THE SHORT-STORY

With Introduction and Notes

BY

W. PATTERSON ATKINSON, A.M.

VICE-PRINCIPAL OF THE LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL JERSEY CITY

FOREWORD
1
This book is the result of actual work with first year High School pupils. Furthermore, the
completed text has been tried out with them. Their difficulties, standards of reading, and the
average development of their minds and taste have constantly been remembered. Whatever
teaching quality the book may possess is due to their criticisms.

Hearty thanks are due Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons, Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, The Thomas
Y. Crowell Company, and The Houghton Mifflin Company for gracious permission to use
copyrighted material.[Pg v]

CONTENTS
Portraits of Authors

Introduction

I. Definition and Development

II. Forms

III. The Short-story as Narration

IV. Representative Short-stories

V. Bibliography

Washington Irving: Rip Van Winkle (1820)

Edgar Allan Poe: The Gold Bug (1842)

The Purloined Letter (1845)

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Howe's Masquerade (1838)

The Birthmark (1843)

Francis Bret Harte: The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1869)

Robert Louis Stevenson: The Sire de Malétroit's Door (1878)

Markheim (1885)

Rudyard Kipling: Wee Willie Winkie (1888)

Notes

2
INTRODUCTION
I
DEFINITION AND DEVELOPMENT

Mankind has always loved to tell stories and to listen to them. The most primitive and unlettered
peoples and tribes have always shown and still show this universal characteristic. As far back as
written records go we find stories; even before that time, they were handed down from remote
generations by oral tradition. The wandering minstrel followed a very ancient profession. Before
him was his prototype—the man with the gift of telling stories over the fire at night, perhaps at the
mouth of a cave. The Greeks, who ever loved to hear some new thing, were merely typical of the
ready listeners.

In the course of time the story passed through many forms and many phases—the myth, e.g. The
Labors of Hercules; the legend, e.g. St. George and the Dragon; the fairy tale, e.g. Cinderella; the
fable, e.g. The Fox and the Grapes; the allegory, e.g. Addison's The Vision of Mirza; the parable,
e.g. The Prodigal Son. Sometimes it was merely to amuse, sometimes to instruct. With this
process are intimately connected famous books, such as "The Gesta Romanorum" (which, by the
way, has nothing to do with the Romans) and famous writers like Boccaccio.[Pg x]

Gradually there grew a body of rules and a technique, and men began to write about the way
stories should be composed, as is seen in Aristotle's statement that a story should have a
beginning, a middle, and an end. Definitions were made and the elements named. In the fullness
of time story-telling became an art.

Similar stories are to be found in many different literatures because human nature is
fundamentally the same the world over; that is, people are swayed by the same motives, such as
love, hate, fear, and the like. Another reason for this similarity is the fact that nations borrowed
stories from other nations, changing the names and circumstances. Writers of power took old and
crude stories and made of them matchless tales which endure in their new form, e.g. Hawthorne's
Rappaccini's Daughter. Finally the present day dawned and with it what we call the short-story.

The short-story—Prof. Brander Matthews has suggested the hyphen to differentiate it from the
story which is merely short and to indicate that it is a new species[1]—is a narrative which is
short and has unity, compression, originality, and ingenuity, each in a high degree.[2] The notion
of shortness as used in this definition may be inexactly though easily grasped by considering the
length of the average magazine story. Compression means that nothing must be included that can
be left out. Clayton Hamilton expresses this idea by the convenient phrase "economy of
means."[3] By originality is meant something new in plot, point, outcome, or character. (See
Introduc[Pg xi]tion III for a discussion of these terms.) Ingenuity suggests cleverness in handling
the theme. The short-story also is impressionistic because it leaves to the reader the reconstruction
from hints of much of the setting and details.

Mr. Hamilton has also constructed another useful definition. He says: "The aim of a short-story is
to produce a single narrative effect with the greatest economy of means that is consistent with the
utmost emphasis."[4]

However, years before, in 1842, in his celebrated review of Hawthorne's Tales[5] Edgar Allan
Poe had laid down the same theory, in which he emphasizes what he elsewhere calls, after
Schlegel, the unity or totality of interest, i.e. unity of impression, effect, and economy. Stevenson,
too, has written critically of the short-story, laying stress on this essential unity, pointing out how
each effect leads to the next, and how the end is part of the beginning.[6]
3
America may justly lay claim to this new species of short narrative. Beginning in the early part of
the nineteenth century there had begun to appear in this country stories showing variations from
the English type of story which "still bore upon it marks of its origin; it was either a hard, formal,
didactic treatise, derived from the moral apologue or fable; or it was a sentimental love-tale
derived from the artificial love-romance that followed the romance of chivalry."[7] The first one
to stand out prominently is Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle, which was published in 1820.
This story, while more leisurely and less[Pg xii] condensed than the completely developed form
of the short-story, had the important element of humor, as well as freshness, grace, and restraint,
nothing being said that should not be said.

The next writer in the order of development is Edgar Allan Poe, whose Berenice appeared in
1835. With it the short-story took definite form. Poe's contribution is structure and technique; that
is, he definitely introduced the characteristics noted in the definition—unity, compression,
originality, and ingenuity. With almost mathematical precision he sets out to obtain an effect. To
quote from his before-mentioned review of Hawthorne his own words which are so definite as
almost to compose a formula of his way of writing a short-story and are so thoughtful as to be
nearly the summary of any discussion of the subject: "A skillful literary artist has constructed a
tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having
conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then
invents such incidents—he then combines such events—as may best aid him in establishing this
preconceived effect. If his very initial sentence tend not to the out-bringing of this effect, then he
has failed in his first step. In the whole composition there should be no word written of which the
tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one preëstablished design. And by such means, with such
care and skill, a picture is at length painted which leaves in the mind of him who contemplates it
with a kindred art a sense of the fullest satisfaction. The idea of the tale has been presented
unblemished because undisturbed; and this is an end unattainable by the novel." It is to be noted
that Poe roused interest in his effect by the method of suspense, that is, by holding back the
solution of the[Pg xiii] plot, by putting off telling what the reader wants to know, though he
continually aggravates the desire to know by constant hints, the full significance of which is only
realized when the story is done. His stories are of two main classes: what have been called stories
of "impressionistic terror," that is, stories of great fear induced in a character by a mass of rather
vague and unusual incidents, such as The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) and The Pit and the
Pendulum (1843); and stories of "ratiocination," that is, of the ingenious thinking out of a
problem, as The Mystery of Marie Rogêt (1843). In the latter type he is the originator of the
detective story.

The writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne exhibit the next stage of development. While lacking some
of the technical excellence of Poe by often not knowing how to begin or how to end a story, by
sacrificing economy or compression, yet he presented something new in making a story of
situation, that is, by putting a character in certain circumstances and working out the results, as
The Birthmark (1843). His stories also fall into two groups, the imaginative, like Howe's
Masquerade (1838), and the moralizing introspective, or, as they have been called, the "moral-
philosophic," that is, stories which look within the human mind and soul and deal with great
questions of conduct, such as The Ambitious Guest (1837). Hawthorne was the descendant of
Puritans, men given to serious thought and sternly religious. It is this strain of his inheritance
which is evidenced in the second group. In all his writing there is some outward symbol of the
circumstances or the state of mind. It is seen, for example, in The Minister's Black Veil (1835).

