THE STORY OF THE SEVEN DEAD MEN
And the stories! There were many of them. The young faces bent closer as
we told the story of Saint Martin dividing his cloak among the beggars.
Then came our own Cornish giant-killer, adapted for an Italian audience,
dressed to taste in a great brigand hat and a beltful of daggers and
pistols. Blunderbore in the Italian manner was a distinguished success.
It was Henry who told the tales, but yet I think it was I who had the
more abundant praise. For they heard me prompt my Mercurius, and they
saw him appeal to me in a difficulty. Obviously, therefore, Henry was
the servant of the chief magician, who like a great lord only
communicated his pleasure through his steward.
Then with a tale of Venice[1] that was new to them we scared them out of
a year's growth--frightening ourselves also, for then we were but young.
It was well that the time was not far from high noon. The story told in
brief ran thus. It was the story of the "Seven Dead Men."
[Footnote 1: For the origin of this and much else as profitable and
pleasant, see Mr. Horatio Brown's _Life on the Lagoons_, the most
charming and characteristic of Venetian books.]
There were once six men that went fishing on the lagoons. They brought
a little boy, the son of one of them, to remain and cook the polenta. In
the night-time he was alone in the cabin, but in the morning the
fishermen came in. And if they found that aught was not to their taste,
they beat him. But if all was well, they only bade him to wash up the
dishes, yet gave him nothing to eat, knowing that he would steal for
himself, as the custom of boys is.
But one morning they brought with them from their fishing the body of a
dead man--a man of the mainland whom they had found tumbling about in
the current of the Brenta. For he had looked out suddenly upon them
where the sea and the river strive together, and the water boils up in
great smooth, oily dimples that are not wholesome for men to meddle
with.
Now, whether these six men had not gone to confession or had not
confessed truly, so that the priest's absolution did them no good, the
tale ventures not to say. But this at least is sure, that for their sins
they set this dead thing that had been a man in the prow of the boat,
all in his wet clothes. And for a jest on the little boy they put his
hand on his brow, as though the dead were in deep cogitation.
As this story was in the telling, the attention of the children grew
keen and even painful. For the moment each was that lonely lad on the
islet, where stood the cabin of the Seven Dead Men.
So as the boat came near in the morning light, the boy stood to greet
them on the little wooden pier where the men landed their fish to clean,
and he called out to the men in the boat--
"Come quickly," he cried; "breakfast is ready--all but the fish to fry."
He saw that one of the men was asleep in the prow; yet, being but a
lad, he was only able to count as many as the crows--that is, four. So
he did not notice that in the boat there was a man too many. Nor would
he have wondered, had he been told of it. For it was not his place to
wonder. He was only sleepy, and desired to lie down after the long night
alone. Also he hoped that they had had a good catch of fish, so that he
would escape being beaten. For indeed he had taken the best of the
polenta for himself before the men came--which was as well, for if he
had waited till they were finished, there had been but dog's leavings
for him. He was a wise boy, this, when it came to eating. Now, eating
and philosophy come by nature, as doth also a hungry stomach; but
arithmetic and Greek do not come by nature. To which Henry Fenwick
presently agreed.
The men went in with a good appetite to their breakfast, and left the
dead man sitting alone in the prow with his hand on his brow.
So when they sat down, the boy said--
"Why does not the other man come in? I see him sitting there. Are you
not going to bring him in to breakfast also?" (For he wished to show
that he had not eaten any of the polenta.)
Then, for a jest upon him, one of the men answered--
"Why, is the man not here? He is indeed a heavy sleeper. You had better
go and wake him."
So the little boy went to the door and called, shouting loud, "Why
cannot you come to breakfast? It has been ready this hour, and is going
cold!"
And when the men within heard that, they thought it the best jest in a
month of Sundays, and they laughed loud and strong.
So the boy came in and said--"What ails the man? He will not answer
though I have called my best."
"Oh" said they, "he is but a deaf old fool, and has had too much to
drink over-night. Go thou and swear bad words at him, and call him beast
and fool!"
So the men put wicked words into the boy's mouth, and laughed the more
to hear them come from the clean and innocent lips of a lad that knew
not their meaning. And perhaps that is the reason of what followed.
So the boy ran in again.
"Come out quickly, one of you," said the lad, "and wake him, for he does
not heed me, and I am sure that there is something the matter with him.
Mayhap he hath a headache or evil in his stomach."
So they laughed again, hardly being able to eat for laughing, and said--
"It must be cramp of the stomach that is the matter with him. But go out
again, and shake him by the leg, and ask him if he means to keep us
waiting here till doomsday."
So the boy went out and shook the man as he was bidden.
Then the dead man turned to him, sitting up in the prow as natural as
life, and said--
"What do you want with me?"
"Why in the name of the saints do you not come?" said the boy; "the men
want to know if they are to wait till doomsday for you."
"Tell them," said the man, "that I am coming as fast as I can. For this
is Doomsday!" said he.
The boy ran back into the hut, well pleased. For a moment his voice
could not be heard, because of the noisy laughter of the men. Then he
said--
"It is all right. He says he is coming."
Then the men thought that the boy was trying in his turn to put a jest
on them, and would have beaten him. In a moment, however, they heard
something coming slowly up the ladder, so they laughed no more, but all
turned very pale and sat still and listened. And only the boy remembered
to cross himself.
The footsteps came nearer. The door was pushed stumblingly open, as by
one that fumbles and is not sure of his way. Then the man that had been
dead and drowned, of whom they had made their sport, came in and sat
down at the boy's place, the seventh at the table. Whereupon there was a
great silence. None spoke, but all looked; for none, save the boy only,
could withdraw his eyes from those of the dead man. Colder and chillier
flowed the blood in their veins, till it ceased to flow at all, and
froze about their hearts.
Whereat the boy flung himself shrieking into a boat and rowed away by
the power of his own saint, Santa Caterina of Siena. He met some
fishermen in a sailing boat, but it was the third day before any dared
row to the lonely Casa on the mud bank. When they did go, three men
climbed up the posts at different sides, for the ladder had fallen away.
They went not in, but only looked through the window. They saw indeed
six men, who sat round the platter of cold polenta. But the seventh, who
sat at the bottom in the boy's place, shone as though he had been on
fire, leaning back in his chair as one that laughed and made merry at a
jest. But the six were fallen silent and very sober.
So the three men that looked fell back from off the platform into the
water as dead men; and had not their companions been active men of
Malamocco, they too had been drowned. So there to this day in the lonely
Casa of the Seven Dead Men the six are sitting, and the fiery seventh at
the table-foot, in the boy's place--until the Day comes that is
Doomsday, which is the last day of all.