I can't be everywhere!" He advanced half-a-dozen short quick +steps into the room toward me, and placed his glasses to his eyes. + +"Monsieur Beckett," he cried sharply, two or three times, "Hi! don't you +know me?" + +He approached and peered more closely in my face; raised my hand and +shook it, calling me again, then let it drop, and said: "It has set in +admirably, my pretty _mignonne_. When did it commence?" + +The Countess came and stood beside him, and looked at me steadily for +some seconds. You can't conceive the effect of the silent gaze of those +two pairs of evil eyes. + +The lady glanced to where, I recollected, the mantel piece stood, and +upon it a clock, the regular click of which I sharply heard. +"Four--five--six minutes and a half," she said slowly, in a cold hard +way. + +"Brava! Bravissima! my beautiful queen! my little Venus! my Joan of Arc! +my heroine! my paragon of women!" + +He was gloating on me with an odious curiosity, smiling, as he groped +backward with his thin brown fingers to find the lady's hand; but she, +not (I dare say) caring for his caresses, drew back a little. + +"Come, _ma chere,_ let us count these things. What is it? +Pocket-book? Or--or--_what?_" + +"It is _that_!" said the lady, pointing with a look of disgust to +the box, which lay in its leather case on the table. + +"Oh! Let us see--let us count--let us see," he said, as he was +unbuckling the straps with his tremulous fingers. "We must count +them--we must see to it. I have pencil and pocket-book--but--where's the +key? See this cursed lock! My--! What is it? Where's the key?" + +He was standing before the Countess, shuffling his feet, with his hands +extended and all his fingers quivering. + +"I have not got it; how could I? It is in his pocket, of course," said +the lady. + +In another instant the fingers of the old miscreant were in my pockets; +he plucked out everything they contained, and some keys among the rest. + +I lay in precisely the state in which I had been during my drive with +the Marquis to Paris. This wretch, I knew, was about to rob me. The +whole drama, and the Countess's _role_ in it, I could not yet +comprehend. I could not be sure--so much more presence of mind and +histrionic resource have women than fall to the lot of our clumsy +sex--whether the return of the Count was not, in truth, a surprise to +her; and this scrutiny of the contents of my strong box, an extempore +undertaking of the Count's. But it was clearing more and more every +moment: and I was destined, very soon, to comprehend minutely my +appalling situation. + +I had not the power of turning my eyes this way or that, the smallest +fraction of a hair's breadth. But let anyone, placed as I was at the end +of a room, ascertain for himself by experiment how wide is the field of +sight, without the slightest alteration in the line of vision, he will +find that it takes in the entire breadth of a large room, and that up to +a very short distance before him; and imperfectly, by a refraction, I +believe, in the eye itself, to a point very near indeed. Next to nothing +that passed in the room, therefore, was hidden from me. + +The old man had, by this time, found the key. The leather case was open. +The box cramped round with iron was next unlocked. He turned out its +contents upon the table. + +"Rouleaux of a hundred Napoleons each. One, two, three. Yes, quick. +Write down a thousand Napoleons. One, two; yes, right. Another thousand, +_write_!" And so on and on till the gold was rapidly counted. Then +came the notes. + +"Ten thousand francs. _Write_. Then thousand francs again. Is it +written? Another ten thousand francs: is it down? Smaller notes would +have been better. They should have been smaller. These are horribly +embarrassing. Bolt that door again; Planard would become unreasonable if +he knew the amount. Why did you not tell him to get it in smaller notes? +No matter now--go on--it can't be helped--_write_--another ten +thousand francs--another--another." And so on, till my treasure was +counted out before my face, while I saw and heard all that passed with +the sharpest distinctness, and my mental perceptions were horribly +vivid. But in all other respects I was dead. + +He had replaced in the box every note and rouleau as he counted it, and +now, having ascertained the sum total, he locked it, replaced it very +methodically in its cover, opened a buffet in the wainscoting, and, +having placed the Countess' jewel-case and my strong box in it, he +locked it; and immediately on completing these arrangements he began to +complain, with fresh acrimony and maledictions of Planard's delay. + +He