In 1868 was published Luck of Roaring Camp, by Bret Harte. In this story and those that
immediately followed,[Pg xiv] the author advanced the development of the short-story yet another
step by introducing local color. Local color means the peculiar customs, scenery, or surroundings
of any kind, which mark off one place from another. In a literary sense he discovered California

4
of the days of the early rush for gold. Furthermore, he made the story more definite. He confined
it to one situation and one effect, thus approaching more to what may be considered the normal
form.

With the form of the short-story fairly worked out, the next development is to be noted in the tone
and subject matter. Local color became particularly evident, humor became constantly more
prominent, and then the analysis of the working of the human mind, psychologic analysis, held
the interest of some foremost writers. Stories of these various kinds came to the front about the
third quarter of the last century. "Mark Twain" (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), Thomas Bailey
Aldrich, and Frank R. Stockton preëminently and admirably present the humor so peculiarly an
American trait. Local color had its exponents in George W. Cable, who presented Louisiana;
"Charles Egbert Craddock" (Miss M. N. Murfree), who wrote of Tennessee; Thomas Nelson
Page, who gave us Virginia; and Miss M. E. Wilkins (Mrs. Charles M. Freeman), who wrote of
New England, to mention only the most notable. With psychologic analysis the name of Henry
James is indissolubly linked. The Passionate Pilgrim (1875) may be taken as an excellent
example of his work.

By this time the American short-story had crossed to England and found in Robert Louis
Stevenson an artist who could handle it with consummate skill. He passed it on a more finished
and polished article than when he[Pg xv] received it, because by a long course of self-training he
had become a master in the use of words. His stories remind one of Hawthorne because there is
generally in them some underlying moral question, some question of human action, something
concerning right and wrong. But they also have another characteristic which is more obvious to
the average reader—their frank romance. By romance is meant happenings either out of the usual
course of events, such as the climax of Lochinvar, or events that cannot occur.

The latest stage in the development of the short-story is due to Rudyard Kipling, who has made it
generally more terse, has filled it with interest in the highest degree, has found new local color,
chiefly in India, and has given it virility and power. His subject matter is, in the main, interesting
to all kinds of readers. His stories likewise fulfill all the requirements of the definition. Being a
living genius he is constantly showing new sides of his ability, his later stories being psychologic.
His writings fall into numerous groups—soldier tales; tales of machinery; of animals; of the
supernatural; of native Indian life; of history; of adventure;—the list could be prolonged.
Sometimes they are frankly tracts, sometimes acute analyses of the working of the human mind.

So in the course of a little less than a century there has grown to maturity a new kind of short
narrative identified with American Literature and the American people, exhibiting the foremost
traits of the American character, and written by a large number of authors of different rank whose
work, of a surprisingly high average of technical excellence, appears chiefly in the magazines.[Pg
xvi]

II
FORMS

Though the short-story has achieved a normal or general form of straightforward narrative, as in
Kipling's An Habitation Enforced or Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews' Amici, yet it exhibits
many variations in presentation. Sometimes it is a series of letters as in James' A Bundle of
Letters, sometimes a group of narrative, letters, and telegrams as in Thomas Bailey Aldrich's
Marjorie Daw; again, a letter and a paragraph as in Henry Cuyler Bunner's A Letter and a
Paragraph, or a gathering of letters, telegrams, newspaper clippings, and advertisements as
Bunner and Matthews' Documents in the Case.

5
Again it may be told in the first person as in Stevenson's Pavilion on the Links, or in the third
person as in Kipling's The Bridge Builders. Yet again it may be a conundrum as Stockton's
famous The Lady or the Tiger!

But besides the forms due to the manner of presentation there are other forms due to the emphasis
placed on one of the three elements of a narrative—-action, character, and setting. Consequently
using this principle of classification we have three forms which may be exemplified by Kipling's
William the Conqueror, wherein action is emphasized; his Tomb of His Ancestors, wherein
character is emphasized; and his An Error in the Fourth Dimension, wherein setting is
emphasized.

Using yet another principle of classification—material—we obtain: stories of dramatic interest,

that is, of some striking happening that would hold the audience of a play in a highly excited state,
as Stevenson's Sire de Malétroit's Door; of love, as Bunner's Love in Old Cloathes; of roman[Pg
xvii]tic adventure, as Kipling's Man Who Would Be King; of terror, as Poe's Pit and the
Pendulum; of the supernatural, as Crawford's The Upper Berth; of humor, as humor, as Mary
Raymond Shipman Andrews' A Good Samaritan; of animals, as Kipling's Rikki-tikki-tavi; of
psychological analysis, as James' Madonna of the Future; and so on.

III
THE SHORT-STORY AS NARRATION

All the previous discussion must not obscure the fact that the short-story is a form of narration and
subject to all that pertains thereto. Now what is narration and what does it imply?

Narration is that form of discourse which presents a series of events in the order of time. Events or
action presuppose actors, or characters as they are generally called, and a place where the action
may take place; likewise time and circumstances within which the actors act. These three, which
may be conveniently spoken of as actors, action, and environment, are three of the elements of
narration. But there is a fourth. To make an interesting story there must be something for the chief
character, technically called the protagonist, to overcome, such as an adversary, a situation, or an
idea, which thing is called the obstacle. Furthermore, there must be something in the story near
the beginning which brings the protagonist into conflict with the obstacle. Often this conflict,
technically the collision, is brought about by another character. But it may be some happening.
Whatever it is, it is called the complicating force. Then again, toward the end of the story, there is
something else which either helps the protagonist to overcome the obstacle, or the obstacle to[Pg
xviii] overcome the protagonist. This is called the resolving force.

As these two forces work in different parts of the story, the action is conveniently divided into
parts to which names have been attached. First comes the introduction or proposition, wherein the
time, place, circumstances, and protagonist are presented; then the entanglement, wherein the
protagonist is brought into collision with the obstacle by the complicating force, and the interest
begins to deepen. Next we have the climax, in which the struggle, and consequently the interest,
are at their height; and this in turn is followed by the resolution, where the resolving force works
and the knot begins to be untied. Finally there is the dénouement or conclusion.

The career of each character may be conveniently spoken of as a line of interest. When the lines
of interest become entangled we have the plot.

The following diagram illustrates to the eye the development of a story. Of course it must be
distinctly under[Pg xix]stood that no story is the result of a mere substitution in a formula.

6
Sometimes the various steps in the working-out of a story overlap in such a manner that its
development according to a prescribed plan is not apparent.

Small c is sometimes called the crisis, being the point at which the action is most intense and
begins to turn toward the end.[Pg xxi][Pg xx]

IV
LIST OF REPRESENTATIVE SHORT-STORIES

1. Aldrich: Marjorie Daw.

2. Quite So.

3. Andrews: Amici.
4. The Glory of the Commonplace.
5. A Good Samaritan.

6. Bunner: "As One Having Authority."

7. Love in Old Cloathes.

8. Bunner and Matthews: Documents in the Case.

9. Cable: Posson Jone.

10. Child: The Man in the Shadow.

11. Clemens: Jumping Frog.

7
12. Cobb: To the Editor of the Sun.

