In the midst of our adieux, there came to us a powerful odor of garlic
which made me ill. It was the waiting-maid who had come to the ladies,
to call upon their generosity. This creature had been more annoying than
useful, and since the first two days, the ladies had dispensed with her
services. Mrs. Simons regretted, however, not being able to do anything
for her, and asked me to inform the King how she had been robbed of her
money. Hadgi-Stavros seemed neither surprised nor scandalized. He simply
shrugged his shoulders, and muttered: "That Pericles!--bad
education--the city--the court--I ought to attend to that." He added out
loud: "Beg the ladies to not trouble themselves about anything. It is I
who provided the servant and it is I who will pay her. Tell them, that
if they need a little money to return to the city, my purse is at their
disposal. I will have them escorted to the foot of the mountain,
although they will run no kind of danger. The soldiers are less to be
feared than one thinks. They will find breakfast, horses and a guide in
the village of Castia: everything is provided and everything paid. Do
you think that they will give me the pleasure of shaking hands with me,
in token of reconciliation?"
Mrs. Simons was very reluctant, but her daughter resolutely held out her
hand to the old Palikar. She said to him in English, with roguish
pleasantry: "It is much honor that you do us, very interesting, sir,
because at this moment we are the Clephtes, and you are the victim!"
The King replied with much confidence: "Thank you, Mademoiselle; you are
too good!"
Mary-Ann's pretty hand was colored like a piece of rosy satin which had
been in a shop-window for three months. Believe, however, that I did not
have to beg to kiss it. I then touched my lips to Mrs. Simons' skinny
hand. "Courage! Monsieur," cried the old lady as she was going away.
Mary-Ann said nothing; but she threw me a glance capable of rousing an
army. Such looks are worth a proclamation!
When the last man of the escort had disappeared, Hadgi-Stavros took me
to one side and said to me: "Eh, well! we have then made some mistake!"
"Alas! Yes, we were not clever."
"This ransom is not paid. Will it be? I believe so. These English women
seem to be friendly to you."
"Be not uneasy: within three days I shall be far from Parnassus."
"All right, so much the better. I have great need of money, as you know.
Our bad luck on Monday will tax our income heavily. We must make up our
personal and material losses."
"You can complain with good grace. You have obtained a hundred thousand
francs at one stroke!"
"No, ninety! the monk has already taken his tithe. Of that sum, which
seems enormous to you, there will be only twenty thousand for me. Our
expenses are considerable; there are heavy charges. What would be done
if the company of stock-holders should decide to build a Hotel des
Invalides, as has been talked of? There are always pensions to be paid
to the widows and orphans of the band. Fever and bullets yearly relieve
us of thirty men, and you can see where that places us. Our expenses
would scarcely be met; I should have to pay money out of my own pocket,
my dear sir!"
"Have you never happened to lose more than once?"
"Once, only. I had received fifty thousand francs on account, of the
society. One of my secretaries, whom I afterward hung, fled to Thessaly
with the sum. I had to make up the deficit: I was responsible. My share
amounted to seven thousand francs; I lost, then, forty-three thousand.
But the knave who stole from me paid dearly. I punished him according to
the Persian mode. Before hanging him, his teeth were pulled, one after
the other, and they were driven, with a mallet, into his cranium--for a
good example, you understand. I am not wicked, but I suffer no one to
put me in the wrong."
It rejoiced my heart that the old Palikar, who was not wicked, should
lose the eighty thousand francs of Mrs. Simons' ransom, and that he
would receive the news when my cranium and my teeth were not in his
camp. He put his arm through mine, and said familiarly:
"How are you going to kill the time till your departure? These ladies
are gone and the house will seem large. Do you wish to look at the
Athenian papers? The monk brought some to me. I rarely read them. I
know exactly the price the articles are worth, since I pay for them.
Here you will find the Gazette officielle, l'Esperance, Pallicare,
Caricature. Each one ought to speak of us. Poor readers! I leave you. If
you find anything curious, tell me about it."
L'Esperance, printed in French, and intended to fool Europe, devoted a
long article to denying the latest news of brigandage. It cleverly joked
the simple travelers who saw a thief in every ragged peasant, an armed
band in every cloud of dust, and who asked pardon of the first
thorn-bush on which their clothes were caught. This truth-telling sheet
vaunted the security of the roads, celebrated the disinterestedness of
the natives, exalted the quiet and seclusion which one was sure of
finding on all the mountains in the kingdom.