unbolted the door, looked in the dark room beyond, and listened. He +closed the door again and returned. The old man was in a fever of +suspense. + +"I have kept ten thousand francs for Planard," said the Count, touching +his waistcoat pocket. + +"Will that satisfy him?" asked the lady. + +"Why--curse him!" screamed the Count. "Has he no conscience? I'll swear +to him it's half the entire thing." + +He and the lady again came and looked at me anxiously for a while, in +silence; and then the old Count began to grumble again about Planard, +and to compare his watch with the clock. The lady seemed less impatient; +she sat no longer looking at me, but across the room, so that her +profile was toward me--and strangely changed, dark and witch-like it +looked. My last hope died as I beheld that jaded face from which the +mask had dropped. I was certain that they intended to crown their +robbery by murder. Why did they not dispatch me at once? What object +could there be in postponing the catastrophe which would expedite their +own safety. I cannot recall, even to myself, adequately the horrors +unutterable that I underwent. You must suppose a real night-mare--I mean +a night-mare in which the objects and the danger are real, and the spell +of corporal death appears to be protractible at the pleasure of the +persons who preside at your unearthly torments. I could have no doubt as +to the cause of the state in which I was. + +In this agony, to which I could not give the slightest expression, I saw +the door of the room where the coffin had been, open slowly, and the +Marquis d'Harmonville entered the room. + + + + +Chapter XXV + +DESPAIR + + +A moment's hope, hope violent and fluctuating, hope that was nearly +torture, and then came a dialogue, and with it the terrors of despair. + +"Thank Heaven, Planard, you have come at last," said the Count, taking +him with both hands by the arm, and clinging to it and drawing him +toward me. "See, look at him. It has all gone sweetly, sweetly, sweetly +up to this. Shall I hold the candle for you?" + +My friend d'Harmonville, Planard, whatever he was, came to me, pulling +off his gloves, which he popped into his pocket. + +"The candle, a little this way," he said, and stooping over me he looked +earnestly in my face. He touched my forehead, drew his hand across it, +and then looked in my eyes for a time. + +"Well, doctor, what do you think?" whispered the Count. + +"How much did you give him?" said the Marquis, thus suddenly stunted +down to a doctor. + +"Seventy drops," said the lady. + +"In the hot coffee?" + +"Yes; sixty in a hot cup of coffee and ten in the liqueur." + +Her voice, low and hard, seemed to me to tremble a little. It takes a +long course of guilt to subjugate nature completely, and prevent those +exterior signs of agitation that outlive all good. + +The doctor, however, was treating me as coolly as he might a subject +which he was about to place on the dissecting-table for a lecture. + +He looked into my eyes again for awhile, took my wrist, and applied his +fingers to the pulse. + +"That action suspended," he said to himself. + +Then again he placed something, that for the moment I saw it looked like +a piece of gold-beater's leaf, to my lips, holding his head so far that +his own breathing could not affect it. + +"Yes," he said in soliloquy, very low. + +Then he plucked my shirt-breast open and applied the stethoscope, +shifted it from point to point, listened with his ear to its end, as if +for a very far-off sound, raised his head, and said, in like manner, +softly to himself, "All appreciable action of the lungs has subsided." + +Then turning from the sound, as I conjectured, he said: + +"Seventy drops, allowing ten for waste, ought to hold him fast for six +hours and a half-that is ample. The experiment I tried in the carriage +was only thirty drops, and showed a highly sensitive brain. It would not +do to kill him, you know. You are certain you did not exceed +_seventy_?" + +"Perfectly," said the lady. + +"If he were to die the evaporation would be arrested, and foreign +matter, some of it poisonous, would be found in the stomach, don't you +see? If you are doubtful, it would be well to use the stomach-pump." + +"Dearest Eugenie, be frank, be frank, do be frank," urged the Count. + +"I am _not_ doubtful, I am _certain_," she answered. + +"How long ago, exactly? I told you to observe the time." + +"I did; the minute-hand was exactly there, under the point of that +Cupid's foot." + +"It will last, then, probably for seven hours. He will recover then; the +evaporation will be complete, and not one particle of the fluid