He had two pairs of wax candles, a little cold supper on a sidetable, 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 oclock, at which time the intruder said he was writing fast enough to set fire to the paperthat 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 garon; and next morning at nine oclock knocked at his door, and receiving no answer, looked through the keyhole; the lights were still burning, the windowshutters 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 windowshutter 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 oclock; 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 halfpast twelve, a servant who had not been apprized of his order to be left undisturbed, seeing a light shine through the keyhole, 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 innkeeper 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. Nothingnot the slightest cluehe 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 Chteau 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 nowise chilled my ardour. 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 Chteau 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 irongrey 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 chteau 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 halfadozen 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 sixfoot 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 the 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 secondyes, 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. 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 ardour 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 dowhat 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 despisewhom 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; my powerful friends will intervene and arrange a separation; and I shall, at length, be happy and reward my hero. You may suppose the style, florid and vehement, in which I 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 Pre la Chaise. The hearse, he says, will leave this at halfpast nine. You must be here, where we stand, at nine oclock. 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 chteau? I assented. I placed it there, that, tomorrow night, when it comes, you may recognize it. So soon as that rosecoloured light appears at that window, it will be a signal to you that the funeral has left the chteau, and that you may approach safely. Come, then, to that window; I will open it, and admit you. Five minutes after a travellingcarriage, with four horses, shall stand ready in the portecochre. 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 bankers 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, endeavour 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 keya long, slender stem, with a key at each endone about the size which opens an ordinary room door; the other, as small, almost, as the key of a dressingcase. 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 whythere 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 Counts 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 passportsarrange 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. Theres the statue, said the Colonel, in his brief discordant tones. Thats 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 chteau, 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 chteau. 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 bid 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. XX A HighCauld 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 inndoor 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 chteau, 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 stairwindow 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 highcauldcap, 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 dAulnois, I should have seen in this withered apparition, the genius loci, the malignant fairy, at the stamp of whose foot, the illfated tenants of this very room had, from time to time, vanished. I was past that, however; but the old womans 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 chteau 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 earthI dont know what you mean, I answered; and why should you care about me? I dont care about you, MonsieurI care about the honour of an ancient family, whom I served in their happier days, when to be noble, was to be honoured. 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 apprize 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 Ill 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 keyhole. 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 keyhole; 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 screwstaircase 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 nightair 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 pitchdarkness, 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 effectuallycovered approach from the Dragon Volant to the trystingplace 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. 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 oclock; 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 Abelards Eloise. I dont 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, armour, china, furniture. I entered the shop; it was dark, dusty, and low. The proprietor was busy scouring a piece of inlaid armour, 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 bullseye 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 oldfashioned 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 dHarmonville. The third, who was fiddling with a pen, was a lean, pale man, pitted with the smallpox, with lank black hair, and about as meanlooking 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 bedfellows. 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 marvellously 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 chimneypiece, which was my sole accomplice in keeping tryst in this iniquitous venture. The sky favoured 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 of my room; I shall be writing some notes, so dont 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 great coat, and placed my pistols, one in each pocket. I now applied my key to the secret locks; drew the wainscotdoor 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 screwstair in total darkness, the key in my fingers. Thus far the undertaking was successful. XXII Rapture Down the screwstair I went in utter darkness; and having reached the stone floor, I discerned the door and groped out the keyhole. 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 ease, 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 favoured 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 chteau. 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 chteau, 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, snakelight thought stole through my mind, and was gone. It was with me the fullblooded season of youth, conscious strength, rashness, passion, pursuit, the adventure! Here were a pair of doublebarrelled pistols, four lives in my hands? What could possibly happen? The Countexcept 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 rosecoloured 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 Chteau 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 halfadozen 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 murmuredRichard, 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 Pre 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 sumare 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, travelling 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 great coat 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 roomdoor. 