13. Colcord: The Game of Life and Death.

14. Davis, R. H.: The Bar Sinister.

15. Gallegher.
16. The Lion and the Unicorn.

17. Doyle: The Red-Headed League.

18. A Scandal in Bohemia.
19. The Striped Chest.
20. Through the Veil.

21. Garland: The Return of a Private.

22. Gerould: On the Staircase.

23. Hale: The Man without a Country.

[Pg xxii]

24. Hardy: The Three Strangers.

25. Harris: The Wonderful Tar Baby.

26. Harte: Luck of Roaring Camp.

27. Tennessee's Partner.

28. Hawthorne: The Ambitious Guest.

29. Ethan Brand.
30. The Gray Champion.
31. The Great Stone Face.

32. "O. Henry": Friends in San Rosario.

33. Jimmie Hayes and Muriel.

34. Irving: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

35. The Spectre Bridegroom.

36. James: A Passionate Pilgrim.

37. Janvier: In the St. Peter's Set.

38. The Passing of Thomas.

39. Jewett: A Native of Winby.

40. Kipling: The Brushwood Boy.

41. An Habitation Enforced.
42. The Maltese Cat.
43. My Lord the Elephant.
44. Rikki-tikki-tavi.

8
45. They.
46. The Tomb of His Ancestors.
47. Wee Willie Winkie.
48. William the Conqueror.

49. London: The White Silence.

50. Morris: The Trap.

51. Murfree: The "Harnt" that Walks Chilhowee.

52. Page: Marse Chan.

53. Meh Lady.
54. Polly.

55. Parker: The Stake and the Plumb Line.

[Pg xxiii]

56. Poe: The Fall of the House of Usher.

57. The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
58. The Pit and the Pendulum.

59. Roberts: From the Teeth of the Tide.

60. Spearman: Jimmie the Wind.

61. Smith, F. H.: Colonel Carter of Cartersville.

62. Stevenson: The Bottle Imp.

63. A Lodging for the Night.
64. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
65. The Merry Men.
66. The Pavilion on the Links.

67. Stockton: The Lady or the Tiger?

68. The Transferred Ghost.
69. A Story of Seven Devils.

70. Van Dyke: The Blue Flower.

71. Wilkins (Freeman): A New England Nun.

72. The Revolt of Mother.[Pg xxv][Pg xxiv]

V
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baldwin, Charles Sears. American Short-stories. Longmans, Green, & Co., 1904.

Canby, Henry Seidel, A Study of the Short-story. Henry Holt & Co., 1913.

Dawson, W. J. AND Coningsby, The Great English Short-story Writers. Harper and Brothers,
1910.
9
Hamilton, Clayton, Materials and Methods of Fiction (Chapters X and XI). Doubleday, Page &
Co., 1908.

Matthews, Brander, The Short-story. American Book Co., 1907.

Perry, Bliss, A Study of Prose Fiction (Chapter XII). Houghton Mifflin Co., 1902.

Smith, C. Alphonso, The American Short-story. Ginn & Co., 1912.[Pg xxvii][Pg xxvi]

[Pg xxviii]

THE SHORT-STORY
[The following Tale was found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old
gentleman of New York, who was very curious in the Dutch history of the province, and the
manners of the descendants from its primitive settlers. His historical researches, however, did not
lie so much among books as among men; for the former are lamentably scanty on his favorite
topics; whereas he found the old burghers, and still more their wives, rich in that legendary lore,
so invaluable to true history. Whenever, therefore, he happened upon a genuine Dutch family,
snugly shut up in its low-roofed farmhouse, under a spreading sycamore, he looked upon it as a
little clasped volume of black-letter, and studied it with the zeal of a book-worm.

The result of all these researches was a history of the province during the reign of the Dutch
governors, which he published some years since. There have been various opinions as to the
literary character of his work, and, to tell the truth, it is not a whit better than it should be. Its chief
merit is its scrupulous accuracy, which indeed was a little questioned on its first appearance, but
has since been completely established; and it is now admitted into all historical collections, as a
book of unquestionable authority.

The old gentleman died shortly after the publication of his work, and now that he is dead and
gone, it cannot do much harm to his memory to say that his time might have been much better
employed in weightier labors. He, however, was apt to ride his hobby his own way; and though it
did now and then kick up the dust a little in the eyes of his neighbors, and grieve the spirit of
some friends, for whom he felt the truest deference and affection; yet his errors and follies are
remembered "more in sorrow than in anger," and it begins to be suspected, that he never intended
to injure or offend. But however his memory may be appreciated by critics, it is still held dear by
many folks, whose good opinion is well worth having; particularly by certain biscuit-bakers, who
have gone so far as to imprint his likeness on their new-year cakes; and have thus given him a
chance for immortality, almost equal to the being stamped on a Waterloo Medal, or a Queen
Anne's Farthing.][Pg 1]

RIP VAN WINKLE

A POSTHUMOUS WRITING OF DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER

By Woden, God of Saxons,

From whence comes Wensday, that is Wodensday,

10
 Truth is a thing that ever I will keep
Unto thylke day in which I creep into
My sepulchre—

Cartwright.

Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill mountains. They are a
dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of the river,
swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change of
season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some change in the
magical hues and shapes of these mountains, and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and
near, as perfect barometers. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and
purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but, sometimes, when the rest of the
landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the
last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory.

At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager may have descried the light smoke curling up
from a village whose shingle-roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland
melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape. It is a little village of great[Pg 2] antiquity,
having been founded by some of the Dutch colonists, in the early times of the province, just about
the beginning of the government of the good Peter Stuyvesant, (may he rest in peace!) and there
were some of the houses of the original settlers standing within a few years, built of small yellow
bricks brought from Holland, having latticed windows and gable fronts, surmounted with
weather-cocks.

In that same village, and in one of these very houses (which, to tell the precise truth, was sadly
time-worn and weather-beaten), there lived many years since, while the country was yet a
province of Great Britain, a simple good-natured fellow of the name of Rip Van Winkle. He was a
descendant of the Van Winkles who figured so gallantly in the chivalrous days of Peter
Stuyvesant, and accompanied him to the siege of Fort Christina. He inherited, however, but little
of the martial character of his ancestors. I have observed that he was a simple good-natured man;
he was, moreover, a kind neighbor, and an obedient hen-pecked husband. Indeed, to the latter
circumstance might be owing that meekness of spirit which gained him such universal popularity;
for those men are most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the discipline
of shrews at home. Their tempers, doubtless, are rendered pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace
of domestic tribulation; and a curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the
virtues of patience and long-suffering. A termagant wife may, therefore, in some respects, be
considered a tolerable blessing; and if so, Rip Van Winkle was thrice blessed.

Certain it is, that he was a great favorite among all the good wives of the village, who, as usual
with the amiable sex, took his part in all family squabbles; and never[Pg 3] failed, whenever they
talked those matters over in their evening gossipings, to lay all the blame on Dame Van Winkle.
The children of the village, too, would shout with joy whenever he approached. He assisted at
their sports, made their playthings, taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long
stories of ghosts, witches, and Indians. Whenever he went dodging about the village, he was
surrounded by a troop of them, hanging on his skirts, clambering on his back, and playing a
thousand tricks on him with impunity; and not a dog would bark at him throughout the
neighborhood.

The great error in Rip's composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor. It
could not be from the want of assiduity or perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod
as long and heavy as a Tartar's lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even though he should

11
not be encouraged by a single nibble. He would carry a fowling-piece on his shoulder for hours
together, trudging through woods and swamps, and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few squirrels
or wild pigeons. He would never refuse to assist a neighbor even in the roughest toil, and was a
foremost man at all country frolics for husking Indian corn, or building stone-fences; the women
of the village, too, used to employ him to run their errands, and to do such little odd jobs as their
less obliging husbands would not do for them. In a word Rip was ready to attend to anybody's
business but his own; but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it
impossible.