will +remain in the stomach." + +It was reassuring, at all events, to hear that there was no intention to +murder me. No one who has not tried it knows the terror of the approach +of death, when the mind is clear, the instincts of life unimpaired, and +no excitement to disturb the appreciation of that entirely new horror. + +The nature and purpose of this tenderness was very, very peculiar, and +as yet I had not a suspicion of it. + +"You leave France, I suppose?" said the ex-Marquis. + +"Yes, certainly, tomorrow," answered the Count. + +"And where do you mean to go?" + +"That I have not yet settled," he answered quickly. + +"You won't tell a friend, eh?" + +"I can't till I know. This has turned out an unprofitable affair." + +"We shall settle that by-and-by." + +"It is time we should get him lying down, eh," said the Count, +indicating me with one finger. + +"Yes, we must proceed rapidly now. Are his night-shirt and +night-cap--you understand--here?" + +"All ready," said the Count. + +"Now, Madame," said the doctor, turning to the lady, and making her, in +spite of the emergency, a bow, "it is time you should retire." + +The lady passed into the room in which I had taken my cup of treacherous +coffee, and I saw her no more. The Count took a candle and passed +through the door at the further end of the room, returning with a roll +of linen in his hand. He bolted first one door then the other. + +They now, in silence, proceeded to undress me rapidly. They were not +many minutes in accomplishing this. + +What the doctor had termed my night-shirt, a long garment which reached +below my feet, was now on, and a cap, that resembled a female nightcap +more than anything I had ever seen upon a male head, was fitted upon +mine, and tied under my chin. + +And now, I thought, I shall be laid in a bed to recover how I can, and, +in the meantime, the conspirators will have escaped with their booty, +and pursuit be in vain. + +This was my best hope at the time; but it was soon clear that their +plans were very different. The Count and Planard now went, together, +into the room that lay straight before me. I heard them talking low, and +a sound of shuffling feet; then a long rumble; it suddenly stopped; it +recommenced; it continued; side by side they came in at the door, their +backs toward me. They were dragging something along the floor that made +a continued boom and rumble, but they interposed between me and it, so +that I could not see it until they had dragged it almost beside me; and +then, merciful heaven! I saw it plainly enough. It was the coffin I had +seen in the next room. It lay now flat on the floor, its edge against +the chair in which I sat. Planard removed the lid. The coffin was empty. + + + + +Chapter XXVI + +CATASTROPHE + + +"Those seem to be good horses, and we change on the way," said Planard. +"You give the men a Napoleon or two; we must do it within three hours +and a quarter. Now, come; I'll lift him upright, so as to place his feet +in their proper berth, and you must keep them together and draw the +white shirt well down over them." + +In another moment I was placed, as he described, sustained in Planard's +arms, standing at the foot of the coffin, and so lowered backward, +gradually, till I lay my length in it. Then the man, whom he called +Planard, stretched my arms by my sides, and carefully arranged the +frills at my breast and the folds of the shroud, and after that, taking +his stand at the foot of the coffin made a survey which seemed to +satisfy him. + +The Count, who was very methodical, took my clothes, which had just been +removed, folded them rapidly together and locked them up, as I +afterwards heard, in one of the three presses which opened by doors in +the panel. + +I now understood their frightful plan. This coffin had been prepared for +me; the funeral of St. Amand was a sham to mislead inquiry; I had myself +given the order at Pere la Chaise, signed it, and paid the fees for the +interment of the fictitious Pierre de St. Amand, whose place I was to +take, to lie in his coffin with his name on the plate above my breast, +and with a ton of clay packed down upon me; to waken from this +catalepsy, after I had been for hours in the grave, there to perish by a +death the most horrible that imagination can conceive. + +If, hereafter, by any caprice of curiosity or suspicion, the coffin +should be exhumed, and the body it enclosed examined, no chemistry could +detect a trace of poison, nor the most cautious examination the +slightest mark of violence. + +I had myself been at the utmost pains to mystify inquiry, should my +disappearance excite surmises, and