The Pallicare, printed under the supervision of some of Hadgi-Stavros'
friends, contained an eloquent biography of its hero. It recounted that
this Theseus of modern times, the only man in our century who had never
been vanquished, had made a sortie in the direction of the Scironian
Rock. Betrayed by the weakness of his companions, he had withdrawn with
small loss. But seized with profound distaste for a degenerate
profession, he had renounced, henceforth, the practice of brigandage,
and had left Greece; he had exiled himself in Europe, where his fortune,
gloriously acquired, would enable him to live like a prince. "And now,"
added the Pallicare, "go, come, travel across the plain and in the
mountain! Bankers and Merchants, Greeks, strangers, travelers, you have
nothing to fear; the King of the Mountains wished, like Charles V., to
abdicate at the height of his glory and power."
The Gazette officielle read as follows:
"Sunday, 3d instant, at 5 o'clock in the evening, the military chest
containing 20,000 francs, which a large company was guarding on its way
to Argos, was attacked by the band of Hadgi-Stavros, known as the King
of the Mountains! The brigands, to the number of three or four hundred,
fell upon the soldiers with incredible ferocity. But the first two
companies of the second battalion of the 4th Line, under the command of
the brave Nicolaidis, opposed them with a heroic resistance. The
savage attacking party were repulsed at the point of the bayonet and
left the field covered with the dead. Report has it that Hadgi-Stavros
was seriously wounded. Our loss was insignificant.
"The same day, and the same hour, Her Majesty's troops were victors in
another skirmish, about ten leagues distant. It was at the summit of
Parnassus, four furlongs from Castia, that the 2d Company of the 1st
Battalion of gendarmes defeated Hadgi-Stavros' band. There, according to
the report of the brave Captain Pericles, the King of the Mountains was
wounded. Unfortunately, this success was dearly bought. The brigands,
protected by the rocks and shrubs, had killed or seriously wounded ten
of the soldiers. A young officer, M. Spiro, graduate of the Erelpides
School, died a heroic death on the field of battle. In the presence of
such great misfortunes, it is no mean consolation that there, as
everywhere, the law reigns."
The journal La Caricature contained a badly printed lithograph, in which
I recognized, however, Captain Pericles and the King of the Mountains.
The godson and godfather were holding each other in close embrace. Below
this cartoon, the artist had written the following sentence:
"This Is How They Fought!"
"It seems," I said to myself, "that I am not alone in their confidence,
and that Pericles' secret is an open secret."
I folded up the papers, and while waiting the King's return, I meditated
upon the position in which Mrs. Simons had left me. Surely, it was fine
to owe my freedom to no one but myself, and much braver to leave a
prison by a feat of courage, than by a schoolboy's trick. I could, in a
day or two, become a hero of romance, and the object of admiration of
all the young girls in Europe. No doubt Mary-Ann would adore me when she
saw me safe and sound after so perilous an escape. I might make a
misstep in that slippery path. What if I broke a leg or arm! Would
Mary-Ann look with favor on a lame and crippled man? I must, moreover,
expect to be guarded night and day. My plan, ingenious as it was, could
be executed only after the death of my guard. To kill a man is no small
affair, even for a doctor. It is nothing in words, especially when one
speaks to the woman whom one loves. But, since Mary-Ann's departure, I
was no longer deranged. It seemed less easy to procure a weapon and to
use it. A poniard thrust is a surgical operation which ought to make an
honest man's flesh creep. What do you say, Monsieur? I think that my
future mother-in-law had treated her hoped-for son-in-law very
contemptuously. It would not have cost her much to have sent me 15,000
francs ransom, taking them, later, out of Mary-Ann's dowry. Fifteen
thousand francs would have been of little value to me the day of my
marriage. It seemed of much account in the condition in which I found
myself, on the eve of murdering a man, and descending some hundreds of
meters by a ladder without any rungs. I cursed Mrs. Simons as heartily
as the generality of sons-in-law curse their mothers-in-law in all
civilized lands. As I had maledictions to spare, I directed some of them
against my friend John Harris, who had abandoned me to my lot. I said to
myself, that if we could have exchanged places, that I would never have
left him eight days without news.