In fact, he declared it was of no use to work on his farm; it was the most pestilent little piece of
ground in the whole country; everything about it went wrong, and would go wrong, in spite of
him. His fences were con[Pg 4]tinually falling to pieces; his cow would either go astray or get
among the cabbages; weeds were sure to grow quicker in his fields than anywhere else; the rain
always made a point of setting in just as he had some out-door work to do, so that though his
patrimonial estate had dwindled away under his management, acre by acre, until there was little
more left than a mere patch of Indian corn and potatoes, yet it was the worst conditioned farm in
the neighborhood.

His children, too, were as ragged and wild as if they belonged to nobody. His son Rip, an urchin
begotten in his own likeness, promised to inherit the habits, with the old clothes of his father. He
was generally seen trooping like a colt at his mother's heels, equipped in a pair of his father's cast-
off galligaskins, which he had much ado to hold up with one hand, as a fine lady does her train in
bad weather.

Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions,
who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or
trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. If left to himself, he would
have whistled life away in perfect contentment; but his wife kept continually dinning in his ears
about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family. Morning, noon,
and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to produce a
torrent of household eloquence. Rip had but one way of replying to all lectures of the kind, and
that, by frequent use, had grown into a habit. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast up
his eyes, but said nothing. This, however, always provoked a fresh volley from his wife; so that he
was fain to draw off his forces,[Pg 5] and take to the outside of the house—the only side which, in
truth, belongs to a hen-pecked husband.

Rip's sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, who was as much hen-pecked as his master; for
Dame Van Winkle regarded them as companions in idleness, and even looked upon Wolf with an
evil eye, as the cause of his master's going so often astray. True it is, in all points of spirit befitting
an honorable dog, he was as courageous an animal as ever scoured the woods—but what courage
can withstand the ever-during and all-besetting terrors of a woman's tongue? The moment Wolf
entered the house his crest fell, his tail drooped to the ground, or curled between his legs, he
sneaked about with a gallows air, casting many a sidelong glance at Dame Van Winkle, and at the
least flourish of a broom-stick or ladle, he would fly to the door with yelping precipitation.

Times grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle as years of matrimony rolled on; a tart temper
never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant
use. For a long while he used to console himself, when driven from home, by frequenting a kind
of perpetual club of the sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the village; which held
its sessions on a bench before a small inn, designated by a rubicund portrait of His Majesty
George the Third. Here they used to sit in the shade through a long lazy summer's day, talking
listlessly over village gossip, or telling endless sleepy stories about nothing. But it would have

12
been worth any statesman's money to have heard the profound discussions that sometimes took
place, when by chance an old newspaper fell into their hands from some passing traveller. How
solemnly they would listen to the contents, as drawled out by Derrick Van Bummel, the[Pg 6]
schoolmaster, a dapper learned little man, who was not to be daunted by the most gigantic word in
the dictionary; and how sagely they would deliberate upon public events some months after they
had taken place.

The opinions of this junto were completely controlled by Nicholas Vedder, a patriarch of the
village, and landlord of the inn, at the door of which he took his seat from morning till night, just
moving sufficiently to avoid the sun and keep in the shade of a large tree; so that the neighbors
could tell the hour by his movements as accurately as by a sun-dial. It is true he was rarely heard
to speak, but smoked his pipe incessantly. His adherents, however (for every great man has his
adherents), perfectly understood him, and knew how to gather his opinions. When anything that
was read or related displeased him, he was observed to smoke his pipe vehemently, and to send
forth short, frequent and angry puffs; but when pleased, he would inhale the smoke slowly and
tranquilly, and emit it in light and placid clouds; and sometimes, taking the pipe from his mouth,
and letting the fragrant vapor curl about his nose, would gravely nod his head in token of perfect
approbation.

From even this stronghold the unlucky Rip was at length routed by his termagant wife, who
would suddenly break in upon the tranquillity of the assemblage and call the members all to
naught; nor was that august personage, Nicholas Vedder himself, sacred from the daring tongue of
this terrible virago, who charged him outright with encouraging her husband in habits of idleness.

Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair; and his only alternative, to escape from the labor
of the farm and clamor of his wife, was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the woods. Here
he would sometimes seat him[Pg 7]self at the foot of a tree, and share the contents of his wallet
with Wolf, with whom he sympathized as a fellow-sufferer in persecution. "Poor Wolf," he would
say, "thy mistress leads thee a dog's life of it; but never mind, my lad, whilst I live thou shalt
never want a friend to stand by thee!" Wolf would wag his tail, look wistfully in his master's face,
and if dogs can feel pity I verily believe he reciprocated the sentiment with all his heart.

In a long ramble of the kind on a fine autumnal day, Rip had unconsciously scrambled to one of
the highest parts of the Kaatskill mountains. He was after his favorite sport of squirrel shooting,
and the still solitudes had echoed and re-echoed with the reports of his gun. Panting and fatigued,
he threw himself, late in the afternoon, on a green knoll, covered with mountain herbage, that
crowned the brow of a precipice. From an opening between the trees he could overlook all the
lower country for many a mile of rich woodland. He saw at a distance the lordly Hudson, far, far
below him, moving on its silent but majestic course, with the reflection of a purple cloud, or the
sail of a lagging bark, here and there sleeping on its glassy bosom, and at last losing itself in the
blue highlands.

On the other side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, wild, lonely, and shagged, the
bottom filled with fragments from the impending cliffs, and scarcely lighted by the reflected rays
of the setting sun. For some time Rip lay musing on this scene; evening was gradually advancing;
the mountains began to throw their long blue shadows over the valleys; he saw that it would be
dark long before he could reach the village, and he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of
encountering the terrors of Dame Van Winkle.[Pg 8]

As he was about to descend, he heard a voice from a distance, hallooing, "Rip Van Winkle! Rip
Van Winkle!" He looked round, but could see nothing but a crow winging its solitary flight across
the mountain. He thought his fancy must have deceived him, and turned again to descend, when

13
he heard the same cry ring through the still evening air: "Rip Van Winkle! Rip Van Winkle!"—at
the same time Wolf bristled up his back, and giving a low growl, skulked to his master's side,
looking fearfully down into the glen. Rip now felt a vague apprehension stealing over him; he
looked anxiously in the same direction, and perceived a strange figure slowly toiling up the rocks,
and bending under the weight of something he carried on his back. He was surprised to see any
human being in this lonely and unfrequented place, but supposing it to be some one of the
neighborhood in need of his assistance, he hastened down to yield it.