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! Dont followstay where you areit 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 cant 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. 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 Countesss 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 begun, 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 anythinganything 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 coloured 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 Pre 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 portecochre. 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 practise a deception on my brave and beautiful Richardmy 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 tiptoe 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 tiptoe, and whispered to me, They are removing the coffincome 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. Im 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 glassa fairy glassof 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 recognised 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 nightdrive with the Marquis dHarmonville. Great and loud was the ladys 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 businesslike 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 handbell 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. 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 Pre 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, childeh? 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 cant be everywhere! He advanced halfadozen 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! dont 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 saidIt 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 cant conceive the effect of the silent gaze of those two pairs of evil eyes. The lady glanced to where, I recollected, the mantelpiece stood, and upon it a clock, the regular click of which I sharply heard. Fourfivesix 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 ladys hand; but she, not (I dare say) caring for his caresses, drew back a little. Come, ma chre, let us count these things. What is it? Pocketbook? Ororwhat? 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 seelet us countlet us see, he said, as he was unbuckling the straps with his tremulous fingers. We must count themwe must see to it. I have pencil and pocketbookbutwheres the key? See this cursed lock! My ! What is it? Wheres 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 Countesss role in it, I could not yet comprehend. I could not be sureso much more presence of mind and histrionic resource have women than fall to the lot of our clumsy sexwhether 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 Counts. 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 hairs 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. Ten 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 nowgo onit cant be helpedwriteanother ten thousand francsanotheranother. 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 jewelcase 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 Planards 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. Whycurse him! screamed the Count. Has he no conscience! Ill swear to him its half the entire thing. He and the lady again came and looked at me anxiously for awhile, 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 meand strangely changed, dark and witchlike 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 despatch 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 nightmareI mean a nightmare in which the objects and the danger are real, and the spell of corporal death appears to be protractable 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 dHarmonville entered the room. XXV Despair A moments 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 dHarmonville, 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 dissectingtable 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 goldbeaters 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 shirtbreast 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 halfthat 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, dont you see? If you are doubtful, it would be well to use the stomachpump. 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 minutehand was exactly there, under the point of that Cupids 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 exMarquis. Yes, certainly, tomorrow, answered the Count. And where do you mean to go? That I have not yet settled, he answered quickly. You wont tell a friend, eh? I cant till I know. This has turned out an unprofitable affair. We shall settle that byandby. 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 nightshirt and nightcapyou understandhere? 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 nightshirt, 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. 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; Ill 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 Planards 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 Pre 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 indescribablethe 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 undertakers 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 coffinlid 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 chiefmourner. 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 halfadozen 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 neighbourhood, 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 moments 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 Pre 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 cant say, for instance, what that coffin may contain. The body of my kinsman, Monsieur Pierre de St. Amand, answered the Count, loftily. Oh! then youve 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. Nno, Monsieurthat 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 courseof course; instantlyperfectly. 