THE MINUTE VIALS.
Even to the Communists, with whom he had come into such close contact,
M. Dantes, the Deputy from Marseilles, remained as much of a mystery as
ever. Marrast, though now devotedly attached to him, admitted that he
was totally unable to fathom either his designs, or his methods of
accomplishing them, while Lamartine, who was in his company a large
portion of the time, when questioned concerning him, replied that all he
knew of M. Dantes was that he was a firm friend of the cause and an
untiring worker in the interest of the weary and oppressed masses.
Debray, though he had no tangible foundation for it, could not get rid
of the idea that the dangerous Deputy and the Count of Monte-Cristo were
one and the same individual, but Beauchamp, with the usual incredulity
of journalists, scoffed at the notion, and Chateau-Renaud derided it
whenever it was mentioned in his presence.
That M. Dantes had great wealth was, however, generally admitted, though
whence it was derived or in what manner it was invested no one could
tell. It was now no longer a secret that he had purchased and resided in
the magnificent mansion formerly owned by the Count de Morcerf, in the
Rue du Helder, and this circumstance, while it vastly augmented the
interest attaching to him, did not in the least detract from the
enthusiasm felt for him by the working classes.
It was night. In a large chamber, richly furnished, but dimly lighted,
in the mansion in the Rue du Helder, the same apartment once inhabited
by the Countess de Morcerf, motionless, and seemingly lifeless, with a
countenance as pale as alabaster, and as still, lay M. Dantes, the
Deputy from Marseilles. Although, in the ashy pallor of the lips and
brow, and the fixed, serene, almost stern aspect of the immovable face,
might be read unmistakable evidence of an exhausting and dangerous
constitutional shock to the system, yet none of that emaciation, over
which broods the shadow of the angel of death, resulting from protracted
illness, was there to be seen. The broad white forehead--the raven hair,
sparsely sprinkled with silver--the round temples--the delicately
penciled brow, encircling, like a sable arch, the large and
almond-formed eye--the full calm lip, and the chiseled chin and
nostril--all these were as perfect now as when last before the reader.
The cheek was, perhaps, slightly sunken, but it could not be more pallid
than when last beheld; and but for that nameless quietude--that "rapture
of repose," as Lord Byron well expresses it--that placid languor which
sleeps on the features, which illness always creates and which
spiritualizes and intellectualizes the most common features, the invalid
might be supposed to be enjoying the most quiet slumber.
Excepting the invalid, there was no one in that chamber save the
faithful Ali, who moved noiselessly about, from time to time, or sat
immovably upon the floor and gazed on his master's pallid face.
As the silvery tones of the chamber clock tinkled forth the third
quarter after ten, the door opened, and a small, dark, thin man, with
large whiskers, keen, penetrating eyes, broad, bald forehead, thinly
covered with gray hair, and apparently about fifty years of age, briskly
entered. It was Dr. Orfila, a name somewhat known in medical science.
Approaching the bed, he placed his fingers upon the sick man's pulse,
and gazed earnestly on his face for some time in silence.
"Strange!" he at length muttered; "the most powerful drugs in the most
unheard-of quantities are powerless! Who, then, is this man, whose
nature so differs from that of every one else? Can he so have
accustomed his system to poisons, that, as with the King of Pontus, they
are ineffectual to help or to harm him? His constitution must be iron!
The vitality of a dozen men is in him, or he'd have been dead a month
ago. Well, it's plain he's no worse, if he's no better. Drugs are
useless, and he must be left to nature and his amazing constitution.
This stupor, this utter death of all the faculties and senses for so
long a time, is wonderful. Fever, delirium, anything but this death-like
trance. It seems as if this man had been sleepless all his life before,
and that now his overwrought brain and heart were compensating
themselves for the toil and wakefulness of years. Could I but excite the
nerves!"
For some time the physician gazed in deep thought at the pale face of
the unconscious slumberer. Suddenly turning to the Nubian, he said to
him:
"Ali, where does your master keep the drugs he has been for years
accustomed to take?"
The Nubian stared in mute amazement, but moved not from his rug.
"Ali," said Dr. Orfila, sternly, "unless I see and know those drugs,
this night your master dies."
The Nubian looked anxiously into the face of the physician, and then, as
if satisfied with the scrutiny, rose, and, with noiseless steps, left
the room. In a few moments he re-entered and placed in the physician's
hands a small casket of ebony, exquisitely worked and studded with gems.
Taking it hastily to the shaded lamp upon a table at the extremity of
the chamber, he attempted to open it, but his attempts were vain.
Indeed, to all appearances, it was a solid block of ebony, and its
extreme heaviness, compared with its dimensions, seemed to favor the
idea.
"Well?" said the doctor, returning the casket, after a close scrutiny,
to the Nubian, who had followed him.
Ali took the casket, and instantly a portion of the top flew up,
disclosing within the centre of the cube of ebony a cavity lined with
crimson velvet, and a dazzling array of minute vials of crystal, each
filled with a fluid--pink, blue, green and yellow in hue, while the
contents of several were colorless. The Nubian had touched a spring
concealed in the carving, and known only to his master and himself.
The physician removed the minute vials one after another from their
receptacles, and held them up to the light; on each was a cipher, and on
no two was the same. Most of them were quite filled with the fluid
contained, but some were only half full, while one was nearly empty. Dr.
Orfila looked closely at the cipher upon each vial as he removed it from
the casket. He then held it to the light to determine its particular hue
or shade, and sometimes withdrew the crystal stopper ground into the
deep mouth, touching it cautiously and quickly to his nostril or the tip
of his tongue. "Morphia, cinchonia, quinia, lobelia, belladonna,
narcotina, bromine, arsenicum, strychnos colubrina, brucoea
ferruginea," muttered the savant, as he examined one vial after the
other and replaced it. "Brucoea ferruginea--ha! brucine! I thought as
much," exclaimed he, holding up the vial, which showed, by being nearly
empty, that its contents had been used more frequently than those of any
of the others.
"How many drops of this is the greatest number your master has ever
taken?" asked Dr. Orfila.
The Nubian, who, it will be remembered, was a mute, held up both hands
with the fingers outspread, and then two other fingers of one of his
hands.
"Twelve drops!" cried the astonished physician. "Impossible!"
Ali insisted on the assertion.
"And yet it must be so," the doctor added. "That would explain all."
Taking the vial and a minute crystal vessel, which he found in the
casket, he hastily but carefully dropped into the latter thirteen drops.
Then filling the vessel with water, he approached the patient, who still
slumbered heavily on, and placed it to his lips. For an instant he
seemed conscious of the wish of the physician, and with an effort the
mixture was swallowed. Then he lay as still and motionless as before.
Returning the vials and the vessel to their places, Dr. Orfila closed
the casket and gave it to the Nubian. He then gazed long and anxiously
at the torpid slumberer, standing at the bedside and watching that
marble face.
At length the clock struck eleven. Dr. Orfila started and hastily
glanced at his repeater; then, turning to the Nubian, who had carried
away the casket, and, having noiselessly returned, stood silently beside
him, he said:
"Ali, in one hour your master will be in high fever; in two hours he
will, probably, be delirious. He will then sleep soundly, and toward
morning will wake, I hope, in his right mind, but terribly exhausted and
profusely perspiring. At daylight I shall be here. You must not leave
him for a single instant as you value his life."
The Nubian clasped his hands above his head and bent his forehead almost
to the floor.
"If you think necessary, however, Ali, send for me before morning."
The physician gave one more look at his patient, pressed his fingers on
his pulse, placed his palm on his forehead, and then, taking his hat and
cane, left the chamber.