On nearer approach he was still more surprised at the singularity of the stranger's appearance. He
was a short square-built old fellow, with thick bushy hair, and a grizzled beard. His dress was of
the antique Dutch fashion—a cloth jerkin strapped round the waist—several pair of breeches, the
outer one of ample volume, decorated with rows of buttons down the sides, and bunches at the
knees. He bore on his shoulder a stout keg, that seemed full of liquor, and made signs for Rip to
approach and assist him with the load. Though rather shy and distrustful of this new acquaintance,
Rip complied with his usual alacrity; and mutually relieving one another, they clambered up a
narrow gully, apparently the dry bed of a mountain torrent. As they ascended, Rip every now and
then heard long rolling peals, like distant thunder, that seemed to issue out of a deep ravine, or
rather cleft, between lofty[Pg 9] rocks, toward which their rugged path conducted. He paused for
an instant, but supposing it to be the muttering of one of those transient thunder-showers which
often take place in mountain heights, he proceeded. Passing through the ravine, they came to a
hollow, like a small amphitheatre, surrounded by perpendicular precipices, over the brinks of
which impending trees shot their branches, so that you only caught glimpses of the azure sky and
the bright evening cloud. During the whole time Rip and his companion had labored on in silence;
for though the former marvelled greatly what could be the object of carrying a keg of liquor up
this wild mountain, yet there was something strange and incomprehensible about the unknown,
that inspired awe and checked familiarity.

On entering the amphitheatre, new objects of wonder presented themselves. On a level spot in the
centre was a company of odd-looking personages playing at nine-pins. They were dressed in a
quaint outlandish fashion; some wore short doublets, others jerkins, with long knives in their
belts, and most of them had enormous breeches, of similar style with that of the guide's. Their
visages, too, were peculiar: one had a large beard, broad face, and small piggish eyes: the face of
another seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was surmounted by a white sugar-loaf hat set off
with a little red cock's tail. They all had beards, of various shapes and colors. There was one who
seemed to be the commander. He was a stout old gentleman, with a weather-beaten countenance;
he wore a laced doublet, broad belt and hanger, high-crowned hat and feather, red stockings, and
high-heeled shoes, with roses in them. The whole group reminded Rip of the figures in an old
Flemish painting, in the parlor of Dominie Van[Pg 10] Shaick, the village parson, and which had
been brought over from Holland at the time of the settlement.

What seemed particularly odd to Rip was, that though these folks were evidently amusing
themselves, yet they maintained the gravest faces, the most mysterious silence, and were, withal,
the most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed. Nothing interrupted the stillness of
the scene but the noise of the balls, which, whenever they were rolled, echoed along the
mountains like rumbling peals of thunder.

As Rip and his companion approached them, they suddenly desisted from their play, and stared at
him with such fixed statue-like gaze, and such strange, uncouth, lack-lustre countenances, that his
heart turned within him, and his knees smote together. His companion now emptied the contents
of the keg into large flagons, and made signs to him to wait upon the company. He obeyed with
fear and trembling; they quaffed the liquor in profound silence, and then returned to their game.

14
By degrees Rip's awe and apprehension subsided. He even ventured, when no eye was fixed upon
him, to taste the beverage, which he found had much of the flavor of excellent Hollands. He was
naturally a thirsty soul, and was soon tempted to repeat the draught. One taste provoked another;
and he reiterated his visits to the flagon so often that at length his senses were overpowered, his
eyes swam in his head, his head gradually declined, and he fell into a deep sleep.

On waking, he found himself on the green knoll whence he had first seen the old man of the glen.
He rubbed his eyes—it was a bright sunny morning. The birds were hopping and twittering
among the bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft, and breasting the pure[Pg 11] mountain
breeze. "Surely," thought Rip, "I have not slept here all night." He recalled the occurrences before
he fell asleep. The strange man with a keg of liquor—the mountain ravine—the wild retreat
among the rocks—the woe-begone party at nine-pins—the flagon—"Oh! that flagon! that wicked
flagon!" thought Rip—"what excuse shall I make to Dame Van Winkle!"

He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean well-oiled fowling-piece, he found an old
firelock lying by him, the barrel incrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the stock worm-
eaten. He now suspected that the grave roysters of the mountain had put a trick upon him, and,
having dosed him with liquor, had robbed him of his gun. Wolf, too, had disappeared, but he
might have strayed away after a squirrel or partridge. He whistled after him and shouted his name,
but all in vain; the echoes repeated his whistle and shout, but no dog was to be seen.

He determined to revisit the scene of the last evening's gambol, and if he met with any of the
party, to demand his dog and gun. As he rose to walk, he found himself stiff in the joints, and
wanting in his usual activity. "These mountain beds do not agree with me," thought Rip, "and if
this frolic should lay me up with a fit of rheumatism, I shall have a blessed time with Dame Van
Winkle." With some difficulty he got down into the glen: he found the gully up which he and his
companion had ascended the preceding evening; but to his astonishment a mountain stream was
now foaming down it, leaping from rock to rock, and filling the glen with babbling murmurs. He,
however, made shift to scramble up its sides, working his toilsome way through thickets of birch,
sassafras, and witch-hazel, and sometimes tripped up or entangled by the[Pg 12] wild grapevines
that twisted their coils or tendrils from tree to tree, and spread a kind of network in his path.

At length he reached to where the ravine had opened through the cliffs to the amphitheatre; but no
traces of such opening remained. The rocks presented a high impenetrable wall over which the
torrent came tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, and fell into a broad deep basin, black from the
shadows of the surrounding forest. Here, then, poor Rip was brought to a stand. He again called
and whistled after his dog; he was only answered by the cawing of a flock of idle crows, sporting
high in air about a dry tree that overhung a sunny precipice; and who, secure in their elevation,
seemed to look down and scoff at the poor man's perplexities. What was to be done? the morning
was passing away, and Rip felt famished for want of his breakfast. He grieved to give up his dog
and gun; he dreaded to meet his wife; but it would not do to starve among the mountains. He
shook his head, shouldered the rusty firelock, and, with a heart full of trouble and anxiety, turned
his steps homeward.

As he approached the village he met a number of people, but none whom he knew, which
somewhat surprised him, for he had thought himself acquainted with every one in the country
round. Their dress, too, was of a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed. They all
stared at him with equal marks of surprise, and whenever they cast their eyes upon him, invariably
stroked their chins. The constant recurrence of this gesture induced Rip, involuntarily, to do the
same, when, to his astonishment, he found his beard had grown a foot long!

15
He had now entered the skirts of the village. A troop of strange children ran at his heels, hooting
after him, and pointing at his gray beard. The dogs, too, not one of[Pg 13] which he recognized
for an old acquaintance, barked at him as he passed. The very village was altered; it was larger
and more populous. There were rows of houses which he had never seen before, and those which
had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. Strange names were over the doors—strange faces
at the windows—every thing was strange. His mind now misgave him; he began to doubt whether
both he and the world around him were not bewitched. Surely this was his native village, which
he had left but the day before. There stood the Kaatskill mountains—there ran the silver Hudson
at a distance—there was every hill and dale precisely as it had always been—Rip was sorely
perplexed—"That flagon last night," thought he, "has addled my poor head sadly!"

It was with some difficulty that he found the way to his own house, which he approached with
silent awe, expecting every moment to hear the shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He found the
house gone to decay—the roof fallen in, the windows shattered, and the doors off the hinges. A
half-starved dog that looked like Wolf was skulking about it. Rip called him by name, but the cur
snarled, showed his teeth, and passed on. This was an unkind cut indeed—"My very dog," sighed
poor Rip, "has forgotten me!"

He entered the house, which, to tell the truth, Dame Van Winkle had always kept in neat order. It
was empty, forlorn, and apparently abandoned. This desolateness overcame all his connubial fears
—he called loudly for his wife and children—the lonely chambers rang for a moment with his
voice, and then all again was silence.