had even written to my few +correspondents in England to tell them that they were not to look for a +letter from me for three weeks at least. + +In the moment of my guilty elation death had caught me, and there was no +escape. I tried to pray to God in my unearthly panic, but only thoughts +of terror, judgment, and eternal anguish crossed the distraction of my +immediate doom. + +I must not try to recall what is indeed indescribable--the multiform +horrors of my own thoughts. I will relate, simply, what befell, every +detail of which remains sharp in my memory as if cut in steel. + +"The undertaker's men are in the hall," said the Count. + +"They must not come till this is fixed," answered Planard. "Be good +enough to take hold of the lower part while I take this end." I was not +left long to conjecture what was coming, for in a few seconds more +something slid across, a few inches above my face, and entirely excluded +the light, and muffled sound, so that nothing that was not very distinct +reached my ears henceforward; but very distinctly came the working of a +turnscrew, and the crunching home of screws in succession. Than these +vulgar sounds, no doom spoken in thunder could have been more +tremendous. + +The rest I must relate, not as it then reached my ears, which was too +imperfectly and interruptedly to supply a connected narrative, but as it +was afterwards told me by other people. + +The coffin-lid being screwed down, the two gentlemen arranged the room +and adjusted the coffin so that it lay perfectly straight along the +boards, the Count being specially anxious that there should be no +appearance of hurry or disorder in the room, which might have suggested +remark and conjecture. + +When this was done, Doctor Planard said he would go to the hall to +summon the men who were to carry the coffin out and place it in the +hearse. The Count pulled on his black gloves, and held his white +handkerchief in his hand, a very impressive chief-mourner. He stood a +little behind the head of the coffin, awaiting the arrival of the +persons who accompanied Planard, and whose fast steps he soon heard +approaching. + +Planard came first. He entered the room through the apartment in which +the coffin had been originally placed. His manner was changed; there was +something of a swagger in it. + +"Monsieur le Comte," he said, as he strode through the door, followed by +half-a-dozen persons, "I am sorry to have to announce to you a most +unseasonable interruption. Here is Monsieur Carmaignac, a gentleman +holding an office in the police department, who says that information to +the effect that large quantities of smuggled English and other goods +have been distributed in this neighborhood, and that a portion of them +is concealed in your house. I have ventured to assure him, of my own +knowledge, that nothing can be more false than that information, and +that you would be only too happy to throw open for his inspection, at a +moment's notice, every room, closet, and cupboard in your house." + +"Most assuredly," exclaimed the Count, with a stout voice, but a very +white face. "Thank you, my good friend, for having anticipated me. I +will place my house and keys at his disposal, for the purpose of his +scrutiny, so soon as he is good enough to inform me of what specific +contraband goods he comes in search." + +"The Count de St. Alyre will pardon me," answered Carmaignac, a little +dryly. "I am forbidden by my instructions to make that disclosure; and +that I _am_ instructed to make a general search, this warrant will +sufficiently apprise Monsieur le Comte." + +"Monsieur Carmaignac, may I hope," interposed Planard, "that you will +permit the Count de St. Alyre to attend the funeral of his kinsman, who +lies here, as you see--" (he pointed to the plate upon the coffin)--"and +to convey whom to Pere la Chaise, a hearse waits at this moment at the +door." + +"That, I regret to say, I cannot permit. My instructions are precise; +but the delay, I trust, will be but trifling. Monsieur le Comte will not +suppose for a moment that I suspect him; but we have a duty to perform, +and I must act as if I did. When I am ordered to search, I search; +things are sometimes hid in such bizarre places. I can't say, for +instance, what that coffin may contain." + +"The body of my kinsman, Monsieur Pierre de St. Amand," answered the +Count, loftily. + +"Oh! then you've seen him?" + +"Seen him? Often, too often." The Count was evidently a good deal moved. + +"I mean the body?" + +The Count stole a quick glance at Planard. + +"N--no, Monsieur--that is, I mean only for a moment." + +Another quick glance