I excused Lobster, who was very young; and Giacomo, who was not very
intelligent, and also M. Mérinay, whose downright selfishness I fully
understood. One easily pardons treason in such egotists, because one
never counts on them. But Harris, who had risked his life to save an old
negress in Boston! Was I not of as much account as a negress? I
believed, in truth, without any aristocratic prejudices, that I was
worth two or three times as much.
Hadgi-Stavros came to change the course of my thoughts by offering a
means of escape more simple and less dangerous. It was only necessary to
have legs, and, thank God! I was not lacking in that particular. The
King surprised me just as I was yawning fearfully.
"Do you feel dull?" he asked. "It is the reading. I never can open a
book without fear of dislocating my jaws. I am pleased to see that
doctors cannot endure it any better than I. But why not employ the time
you remain to better advantage? You came here to gather the mountain
plants; your box has received nothing these eight days. Would you like
to search for some, under guard of two men? I am too good a fellow for
you to refuse this little favor. Each must pursue his course in this
lower world. You collect plants; I, money. You can say to those who sent
you here: 'Here are plants gathered in Hadgi-Stavros' Kingdom!' If you
find one which is beautiful and strange, and of which one has never
heard in your country, you must give it my name, and call it the Queen
of the Mountains!"
"But truly," I thought, "if I was a league from here, with two brigands,
would it not be possible to out-strip them? There was no doubt but that
danger would give me double strength. He who runs best is he who has the
most to gain! Why is the hare the swiftest of all animals? Because he is
the most terrified!"
I accepted the King's offer, and, on the spot, he placed two guards over
me. He gave them no minute instructions. He simply said:
"Here is milord, worth 15,000 francs; if you lose him, you will have to
bring him back or pay the sum."
My attendants did not look like invalids; they had neither wounds,
bruises, nor injury of any sort; their muscles were like steel, and it
was not to be expected that they would be retarded by any constraint of
their foot-gear, because they wore large moccasins, which left their
heels bare. Passing them in review, I noticed, not without regret, two
pistols as long as children's guns. I, however, did not lose courage. By
reason of keeping bad company, the whizzing of bullets had become
familiar to me. I slung my box over my shoulder and started.
"Much pleasure to you!" cried the King.
"Adieu! Sire!"
"Not so, if you please; au revoir!"
I drew my companions in the direction of Athens; it was so much gained
from the enemy. They made no resistance, and allowed me to go where I
wished. These bandits, much better brought up than Pericles' four
guards, allowed me plenty of room. I did not feel, at each step, the
point of their elbows in my ribs. They picked on the path green stuff
for the evening meal. As for me, I appeared very eager in my work; I
pulled up, on the right hand and on the left, tufts of grass of no
account; I pretended to choose a sprig from the mass, and I placed it
very carefully in the bottom of my box, taking care not to overload
myself; it was enough of a burden that I carried. I had once known, at a
horse race, of a jockey who was beaten because he carried a burden
weighing five kilogrammes. My gaze seemed fixed upon the ground, but you
can well believe that the interest was feigned. Under such
circumstances one is not a botanist, one is a prisoner. Pellison would
never have amused himself with spiders if he had had a file with which
to saw his bars. I may have, perhaps, seen that day unknown plants which
would have made a naturalist's fortune; but I troubled myself no more
about them than as if they had been common wall-flowers. I am sure that
I passed near a fine specimen of the boryana variabilis! It would have
weighed a half-pound with its roots. I did not even honor it with a
look. I saw only two things: Athens in the distance, and the two
brigands on either side. I secretly watched the rascals' eyes, in the
hope that something would distract their attention; but, whether they
were right at hand or ten feet away, whether they were occupied in
picking their salads or following the flight of the vultures, they kept
an incessant watch on my movements.
An idea came to me to give them serious occupation. We were in a narrow
path, which evidently led towards Athens. I saw at my left a beautiful
bunch of broom which grew on the top of a rock. I pretended to be eager
to secure it as a treasure. I made five or six attempts to scale the
precipitous bowlder on which it blossomed. I seemed so determined to
reach it that one of my guards offered himself as a short ladder. This
was not exactly what I had counted on. I felt obliged to accept his
services, but, in climbing upon his shoulders, I hurt him so cruelly
with my hob-nailed shoes, that he groaned with agony and let me drop to
the ground. His comrade, who was interested in the process of the
enterprise, said to him: "Wait! I will mount instead of milord, I have
no nails in my shoes." No sooner said than done; he sprang up, seized it
by the stalk, shook it, pulled it, tore it up by the root and cried out.