He now hurried forth, and hastened to his old resort, the village inn—but it too was gone. A large
rickety wooden building stood in its place, with great gaping win[Pg 14]dows, some of them
broken and mended with old hats and petticoats, and over the door was painted, "the Union Hotel,
by Jonathan Doolittle." Instead of the great tree that used to shelter the quiet little Dutch inn of
yore, there now was reared a tall naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red
night-cap, and from it was fluttering a flag, on which was a singular assemblage of stars and
stripes—all this was strange and incomprehensible. He recognized on the sign, however, the ruby
face of King George, under which he had smoked so many a peaceful pipe; but even this was
singularly metamorphosed. The red coat was changed for one of blue and buff, a sword was held
in the hand instead of a sceptre, the head was decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath was
painted in large characters, General Washington.

There was, as usual, a crowd of folk about the door, but none that Rip recollected. The very
character of the people seemed changed. There was a busy, bustling, disputatious tone about it,
instead of the accustomed phlegm and drowsy tranquillity. He looked in vain for the sage
Nicholas Vedder, with his broad face, double chin, and fair long pipe, uttering clouds of tobacco-
smoke instead of idle speeches; or Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, doling forth the contents of an
ancient newspaper. In place of these, a lean, bilious-looking fellow, with his pockets full of
handbills, was haranguing vehemently about rights of citizens—elections—members of congress
—liberty—Bunker's Hill—heroes of seventy-six—and other words, which were a perfect
Babylonish jargon to the bewildered Van Winkle.

The appearance of Rip, with his long grizzled beard, his rusty fowling-piece, his uncouth dress,
and an army of women and children at his heels, soon attracted the atten[Pg 15]tion of the tavern
politicians. They crowded round him, eying him from head to foot with great curiosity. The orator
bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly aside, inquired "on which side he voted?" Rip stared in
vacant stupidity. Another short but busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, and, rising on tiptoe,
inquired in his ear, "Whether he was Federal or Democrat?" Rip was equally at a loss to
comprehend the question; when a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat,

16
made his way through the crowd, putting them to the right and left with his elbows as he passed,
and planting himself before Van Winkle, with one arm akimbo, the other resting on his cane, his
keen eyes and sharp hat penetrating, as it were, into his very soul, demanded in an austere tone,
"what brought him to the election with a gun on his shoulder, and a mob at his heels, and whether
he meant to breed a riot in the village?"—"Alas! gentlemen," cried Rip, somewhat dismayed, "I
am a poor quiet man, a native of the place, and a loyal subject of the king, God bless him!"

Here a general shout burst from the by-standers—"A tory! a tory! a spy! a refugee! hustle him!
away with him!" It was with great difficulty that the self-important man in the cocked hat restored
order; and, having assumed a tenfold austerity of brow, demanded again of the unknown culprit,
what he came there for, and whom he was seeking? The poor man humbly assured him that he
meant no harm, but merely came there in search of some of his neighbors, who used to keep about
the tavern.

"Well—who are they?—name them."

Rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, "Where's Nicholas Vedder?"

There was a silence for a little while, when an old man[Pg 16] replied, in a thin piping voice,
"Nicholas Vedder! why, he is dead and gone these eighteen years! There was a wooden tombstone
in the church-yard that used to tell all about him, but that's rotten and gone too."

"Where's Brom Dutcher?"

"Oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war; some say he was killed at the storming
of Stony Point—others say he was drowned in a squall at the foot of Antony's Nose. I don't know
—-he never came back again."

"Where's Van Bummel, the schoolmaster?"

"He went off to the wars too, was a great militia general, and is now in congress."

Rip's heart died away at hearing of these sad changes in his home and friends, and finding himself
thus alone in the world. Every answer puzzled him, too, by treating of such enormous lapses of
time, and of matters which he could not understand: war—congress—Stony Point;—he had no
courage to ask after any more friends, but cried out in despair, "Does nobody here know Rip Van
Winkle?"

"Oh, Rip Van Winkle!" exclaimed two or three. "Oh, to be sure! that's Rip Van Winkle yonder,
leaning against the tree."

Rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of himself, as he went up the mountain; apparently
as lazy, and certainly as ragged. The poor fellow was now completely confounded. He doubted
his own identity, and whether he was himself or another man. In the midst of his bewilderment,
the man in the cocked hat demanded who he was, and what was his name?

"God knows," exclaimed he, at his wit's end; "I'm not myself—I'm somebody else—that's me
yonder—no[Pg 17]—that's somebody else got into my shoes—I was myself last night, but I fell
asleep on the mountain, and they've changed my gun, and every thing's changed, and I'm changed,
and I can't tell what's my name, or who I am!"

17
The by-standers began now to look at each other, nod, wink significantly, and tap their fingers
against their foreheads. There was a whisper, also, about securing the gun, and keeping the old
fellow from doing mischief, at the very suggestion of which the self-important man in the cocked
hat retired with some precipitation. At this critical moment a fresh comely woman pressed
through the throng to get a peep at the gray-bearded man. She had a chubby child in her arms,
which, frightened at his looks, began to cry. "Hush, Rip," cried she, "hush, you little fool; the old
man won't hurt you." The name of the child, the air of the mother, the tone of her voice, all
awakened a train of recollections in his mind. "What is your name, my good woman?" asked he.

"Judith Gardenier."

"And your father's name?"

"Ah, poor man, Rip Van Winkle was his name, but it's twenty years since he went away from
home with his gun, and never has been heard of since—his dog came home without him; but
whether he shot himself, or was carried away by the Indians, nobody can tell. I was then but a
little girl."

Rip had but one question more to ask; but he put it with a faltering voice:

"Where's your mother?"

"Oh, she too had died but a short time since; she broke a blood-vessel in a fit of passion at a New-
England peddler."

There was a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelli[Pg 18]gence. The honest man could contain
himself no longer. He caught his daughter and her child in his arms. "I am your father!" cried he
—"Young Rip Van Winkle once—old Rip Van Winkle now!—Does nobody know poor Rip Van
Winkle?"

All stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from among the crowd, put her hand to her
brow, and peering under it in his face for a moment, exclaimed, "Sure enough! it is Rip Van
Winkle—it is himself! Welcome home, again, old neighbor—-Why, where have you been these
twenty long years?"

Rip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had been to him but as one night. The
neighbors stared when they heard it; some were seen to wink at each other, and put their tongues
in their cheeks: and the self-important man in the cocked hat, who, when the alarm was over, had
returned to the field, screwed down the corners of his mouth, and shook his head—upon which
there was a general shaking of the head throughout the assemblage.

It was determined, however, to take the opinion of old Peter Vanderdonk, who was seen slowly
advancing up the road. He was a descendant of the historian of that name, who wrote one of the
earliest accounts of the province. Peter was the most ancient inhabitant of the village, and well
versed in all the wonderful events and traditions of the neighborhood. He recollected Rip at once,
and corroborated his story in the most satisfactory manner. He assured the company that it was a
fact, handed down from his ancestor the historian, that the Kaatskill mountains had always been
haunted by strange beings. That it was affirmed that the great Hendrick Hudson, the first
discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of vigil[Pg 19] there every twenty years, with his
crew of the Half-moon; being permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and
keep a guardian eye upon the river, and the great city called by his name. That his father had once

18
seen them in their old Dutch dresses playing at nine-pins in a hollow of the mountain; and that he
himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls, like distant peals of thunder.