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 compassservants 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 indignitythat desecration. There shall be none, sirsimply 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 cant. But, Monsieur, I must. But, besides, the thing, the turnscrew, broke when the last screw was turned; and I give you my sacred honour 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 Philippea man with a bald head, and a smirched face, looking like a working blacksmithplaced on the floor a leather bag of tools, from which, having looked at the coffin, and picked with his nail at the screwheads, 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 pseudomarquis 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 readjust the lid of the coffin, and to fix the screws, said the Count, taking courage; andandreally the funeral must proceed. It is not fair to the people who have but moderate fees for nightwork, 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. II have no objection, said the Countnone, of course; only they have not been used for an age. Ill direct someone to look for the key. If you have not got it about you, it is quite unnecessary. Philippe, try your skeletonkeys 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 cant 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 pockethandkerchiefR. B. upon it. He must have stolen them from a person named BeckettR. Beckett. Mr. Beckett, Berkley Square, the card says; and, my faith! heres 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! That 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 croakingnow 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 immediately 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 Pre 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 practised 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 tombstone over the grave. Possibly, the same honour, 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, besides 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 welldefined conjectures. At length an accident had placed the Colonel very nearly upon the right scent; a chance, possibly lucky for himself, had apprized the scoundrel Planard that the conspiratorshimself among the numberwere in danger. The result was that he made terms for himself, became an informer, and concerted with the police this visit made to the Chteau 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 clbre, with all the agrmens 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 goodnatured but contemptuous merriment. I was a balourd, a bent, un ne, 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 dHarmonville a visit at his hospitable chteau. The Marquis escaped scotfree. His accomplice, the Count, was executed. The fair Eugenie, under extenuating circumstancesconsisting, so far as I could discover of her good looksgot off for six years imprisonment. Colonel Gaillarde recovered some of his brothers money, out of the not very affluent estate of the Count and soidisant Countess. This, and the execution of the Count, put him in high good humour. 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 honourable, 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 chteau. Secondly, the Countesss magnificent brilliants were examined by a lapidary, and pronounced to be worth about five pounds to a tragedyqueen, 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 nightjourney 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 reanimate 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 corpseprocured from a person who supplied the Parisian anatomistsinvolved 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 wellworn 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 after life was ultimately formed by the shock I had then received. Those impressions led mebut not till after many yearsto happier though not less serious thoughts; and I have deep reason to be thankful to the allmerciful Ruler of events, for an early and terrible lesson in the ways of sin. In a Glass Darkly By J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Uncopyright May you do good and not evil. May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others. May you share freely, never taking more than you give. Copyright pages exist to tell you that you cant do something. Unlike them, this Uncopyright page exists to tell you that the writing and artwork in this ebook are believed to be in the United States public domain; that is, they are believed to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. The United States public domain represents our collective cultural heritage, and items in it are free for anyone in the United States to do almost anything at all with, without having to get permission. Copyright laws are different all over the world, and the source text or artwork in this ebook may still be copyrighted in other countries. If youre not located in the United States, you must check your local laws before using this ebook. Standard Ebooks makes no representations regarding the copyright status of the source text or artwork in this ebook in any country other than the United States. Nonauthorship activities performed on items that are in the public domainsocalled sweat of the brow workdont create a new copyright. That means that nobody can claim a new copyright on an item that is in the public domain for, among other things, work like digitization, markup, or typography. Regardless, the contributors to this ebook release their contributions under the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, thus dedicating to the worldwide public domain all of the work theyve done on this ebook, including but not limited to metadata, the titlepage, imprint, colophon, this Uncopyright, and any changes or enhancements to, or markup on, the original text and artwork. This dedication doesnt change the copyright status of the source text or artwork. We make this dedication in the interest of enriching our global cultural heritage, to promote free and libre culture around the world, and to give back to the unrestricted culture that has given all of us so much. Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Green Tea Prologue I Dr. Hesselius Relates How He Met the Rev. Mr. Jennings II The Doctor Questions Lady Mary, and She Answers III Dr. Hesselius Picks Up Something in Latin Books IV Four Eyes Were Reading the Passage V Doctor Hesselius Is Summoned to Richmond VI How Mr. Jennings Met His Companion VII The Journey First Stage VIII The Second Stage IX The Third Stage X Home Conclusion The Familiar Prologue I Footsteps II The Watcher III An Advertisement IV He Talks with a Clergyman V Mr. Barton States His Case VI Seen Again VII Flight VIII Softened IX Requiescat Mr. Justice Harbottle Prologue I The Judges House II Mr. Peters III Lewis Pyneweck IV Interruption in Court V Caleb Searcher VI Arrested VII Chief Justice Twofold VIII Somebody Has Got Into the House IX The Judge Leaves His House The Room in the Dragon Volant Prologue I On the Road II The InnYard of the Belle Etoile III Death and Love Together Mated IV Monsieur Droqville V Supper at the Belle Etoile VI The Naked Sword VII The White Rose VIII A Three Minutes Visit IX Gossip and Counsel X The Black Veil XI The Dragon Volant XII The Magician XIII The Oracle Tells Me Wonders XIV Mademoiselle de la Vallire XV Strange Story of the Dragon Volant XVI The Parc of the Chteau de la Carque XVII The Tenant of the Palanquin XVIII The Churchyard XIX The Key XX A HighCauld Cap XXI I See Three Men in a Mirror XXII Rapture XXIII A Cup of Coffee XXIV Hope XXV Despair XXVI Catastrophe Carmilla Prologue I An Early Fright II A Guest III We Compare Notes IV Her HabitsA Saunter V A Wonderful Likeness VI A Very Strange Agony VII Descending VIII Search IX The Doctor X Bereaved XI The Story XII A Petition XIII The Woodman XIV The Meeting XV Ordeal and Execution XVI Conclusion Colophon Uncopyright Landmarks In a Glass Darkly