I was already running away, without looking behind. Their stupefaction
gave me a good ten seconds' advantage. But they lost no time in accusing
each other, for I soon heard them following me. I redoubled my efforts;
the path was a good one, even, smooth, made for me. We descended a steep
declivity. I ran desperately, my arms pressed to my sides, without
noticing the stones which rolled under my heels, or looking to see where
I put my feet. I fairly flew over the path; rocks and bushes on either
side seemed to be running in the opposite direction; I was light-footed,
I was supple, my body weighed little; I had wings. But the four
foot-falls wearied my ears. Suddenly, they ceased; I heard nothing more.
Had they become weary of following me? A little cloud of dust rose ten
steps ahead of me. A little further on, a white spot suddenly appeared
on a gray rock. I heard two detonations at the same instant. The
brigands had discharged their pistols! I was not hit, and I still sped
on. The pursuit began again; I heard the breathless voices calling to
me: "Stop! Stop!" I did not stop. I lost the path, but I still ran on,
not knowing where I was going. A ditch as wide as a river presented
itself; but I was flying too fast to measure distances. I jumped, I was
saved!--my suspenders broke!--I was lost!
You laugh! I would like to see you run without suspenders, holding in
both hands the band of your trousers! Five minutes afterward, I was
again a captive. The men hand-cuffed me, fettered my legs, and drove me
with switches to Hadgi-Stavros' camp.
The King treated me as a bankrupt who had carried away 15,000 francs.
"Monsieur," he said to me, "I had a better opinion of you. I thought I
knew honest men! your face deceived me. I would never have believed that
you were capable of doing wrong, above all, after the way in which I
have treated you. Do not be astonished if I, henceforth, use severe
measures; you have forced me to do so. You will remain in your chamber
until further orders. One of my officers will remain with you under your
tent. This is only a precaution. In case of a repetition of the offense,
it is punishment which will be given you. Vasile, it is to thee I commit
Monsieur."
Vasile saluted me with his usual courtesy.
"Ah! wretch!" I thought, "it is thou who throwest infants into the fire!
It is thou who wouldst have embraced Mary-Ann; it is thou who wouldst
have stabbed me on Ascension Day. Oh, well! I prefer to settle with thee
rather than with another!"
I will not relate to you the details of the three days I passed in my
tent with Vasile. The scamp gave me a dose of disgust which I do not
wish to share with anyone. He did not wish me any ill; he even had a
certain sympathy for me. I believe that if I had been his own prisoner,
that he would have released me without ransom. My face had pleased him
at first sight. I recalled to him a younger brother who had been
condemned to death and hanged. But these friendly overtures wearied me
a hundred times more than bad treatment. He did not wait until sunrise
to say "good-morning" to me; at night-fall, he never missed a long list
of successes which he wished me. He aroused me, in my deepest sleep, to
ascertain if I was well covered. At table, he gave me good service; at
dessert he begged of me to listen to some stories which he wished to
relate. And always that hand was before me ready to shake mine. I
fiercely opposed his advances. It seemed to me unnecessary to include a
roaster of infants in my list of friends, and I had no desire to press
the hand of a man whom I had condemned to death. My conscience permitted
me to kill him; was it not a case of legitimate defense? but I did have
scruples about killing him treacherously, and I ought, at least, to put
him on his guard by hostile and menacing attitude. While repulsing his
advances, his kindness, and repelling his polite attentions, I carefully
watched for a chance to escape; but his friendship, more vigilant than
hate, did not lose sight of me for an instant. When I hung over the
cascade in order to impress upon my mind the unequal places in the bank,
Vasile would draw me from my contemplation with maternal solicitude:
"Take care!" he would say to me, pulling me back by the feet! "if thou
shouldst fall by some unhappy chance, I should reproach myself all my
life." When, at night, I stealthily tried to rise, he jumped from his
bed, asking if I needed anything. Never was there a more watchful
rascal. He turned around me like a squirrel in a cage.