To make a long story short, the company broke up, and returned to the more important concerns
of the election. Rip's daughter took him home to live with her; she had a snug, well-furnished
house, and a stout cheery farmer for a husband, whom Rip recollected for one of the urchins that
used to climb upon his back. As to Rip's son and heir, who was the ditto of himself, seen leaning
against the tree, he was employed to work on the farm; but evinced an hereditary disposition to
attend to any thing else but his business.

Rip now resumed his old walks and habits; he soon found many of his former cronies, though all
rather the worse for the wear and tear of time; and preferred making friends among the rising
generation, with whom he soon grew into great favor.

Having nothing to do at home, and being arrived at that happy age when a man can be idle with
impunity, he took his place once more on the bench at the inn door, and was reverenced as one of
the patriarchs of the village, and a chronicle of the old times "before the war." It was some time
before he could get into the regular track of gossip, or could be made to comprehend the strange
events that had taken place during his torpor. How that there had been a revolutionary war—that
the country had thrown off the yoke of old England—and[Pg 20] that, instead of being a subject
of his Majesty George the Third, he was now a free citizen of the United States. Rip, in fact, was
no politician; the changes of states and empires made but little impression on him; but there was
one species of despotism under which he had long groaned, and that was—petticoat government.
Happily that was at an end; he had got his neck out of the yoke of matrimony, and could go in and
out whenever he pleased, without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle. Whenever her name
was mentioned, however, he shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, and cast up his eyes; which
might pass either for an expression of resignation to his fate, or joy at his deliverance.

He used to tell his story to every stranger that arrived at Mr. Doolittle's hotel. He was observed, at
first, to vary on some points every time he told it, which was, doubtless, owing to his having so
recently awaked. It at last settled down precisely to the tale I have related, and not a man, woman,
or child in the neighborhood, but knew it by heart. Some always pretended to doubt the reality of
it, and insisted that Rip had been out of his head and that this was one point on which he always
remained flighty. The old Dutch inhabitants, however, almost universally gave it full credit. Even
to this day they never hear a thunderstorm of a summer afternoon about the Kaatskill, but they say
Hendrick Hudson and his crew are at their game of nine-pins; and it is a common wish of all hen-
pecked husbands in the neighborhood, when life hangs heavy on their hands, that they might have
a quieting draught out of Rip Van Winkle's flagon.[Pg 21]

NOTE

The foregoing Tale, one would suspect, had been suggested to Mr. Knickerbocker by a little
German superstition about the Emperor Frederick der Rothbart, and the Kypphaüser mountain:
the subjoined note, however, which he had appended to the tale, shows that it is an absolute fact,
narrated with his usual fidelity:

"The story of Rip Van Winkle may seem incredible to many, but nevertheless I give it my full
belief, for I know the vicinity of our old Dutch settlements to have been very subject to
marvellous events and appearances. Indeed, I have heard many stranger stories than this, in the
villages along the Hudson; all of which were too well authenticated to admit of a doubt. I have
even talked with Rip Van Winkle myself, who, when last I saw him, was a very venerable old
man, and so perfectly rational and consistent on every other point, that I think no conscientious

19
person could refuse to take this into the bargain; nay, I have seen a certificate on the subject taken
before a country justice and signed with a cross, in the justice's own handwriting. The story,
therefore, is beyond the possibility of doubt. D. K."—[Author's Note.]

POSTSCRIPT

The following are travelling notes from a memorandum-book of Mr. Knickerbocker:

The Kaatsberg, or Catskill mountains, have always been a region full of fable. The Indians
considered them the abode of spirits, who influenced the weather, spreading sunshine or clouds
over the landscape, and sending good or bad hunting seasons. They were ruled by an old squaw
spirit, said to be their mother. She dwelt on the highest peak of the Catskills, and had charge of
the doors of day and night to open and shut them at the proper hour. She hung up the new moons
in the skies, and cut up the old ones into stars. In times of drought, if properly propitiated, she
would spin light summer clouds out of cobwebs and morning dew, and send them off from the
crest of the mountain, flake after flake, like flakes of carded cotton, to float in the air; until,
dissolved by the heat of the sun, they would fall in gentle showers, causing the grass to spring, the
fruits to ripen, and the corn to grow an inch[Pg 22] an hour. If displeased, however, she would
brew up clouds black as ink, sitting in the midst of them like a bottle-bellied spider in the midst of
its web; and when these clouds broke, woe betide the valleys.

In old times, say the Indian traditions, there was a kind of Manitou or Spirit, who kept about the
wildest recesses of the Catskill Mountains, and took a mischievous pleasure in wreaking all kinds
of evils and vexations upon the red men. Sometimes he would assume the form of a bear, a
panther, or a deer, lead the bewildered hunter a weary chase through tangled forests and among
ragged rocks; and then spring off with a loud ho! ho! leaving him aghast on the brink of a beetling
precipice or raging torrent.

The favorite abode of this Manitou is still shown. It is a great rock or cliff on the loneliest part of
the mountains, and, from the flowering vines which clamber about it, and the wild flowers which
abound in its neighborhood, is known by the name of the Garden Rock. Near the foot of it is a
small lake, the haunt of the solitary bittern, with water-snakes basking in the sun on the leaves of
the pond-lilies which lie on the surface. This place was held in great awe by the Indians, insomuch
that the boldest hunter would not pursue his game within its precincts. Once upon a time,
however, a hunter who had lost his way, penetrated to the garden rock, where he beheld a number
of gourds placed in the crotches of trees. One of these he seized and made off with it, but in the
hurry of his retreat he let it fall among the rocks, when a great stream gushed forth, which washed
him away and swept him down precipices, where he was dashed to pieces, and the stream made
its way to the Hudson, and continues to flow to the present day; being the identical stream known
by the name of the Kaaters-kill.

20
Edgar Allan Poe[Pg 23]

THE GOLD BUG

"What ho! what ho! this fellow is dancing mad!
He hath been bitten by the Tarantula."
All in the Wrong.

Many years ago I contracted an intimacy with a Mr. William Legrand. He was of an ancient
Huguenot family, and had once been wealthy; but a series of misfortunes had reduced him to
want. To avoid the mortification consequent upon his disasters, he left New Orleans, the city of
his forefathers, and took up his residence at Sullivan's Island, near Charleston, South Carolina.

This island is a very singular one. It consists of little else than the sea sand, and is about three
miles long. Its breadth at no point exceeds a quarter of a mile. It is separated from the main land
by a scarcely perceptible creek, oozing its way through a wilderness of reeds and slime, a favorite
resort of the marsh-hen. The vegetation, as might be supposed, is scant, or at least dwarfish. No
trees of any magnitude are to be seen. Near the western extremity, where Fort Moultrie stands,
and where are some miserable frame buildings, tenanted during summer by the fugitives from
21
Charleston dust and fever, may be found, indeed, the bristly palmetto; but the whole island, with
the exception of the western point, and a line of hard, white beach on the sea-coast, is covered
with a dense undergrowth of sweet myrtle, so much prized by the horticulturalists of England. The
shrub here often attains the[Pg 24] height of fifteen or twenty feet, and forms an almost
impenetrable coppice, burthening the air with its fragrance.