at Planard. + +"But quite long enough, I fancy, to recognize him?" insinuated that +gentleman. + +"Of course--of course; instantly--perfectly. What! Pierre de St. Amand? +Not know him at a glance? No, no, poor fellow, I know him too well for +that." + +"The things I am in search of," said Monsieur Carmaignac, "would fit in +a narrow compass--servants are so ingenious sometimes. Let us raise the +lid." + +"Pardon me, Monsieur," said the Count, peremptorily, advancing to the +side of the coffin and extending his arm across it, "I cannot permit +that indignity--that desecration." + +"There shall be none, sir--simply the raising of the lid; you shall +remain in the room. If it should prove as we all hope, you shall have +the pleasure of one other look, really the last, upon your beloved +kinsman." + +"But, sir, I can't." + +"But, Monsieur, I must." + +"But, besides, the thing, the turnscrew, broke when the last screw was +turned; and I give you my sacred honor there is nothing but the body in +this coffin." + +"Of course, Monsieur le Comte believes all that; but he does not know so +well as I the legerdemain in use among servants, who are accustomed to +smuggling. Here, Philippe, you must take off the lid of that coffin." + +The Count protested; but Philippe--a man with a bald head and a smirched +face, looking like a working blacksmith--placed on the floor a leather +bag of tools, from which, having looked at the coffin, and picked with +his nail at the screw-heads, he selected a turnscrew and, with a few +deft twirls at each of the screws, they stood up like little rows of +mushrooms, and the lid was raised. I saw the light, of which I thought I +had seen my last, once more; but the axis of vision remained fixed. As I +was reduced to the cataleptic state in a position nearly perpendicular, +I continued looking straight before me, and thus my gaze was now fixed +upon the ceiling. I saw the face of Carmaignac leaning over me with a +curious frown. It seemed to me that there was no recognition in his +eyes. Oh, Heaven! that I could have uttered were it but one cry! I saw +the dark, mean mask of the little Count staring down at me from the +other side; the face of the pseudo-Marquis also peering at me, but not +so full in the line of vision; there were other faces also. + +"I see, I see," said Carmaignac, withdrawing. "Nothing of the kind +there." + +"You will be good enough to direct your man to re-adjust the lid of the +coffin, and to fix the screws," said the Count, taking courage; +"and--and--really the funeral must proceed. It is not fair to the +people, who have but moderate fees for night-work, to keep them hour +after hour beyond the time." + +"Count de St. Alyre, you shall go in a very few minutes. I will direct, +just now, all about the coffin." + +The Count looked toward the door, and there saw a _gendarme_; and +two or three more grave and stalwart specimens of the same force were +also in the room. The Count was very uncomfortably excited; it was +growing insupportable. + +"As this gentleman makes a difficulty about my attending the obsequies +of my kinsman, I will ask you, Planard, to accompany the funeral in my +stead." + +"In a few minutes;" answered the incorrigible Carmaignac. "I must first +trouble you for the key that opens that press." + +He pointed direct at the press in which the clothes had just been locked +up. + +"I--I have no objection," said the Count--"none, of course; only they +have not been used for an age. I'll direct someone to look for the key." + +"If you have not got it about you, it is quite unnecessary. Philippe, +try your skeleton-keys with that press. I want it opened. Whose clothes +are these?" inquired Carmaignac, when, the press having been opened, he +took out the suit that had been placed there scarcely two minutes since. + +"I can't say," answered the Count. "I know nothing of the contents of +that press. A roguish servant, named Lablais, whom I dismissed about a +year ago, had the key. I have not seen it open for ten years or more. +The clothes are probably his." + +"Here are visiting cards, see, and here a marked +pocket-handkerchief--'R.B.' upon it. He must have stolen them from a +person named Beckett--R. Beckett. 