What, above everything, made me despair, was the confidence he had in
me. I expressed, one day, a desire to examine his arms. He placed his
dagger in my hand. It was Russian blade, of inlaid steel, from the
famous sword factory of Toula. I drew it from its sheath, I tried the
point with my finger, I turned it toward his breast, choosing the place
between the fourth and fifth ribs. "Do not press on it, thou mightest
kill me!" Truly, by pressing on it a little, I could have given him his
just desserts, but something stayed my hand. It is to be regretted that
honest men recoil from killing assassins, when the latter feel no
compunctions about killing honest people. I put the weapon back into its
case. Vasile held out his pistol to me, but I refused it, and I told him
that my curiosity was satisfied. He cocked it, he made me look at the
priming, he placed it on his head, and said to me: "See! thou art no
longer guarded!"
No longer guarded! eh! parbleu! that was exactly what I wished. But the
occasion was too good a one, and the traitor paralyzed me. If I had
killed him at such a moment, I would not have felt equal to enduring his
last look. Much better to give the blow in the night. Unfortunately,
instead of hiding his arms, he placed them ostensibly between his bed
and mine.
At last, I conceived a plan for escaping, without awakening him or
killing him. The idea flashed across my mind, Sunday, the 11th day of
May, at 6 o'clock. I had noticed, on Ascension Day, that Vasile loved to
drink, and that it took but little wine to intoxicate him. I invited him
to dine with me. This exhibition of friendship mounted to his brain; the
wine of Aegina did the rest! Hadgi-Stavros, who had not honored me with
a visit since I had lost his esteem, still acted as a generous host. My
table was better served than his own. I could have drunk a goat-skin of
wine or a cask of rhaki. Vasile, admitted to his share of these
luxuries, began the repast with touching humility. He kept three feet
from the table, like a peasant invited to his master's house. Little by
little, the wine lessened the distance. At eight o'clock, my guardian
explained his character to me. At nine, stutteringly related to me the
adventures of his youth, and a series of exploits which would have made
a Criminal Examining Magistrate's hair stand on end. At ten, he became
philanthropic; this heart of tempered steel was dissolving in the rhaki,
like Cleopatra's pearl in the vinegar. He swore to me that he became a
bandit because of his love for humanity; that he would make his fortune
in ten years, would found a hospital with his savings, and then retire
to a monastery on Mount Athos. He promised that he would not forget me
in his prayers. I took advantage of his good intentions in order to make
him drink an enormous cup of rhaki. I might have offered him boiling
pitch; he was too much my friend to refuse me. Soon, he lost his voice;
his head swung from the right to the left, from the left to the right,
with the regularity of a pendulum; he held out his hand to me; it
alighted on the remains of the roast, this he shook cordially, fell over
on his back, and slept the sleep of the Egyptian Sphinx, which the
French cannons have never awakened.
I had not an instant to lose; the minutes were golden. I took his
pistol, which I threw to the bottom of the ravine. I seized his dagger,
and was going to throw that down also, when the thought came to me that
it would be useful in cutting up the turf. My watch showed eleven
o'clock. I extinguished the two torches of resinous wood which had
lighted our table; the light might attract the King's attention. It was
a beautiful night. No moon at all, but the sky was studded with stars;
it was just the kind of night for my purpose. The turf, cut in long
strips, came up like cloth. I had a sufficient quantity at the end of an
hour. As I carried them to the spring, I stumbled against Vasile. He
raised himself, heavily, and through habit, asked me if I needed
anything. I let fall my burden and seated myself near the drunken man,
and begged him to drink one more cup to my health. "Yes!" he mumbled, "I
am thirsty." I filled for him the copper cup for the last time. He drank
half of it; spilled the remainder over his face and neck, attempted to
get up, fell over on his face, with his arms extended, and moved no
more. I ran to my dike, and novice as I was, the brook was solidly
dammed up in forty-five minutes; it was a quarter of one o'clock. To the
noise of the cascade succeeded a profound silence. Fear seized me. I
reflected that the King probably slept lightly, like most old people,
and that the unusual silence would probably awake him. In the tumult of
thoughts which filled my mind, I remembered a scene in the Barbier de
Seville, where Bartholo was awakened when he ceased to hear a piano. I
glided under the trees to the staircase, and looked toward the King's
cabinet. He was sleeping peacefully beside his pipe-bearer. I crept
stealthily along within twenty feet of his tree, I listened; all were
asleep. I went back to my dam, passing through a puddle of icy water,
which was already up to my ankles, flung myself down and looked over the
abyss. The side of the mountain had gradually become polished. There
were, here and there, cavities in which water had formed in pools. I had
taken accurate note; these places were where I could put my feet. I
returned to my tent, took my box which was suspended over my bed, and
slung it over my shoulders. In passing the place where we had dined, I
picked up a part of a loaf, and a piece of meat which the water had not
yet wet. I put these provisions in my box for my breakfast next morning.
