Like a dream within a dream.--POE.
It was in the prison infirmary that I first heard the details of what
had passed in the Villa Santa Maria del Giglio, on that fatal morning of
August the 3rd. As the nursing sister sat beside me, renewing from time
to time the cold bandages placed on my throbbing forehead, she told me
in low tones the mournful and tragic story. I listened as if I were
listening in a dream to the story of a dream.
"When (she said) at early morning the Venetian servant-girl heard a
knock at the door she went to open it, and a pale youth stepped quickly
across the threshold. He asked for Count Kamarowsky, and bade the girl
tell him that Nicolas Naumoff, of Orel, had arrived and desired to see
him. The girl went to her master's door and knocked. He was awake and
had risen. On hearing her message, he hurried out to meet his friend,
for he loved him like a brother--"
("Ah, sister, I know, I know! He loved him like a brother!")
"When he saw Naumoff come in he went forward to meet him with open arms.
The young man raised his hand and fired five shots point blank into his
body. The Count fell to the ground; but even then he stretched out his
arms to the young man and said: 'My friend, why have you done this to
me? In what way have I ever harmed you?' The young man, with a cry as if
he had awakened from a dream, flung himself on the ground at his feet.
Then the wounded man showed him the balcony from which he might escape,
and with fast-ebbing breath forgave him and bade him farewell."
("Oh, sister, sister, with fast-ebbing breath he forgave him and bade
him farewell!")
"He was carried to the hospital, and the doctors wanted to give him
chloroform while they probed the gaping, deep-seated wounds; but he
would not take it. 'Do what you have to do without sending me to sleep,'
he said. 'I shall have plenty of time to sleep--afterwards.' The doctors
groped for the bullets in the lacerated flesh, and stitched up the five,
deep-seated wounds.... When it was over he asked for you."
("Sister, sister, he asked for me!")
"He begged that you might be summoned quickly, and many telegrams were
sent, but you neither came nor replied."
("I neither came nor replied!")
"On the third day he was better. He spoke to those around him, and again
he asked for you, and hoped that you would come. In the hospital he was
in the hands of an old and very famous surgeon; but alas! as Fate would
have it--"
("What? what? As Fate would have it--?")
"As Fate would have it, the mind of this old and celebrated surgeon
suddenly gave way. None knew that anything was amiss, as he stood that
day at the bedside of the sufferer whom his skill had saved. He spoke to
his assistants in the same calm, authoritative voice as usual, but he
ordered that _the stitches should be taken out of the five wounds that
were just beginning to heal_. Those around him recoiled in amazement.
They were thunderstruck. But he repeated the disastrous order in the
voice of one who is accustomed to command and to save lives that are in
peril. Then--"
("What then? What then?")
"Then the assistants, doubting their own wisdom, but not that of the man
who had been their master, obeyed, and reopened the five deep-seated
wounds which were just beginning to heal. And again, as Fate would have
it--"
(Ah, Fate! The ghoul, the vampire Fate! She who has pursued me since my
birth! She who has caught us and crushed us all in her torturing grip,
splintering us like frail glass bubbles in her hand! Now she had entered
the sick room of Paul Kamarowsky, had brooded over his bedside, and in
fiendish pleasantry had scourged the old surgeon's brain with madness,
whipping it to frenzy as a child whips a top, guiding his hand to tear
the injured body and reopen the fast-healing wounds.)
"As Fate would have it, the old surgeon gave other and still more
dreadful orders. Ah, holy Virgin! how shall the horror be told?... When
the bewildered assistants, aghast at what they had done, laid the
sufferer back on his pillows, the slaying had been accomplished."
("The slaying had been accomplished!")
"With his last breath he called upon your name."
("With his last breath he called upon my name!")
[Illustration: THE PENITENTIARY AT TRANI]