'Mr. Beckett, Berkeley Square,' the +card says; and, my faith! here's a watch and a bunch of seals; one of +them with the initials 'R.B.' upon it. That servant, Lablais, must have +been a consummate rogue!" + +"So he was; you are right, Sir." + +"It strikes me that he possibly stole these clothes," continued +Carmaignac, "from the man in the coffin, who, in that case, would be +Monsieur Beckett, and not Monsieur de St. Amand. For wonderful to +relate, Monsieur, the watch is still going! The man in the coffin, I +believe, is not dead, but simply drugged. And for having robbed and +intended to murder him, I arrest you, Nicolas de la Marque, Count de St. +Alyre." + +In another moment the old villain was a prisoner. I heard his discordant +voice break quaveringly into sudden vehemence and volubility; now +croaking--now shrieking as he oscillated between protests, threats, and +impious appeals to the God who will "judge the secrets of men!" And thus +lying and raving, he was removed from the room, and placed in the same +coach with his beautiful and abandoned accomplice, already arrested; +and, with two _gendarmes_ sitting beside them, they were immediate +driving at a rapid pace towards the Conciergerie. + +There were now added to the general chorus two voices, very different in +quality; one was that of the gasconading Colonel Gaillarde, who had with +difficulty been kept in the background up to this; the other was that of +my jolly friend Whistlewick, who had come to identify me. + +I shall tell you, just now, how this project against my property and +life, so ingenious and monstrous, was exploded. I must first say a word +about myself. I was placed in a hot bath, under the direction of +Planard, as consummate a villain as any of the gang, but now thoroughly +in the interests of the prosecution. Thence I was laid in a warm bed, +the window of the room being open. These simple measures restored me in +about three hours; I should otherwise, probably, have continued under +the spell for nearly seven. + +The practices of these nefarious conspirators had been carried on with +consummate skill and secrecy. Their dupes were led, as I was, to be +themselves auxiliary to the mystery which made their own destruction +both safe and certain. + +A search was, of course, instituted. Graves were opened in Pere la +Chaise. The bodies exhumed had lain there too long, and were too much +decomposed to be recognized. One only was identified. The notice for the +burial, in this particular case, had been signed, the order given, and +the fees paid, by Gabriel Gaillarde, who was known to the official +clerk, who had to transact with him this little funereal business. The +very trick that had been arranged for me, had been successfully +practiced in his case. The person for whom the grave had been ordered, +was purely fictitious; and Gabriel Gaillarde himself filled the coffin, +on the cover of which that false name was inscribed as well as upon a +tomb-stone over the grave. Possibly the same honor, under my pseudonym, +may have been intended for me. + +The identification was curious. This Gabriel Gaillarde had had a bad +fall from a runaway horse about five years before his mysterious +disappearance. He had lost an eye and some teeth in this accident, +beside sustaining a fracture of the right leg, immediately above the +ankle. He had kept the injuries to his face as profound a secret as he +could. The result was, that the glass eye which had done duty for the +one he had lost remained in the socket, slightly displaced, of course, +but recognizable by the "artist" who had supplied it. + +More pointedly recognizable were the teeth, peculiar in workmanship, +which one of the ablest dentists in Paris had himself adapted to the +chasms, the cast of which, owing to peculiarities in the accident, he +happened to have preserved. This cast precisely fitted the gold plate +found in the mouth of the skull. The mark, also, above the ankle, in the +bone, where it had reunited, corresponded exactly with the place where +the fracture had knit in the limb of Gabriel Gaillarde. + +The Colonel, his younger brother, had been furious about the +disappearance of Gabriel, and still more so about that of his money, +which he had long regarded as his proper keepsake, whenever death should +remove his brother from the vexations of living. He had suspected for a +long time, for certain adroitly discovered reasons, that the Count de +St. Alyre and the beautiful lady, his companion, countess, or whatever +else she was, had pigeoned him. To this suspicion were added some others +of a still darker kind; but in their first shape, rather the exaggerated +reflections of his fury, ready to believe anything, than well-defined +conjectures. + +At length an accident had placed the Colonel very nearly upon the right +scent; a chance, possibly lucky, for himself, had apprised the scoundrel +Planard that the conspirators--himself among the number--were in danger. +The result was that he made terms for himself, became an informer, and +concerted with the