The dam still held well, the wind ought to have dried my path; it was
nearly two o'clock. I wished, in case of an encounter with any one, to
take Vasile's dagger, but it was under the water and I could lose no
time searching for it. I took off my shoes, I tied them together, and
hung them on the strap of my box. At last, after thinking of everything,
throwing a last look at my earthworks, giving a thought to my family at
home, and sending a kiss in the direction of Athens and Mary-Ann, I
threw one leg over the edge, I seized with both hands a tree which hung
over the abyss, and I started out, trusting to God to help me.
It was rough work, harder than I had supposed when looking down. The
rock, not entirely dry, gave me a feeling of clammy cold, like the
contact of a serpent. I had not calculated distances accurately, and
the points of support were farther apart than I had hoped. Twice I took
a wrong course in moving to the left. I had to return, a work of
incredible difficulty. Hope abandoned me often, but not my will. My foot
slipped; I mistook a shadow for a projection, and I fell fifteen or
twenty feet, clinging with my hands and body to the side of the
mountain, without finding a place to stop myself. A root of a fig-tree
caught me by the cuff of my coat-sleeve, you can see the marks here. A
little further on, a bird, hidden in a little hole, on the mountain
side, flew out between my legs so suddenly, and frightened me so, that I
almost fell head first. I advanced with feet and hands, especially with
my hands. My arms seemed broken, and I heard the tendons creak like the
cords of a harp. My nails were so cruelly torn that they ceased to pain
me. Perhaps, if I had been able to measure the distance still before me,
I would have felt renewed strength; but when I turned my head, I became
so dizzy that I abandoned the attempt. To sustain my courage, I talked
to myself; I spoke out loud between my clenched teeth. I said: "One more
step for my father! yet another for Mary-Ann! still one more for the
confusion of the brigands and the rage of Hadgi-Stavros!"
My feet at last rested on a broad ledge. It seemed to me that the soil
had changed color. I bent my knees, I seated myself, I turned my head. I
was only ten feet from the brook. I had reached the red rocks. The
smooth stone, full of hollows, in which the water still stood, allowed
me to take breath and rest a little. I drew out my watch; it was only
half past two. I would have believed that my journey had taken three
nights. I examined my arms and legs, to ascertain if I still possessed
them all; in this kind of an expedition one never knows what will
happen. I had had good luck; I had suffered some contusions and the skin
was rubbed off in two or three places. The worst sufferer was my
paletot. I looked up, not to thank Heaven, but to assure myself that
nothing had moved in my camping place. I heard only the drops of water
filtering through my dam. All was well; I was reassured; I knew where to
find Athens; adieu to the King of the Mountains!
I was about to leap to the bottom of the ravine, when a whitish form
jumped up before me, and I heard the most furious barking which had ever
awakened morning echoes. Alas! Monsieur, the enemies of man roamed at
all hours around the camp, and one of them had scented me. I cannot
describe the fury and hate which possessed me at meeting him; one does
not detest to this degree an irrational being. I would have much
preferred to find myself face to face with a wolf, with a tiger, or a
white bear, noble beasts, who would have eaten me without saying
anything, but who would not have denounced me. Ferocious beasts hunt for
themselves; but to think of this horrible dog who was about to devour
me, with a great uproar, in order to serve Hadgi-Stavros! I overwhelmed
him with insults; I hurled the most odious names at him; do the best I
could yet he spoke louder than I. I changed my tune, I tried the effect
of kind words, I spoke to him sweetly in Greek, in the tongue of his
fathers; he gave but one response to all my advances, and the response
awoke the mountain echoes. A thought struck me! I was silent; he ceased
barking. I stretched myself out among the pools of water; he crouched at
the foot of the rock with low growls. I pretended to sleep; he slept. I
glided, inch by inch, toward the brook; he was up with a bound, and I
had only time to regain my platform. My hat remained in the hands of the
enemy, or rather, in the teeth of the enemy. An instant afterward, it
was no more than a pulp, a chewed up mass, a rag of a hat! Poor hat! I
pitied it! I put myself in its place. If I could have escaped, less a
few mouthfuls, I would not have considered the matter a great while, I
would have made allowances for the dog's share. But these monsters are
not satisfied with killing people, they eat them!
I was convinced that he was hungry; that if I could find enough to
surfeit him, he might possibly bite me, but he would not devour me. I
had some provisions, I would sacrifice them; my only regret was that I
did not have a hundred times more. I threw a piece of bread to him; he
swallowed it in one mouthful; imagine a pebble which falls into a well.
As I looked piteously at the small portion which still remained, I saw,
in the bottom of the box, a white package, which gave me a new idea. It
was a small amount of arsenic, used in my zoological preparations. I
used it in stuffing birds, but no law prevented me from putting a few
grains into the body of a dog. My speaker, with sharpened appetite,
demanded more: "Wait," I said to him, "I am going to give thee a morsel
of my own making!" The package contained about 35 grammes of a pretty
powder, white and shining. I turned five or six into a small pool of
water, and I put the remainder in my pocket. I carefully diluted a
portion for the animal; I waited until the acid was well dissolved; I
dipped into the solution a piece of bread, which soaked it all up, like
a sponge. The dog sprang upon it with a good appetite and swallowed it
at once.
Why was not I provided with a little strychnine, or some other good
poison more fearful than arsenic? It was after three o'clock, and the
results of my experiment were not instantaneous. About half after three,
the dog began to howl with all his strength. I had not gained much;
barking and howling, cries of fury, or of agony, were all to the same
purpose--that is--the awakening of Hadgi-Stavros. Soon the animal fell
into frightful convulsions; he foamed at the mouth; he was seized with
nausea, he made violent effort to throw off the poison. It was a sweet
sight to me, and I enjoyed it; the death of the enemy was my only way of
escape, and death was vanquishing him. I hoped that, conquered by the
poison, he would permit me to leave; but he raged against me, he opened
his foam-flecked and bloody jaws, as if to reproach me with my presents,
and to tell me that he would not die without vengeance. I threw my
handkerchief to him; he tore it as savagely as my hat. The sky began to
lighten. I became convinced that I had committed a useless murder. An
hour later, the brigands would be upon me. I looked up to that horrid
place which I had left without expecting to return to it, and to which
the dog's endurance was forcing me. A volume of water suddenly poured
over the rock and threw me, face down. The icy water, filled with huge
pieces of turf, stones, fragments of rock rolled over me. The dam had
broken, and the whole body of water poured over my head. A trembling
seized me! I became chilled, my blood congealed! I looked toward the
dog; he was still at the foot of my rock, struggling with death, with
the current, with anything, jaws open and eyes turned towards me. This
must end. I took off my box, clutched it by the straps, and pounded that
hideous head with such fury that the enemy left me the field of battle.
The torrent seized him, rolled him over two or three times, and carried
him, I know not where.
I jumped into the water; it was up to my waist; I clung to the rocks; I
went with the current; I was over the bank; I shook myself, I cried:
"Hurrah for Mary-Ann!"
Four brigands rose out of the earth! they caught me by the collar,
saying: "Here thou art, assassin! Come! we will take thee back! the King
will be happy! Vasile will be avenged!"
It appeared, that without knowing it, I had drowned my friend, Vasile.
At that time, Monsieur, I had never killed a man; Vasile was my first. I
have fought others since, to defend myself and to save my life; but
Vasile is the only one who has caused me any remorse, although his end
was, probably, the result of a very innocent imprudence. You know that
it is only the first step! No murderer, discovered by the police,
surrounded with soldiers and led to the scene of his crime, hung his
head more humbly than I. I dared not raise my eyes to the good people
who had arrested me; I did not feel equal to encountering the eyes of
these reprobates; I trembled; I presented a guilty appearance; I knew
that I must appear before my judge, and be placed before my victim. How
could I confront the King's frown, after what I had done? How could I
see, without dying of shame, the inanimate body of the unfortunate
Vasile? My knees shook; I would have fallen but for the kicks I received
from those following me.