police this visit made to the Chateau de la Carque at +the critical moment when every measure had been completed that was +necessary to construct a perfect case against his guilty accomplices. + +I need not describe the minute industry or forethought with which the +police agents collected all the details necessary to support the case. +They had brought an able physician, who, even had Planard failed, would +have supplied the necessary medical evidence. + +My trip to Paris, you will believe, had not turned out quite so +agreeably as I had anticipated. I was the principal witness for the +prosecution in this _cause celebre_, with all the _agremens_ +that attend that enviable position. Having had an escape, as my friend +Whistlewick said, "with a squeak" for my life, I innocently fancied that +I should have been an object of considerable interest to Parisian +society; but, a good deal to my mortification, I discovered that I was +the object of a good-natured but contemptuous merriment. I was a +_balourd, a benet, un ane_, and figured even in caricatures. I +became a sort of public character, a dignity, + + "Unto which I was not born," + + +and from which I fled as soon as I conveniently could, without even +paying my friend, the Marquis d'Harmonville, a visit at his hospitable +chateau. + +The Marquis escaped scot-free. His accomplice, the Count, was executed. +The fair Eugenie, under extenuating circumstances--consisting, so far as +I could discover of her good looks--got off for six years' imprisonment. + +Colonel Gaillarde recovered some of his brother's money, out of the not +very affluent estate of the Count and soi-disant Countess. This, and the +execution of the Count, put him in high good humor. So far from +insisting on a hostile meeting, he shook me very graciously by the hand, +told me that he looked upon the wound on his head, inflicted by the knob +of my stick, as having been received in an honorable though irregular +duel, in which he had no disadvantage or unfairness to complain of. + +I think I have only two additional details to mention. The bricks +discovered in the room with the coffin, had been packed in it, in straw, +to supply the weight of a dead body, and to prevent the suspicions and +contradictions that might have been excited by the arrival of an empty +coffin at the chateau. + +Secondly, the Countess's magnificent brilliants were examined by a +lapidary, and pronounced to be worth about five pounds to a tragedy +queen who happened to be in want of a suite of paste. + +The Countess had figured some years before as one of the cleverest +actresses on the minor stage of Paris, where she had been picked up by +the Count and used as his principal accomplice. + +She it was who, admirably disguised, had rifled my papers in the +carriage on my memorable night-journey to Paris. She also had figured as +the interpreting magician of the palanquin at the ball at Versailles. So +far as I was affected by that elaborate mystification it was intended to +re-animate my interest, which, they feared, might flag in the beautiful +Countess. It had its design and action upon other intended victims also; +but of them there is, at present, no need to speak. The introduction of +a real corpse--procured from a person who supplied the Parisian +anatomists--involved no real danger, while it heightened the mystery and +kept the prophet alive in the gossip of the town and in the thoughts of +the noodles with whom he had conferred. + +I divided the remainder of the summer and autumn between Switzerland and +Italy. + +As the well-worn phrase goes, I was a sadder if not a wiser man. A great +deal of the horrible impression left upon my mind was due, of course, to +the mere action of nerves and brain. But serious feelings of another and +deeper kind remained. My afterlife was ultimately formed by the shock I +had then received. Those impressions led me--but not till after many +years--to happier though not less serious thoughts; and I have deep +reason to be thankful to the all-merciful Ruler of events for an early +and terrible lesson in the ways of sin. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Room in the Dragon Volant +by J. Sheridan LeFanu + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROOM IN THE DRAGON VOLANT *** + +This file should be named 7drag10.txt or 7drag10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7drag11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7drag10a.txt + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, David Garcia and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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