I crossed the deserted camp, the King's cabinet, occupied by some of the
wounded, and I descended, or, rather, I fell to the bottom of the
staircase to my chamber. The waters had receded, leaving traces of mud
everywhere. A small pool of water still remained where I had raised the
dam. The bandits, the King, and the monk, stood in a circle, about a
dark and muddy object, the sight of which made my hair stand on end: it
was Vasile! Heaven preserve you, Monsieur, from the sight of a corpse of
your own making! The water and the mud, rushing over him, had deposited
on him a hideous layer. Have you ever seen a great fly which had been
caught, three or four days before, in a large spider-web? The artisan of
the web, not being able to rid himself of his visitor, had enveloped him
in a tangle of gray threads, and changed him to an unformed and
unrecognizable mass. Such was Vasile a few hours after he had dined with
me. I found him ten feet from the path where I had bidden him farewell.
I do not know whether the brigands had laid him there, or whether he
had thrown himself there, in his convulsions of agony; I am inclined to
believe, however, that death had come to him gently. Full of wine as I
had left him, he must have succumbed, without a struggle, to some
cerebral congestion.
A menacing murmur, which was a bad augury, greeted my arrival.
Hadgi-Stavros, with pale and contracted brow, walked up to me, seized me
by the left wrist, and dragged me so violently that he dislocated my
arm. He threw me into the middle of the circle with such force, that I
almost fell on my victim; I instantly recoiled.
"Look!" he cried in thundering tones, "look at what you have done!
rejoice in your work; gaze upon your crime! Wretch! but where would you
have stopped? Who would have said, the day I received you here, that I
had opened my door to an assassin?"
I stammered some excuses; I tried to show the judge that I was guilty
only of imprudence. I warmly accused myself of having intoxicated my
guardian in order to escape his watchfulness, and to flee without
hindrance from my prison; but I defended myself from the crime of
assassinating him. Was it my fault if the rise of waters drowned him an
hour after my departure? The proof that I had wished him no evil, was
that I had not stabbed him when he was dead drunk, and that I had his
weapons at hand. They could wash the body and see that he was not
wounded.
"At least," the King replied, "confess that your act was very selfish
and very culpable! When your life was not threatened, when you were held
here for only a small sum, you fled through avarice; you thought only
of saving a few écus, and you did not trouble yourself about this poor
unfortunate whom you left to die! You never thought of me! that you were
going to deprive me of a valuable officer! And what moment did you
choose to betray us? The day on which all kinds of troubles assailed us;
when I had sustained a defeat; when I had lost my best soldiers; when
Sophocles was wounded; when the Corfuan was dying; when the little
Spiro, upon whom I relied, was killed; when all my men were weary and
discouraged; it was then you had the heart to relieve me of Vasile! Have
you, then, no humane sentiments? Would it not have been a hundred times
better to have paid your ransom honestly, as became a good prisoner,
than to have it said you sacrificed a life for 15,000 francs?"
"Eh! Zounds! You have killed people, and for less!"
He replied with dignity: "That is my business; it is not yours. I am a
brigand, and you are a doctor. I am Greek, and you are German."
To that, I had nothing to reply. I felt convinced from the trembling of
every fiber of my heart, that I had neither been born nor brought up to
the profession of killing men. The King, angry at my silence, raised his
voice, and said:
"Do you know, miserable young man, who was the excellent man of whose
death you are guilty? He was a descendant of those heroic brigands of
Souli who fought fierce battles for their religion, and against Ali de
Tebelen, Pasha of Janina. For four generations, all of his ancestors
have either been hung or decapitated; not one has died in his bed. Only
six years ago, his own brother perished in Epirus, having been condemned
to death; he had killed a Mohammedan. Devotion and courage are
hereditary in that family. Never did Vasile forget his religious duties.
He gave to the churches; he gave to the poor. At Easter, he always
lighted a larger taper than any one else. He would have killed himself
rather than violate the law of abstinence, or eat meat on a fast-day. He
economized in order to retire to a convent on Mount Athos. Did you know
it?"