In the inmost recesses of this coppice, not far from the eastern or more remote end of the island,
Legrand had built himself a small hut, which he occupied when I first, by mere accident, made his
acquaintance. This soon ripened into friendship,—for there was much in the recluse to excite
interest and esteem. I found him well educated, with unusual powers of mind, but infected with
misanthropy, and subject to perverse moods of alternate enthusiasm and melancholy. He had with
him many books, but rarely employed them. His chief amusements were gunning and fishing, or
sauntering along the beach and through the myrtles in quest of shells or entomological specimens;
his collection of the latter might have been envied by a Swammerdam. In these excursions he was
usually accompanied by an old negro called Jupiter, who had been manumitted before the reverses
of the family, but who could be induced, neither by threats nor by promises, to abandon what he
considered his right of attendance upon the footsteps of his young "Massa Will." It is not
improbable that the relatives of Legrand, conceiving him to be somewhat unsettled in intellect,
had contrived to instil this obstinacy into Jupiter, with a view to the supervision and guardianship
of the wanderer.

The winters in the latitude of Sullivan's Island are seldom very severe, and in the fall of the year it
is a rare event indeed when a fire is considered necessary. About the middle of October, 18—,
there occurred, however, a day of remarkable chilliness. Just before sunset I scrambled my way
through the evergreens to the hut of my friend, whom I had not visited for several weeks, my
residence being at that time in Charleston, a distance of nine[Pg 25] miles from the island, while
the facilities of passage and re-passage were very far behind those of the present day. Upon
reaching the hut I rapped, as was my custom; and, getting no reply, sought for the key where I
knew it was secreted, unlocked the door, and went in. A fine fire was blazing upon the hearth. It
was a novelty, and by no means an ungrateful one. I threw off an overcoat, took an armchair by
the crackling logs, and awaited patiently the arrival of my hosts.

Soon after dark they arrived, and gave me a most cordial welcome. Jupiter, grinning from ear to
ear, bustled about to prepare some marsh-hens for supper. Legrand was in one of his fits—how
else shall I term them?—of enthusiasm. He had found an unknown bivalve, forming a new genus;
and, more than this, he had hunted down and secured, with Jupiter's assistance, a scarabæus which
he believed to be totally new, but in respect to which he wished to have my opinion on the
morrow.

"And why not to-night?" I asked, rubbing my hands over the blaze, and wishing the whole tribe of
scarabæi at the devil.

"Ah, if I had only known you were here!" said Legrand; "but it's so long since I saw you, and how
could I foresee that you would pay me a visit this very night of all others? As I was coming home
I met Lieutenant G—— from the fort, and, very foolishly, I lent him the bug; so it will be
impossible for you to see it until the morning. Stay here to-night, and I will send Jup down for it
at sunrise. It is the loveliest thing in creation!"

"What—sunrise?"

22
"Nonsense! no! the bug. It is of a brilliant gold color, about the size of a large hickory nut, with
two jet black[Pg 26] spots near one extremity of the back, another, somewhat longer, at the other.
The antennæ are"—

"Dey ain't no tin in him, Massa Will, I keep a-telling on you," here interrupted Jupiter; "de bug is
a goole-bug, solid, ebery bit of him, inside and all, sep him wing—neber feel half so hebby a bug
in my life."

"Well, suppose it is, Jup," replied Legrand, somewhat more earnestly, it seemed to me, than the
case demanded, "is that any reason for you letting the birds burn? The color"—here he turned to
me—"is really almost enough to warrant Jupiter's idea. You never saw a more brilliant metallic
lustre than the scales emit; but of this you cannot judge till to-morrow. In the meantime I can give
you some idea of the shape." Saying this, he seated himself at a small table on which were a pen
and ink, but no paper. He looked for some in a drawer, but found none.

"Never mind," said he at length, "this will answer;" and he drew from his waistcoat pocket a scrap
of what I took to be very dirty foolscap, and made upon it a rough drawing with the pen. While he
did this, I retained my seat by the fire, for I was still chilly. When the design was complete he
handed it to me without rising. As I received it, a loud growl was heard, succeeded by a scratching
at the door. Jupiter opened it, and a large Newfoundland, belonging to Legrand, rushed in, leaped
upon my shoulders and loaded me with caresses; for I had shown him much attention during
previous visits. When his gambols were over, I looked at the paper, and, to speak the truth, found
myself not a little puzzled at what my friend had depicted.

"Well!" I said, after contemplating it for some minutes, "this is a strange scarabæus, I must
confess; new to me; never saw anything like it before—unless it was a[Pg 27] skull, or a death's-
head—which it more nearly resembles than anything else that has come under my observation."

"A death's-head!" echoed Legrand. "Oh—yes—well, it has something of that appearance upon
paper, no doubt. The two upper black spots look like eyes, eh? and the longer one at the bottom
like a mouth—and then the shape of the whole is oval."

"Perhaps so," said I; "but, Legrand, I fear you are no artist. I must wait until I see the beetle itself,
if I am to form any idea of its personal appearance."

"Well, I don't know," said he, a little nettled, "I draw tolerably—should do it at least, have had
good masters—and flatter myself that I am not quite a blockhead."

"But, my dear fellow, you are joking then," said I; "this is a very passable skull—indeed, I may
say that it is a very excellent skull, according to the vulgar notions about such specimens of
physiology—and your scarabæus must be the queerest scarabæus in the world if it resembles it.
Why, we may get up a very thrilling bit of superstition upon this hint. I presume you will call the
bug scarabæus caput hominis, or something of that kind—there are many similar titles in the
Natural Histories. But where are the antennæ you spoke of?"

"The antennæ!" said Legrand, who seemed to be getting unaccountably warm upon the subject; "I
am sure you must see the antennæ. I made them as distinct as they are in the original insect, and I
presume that is sufficient."

"Well, well," I said, "perhaps you have—still I don't see them;" and I handed him the paper
without additional remark, not wishing to ruffle his temper; but I was much surprised at the turn
affairs had taken; his ill-humor puzzled me—and, as for the drawing of the beetle,[Pg 28] there

23
were positively no antennæ visible, and the whole did bear a very close resemblance to the
ordinary cuts of a death's-head.

He received the paper very peevishly, and was about to crumple it, apparently to throw it in the
fire, when a casual glance at the design seemed suddenly to rivet his attention. In an instant his
face grew violently red—in another as excessively pale. For some minutes he continued to
scrutinize the drawing minutely where he sat. At length he arose, took a candle from the table, and
proceeded to seat himself upon a sea-chest in the farthest corner of the room. Here again he made
an anxious examination of the paper, turning it in all directions. He said nothing, however, and his
conduct greatly astonished me; yet I thought it prudent not to exacerbate the growing moodiness
of his temper by any comment. Presently he took from his coat pocket a wallet, placed the paper
carefully in it, and deposited both in a writing-desk, which he locked. He now grew more
composed in his demeanor; but his original air of enthusiasm had quite disappeared. Yet he
seemed not so much sulky as abstracted. As the evening wore away he became more and more
absorbed in revery, from which no sallies of mine could arouse him. It had been my intention to
pass the night at the hut, as I had frequently done before, but, seeing my host in this mood, I
deemed it proper to take leave. He did not press me to remain, but, as I departed, he shook my
hand with even more than his usual cordiality.

It was about a month after this (and during the interval I had seen nothing of Legrand) when I
received a visit, at Charleston, from his man Jupiter. I had never seen the good old negro look so
dispirited, and I feared that some serious disaster had befallen my friend.[Pg 29]

"Well, Jup," said I, "what is the matter now?—how is your master?"

"Why, to speak de troof, massa, him not so berry well as mought be."

"Not well! I am truly sorry to hear it. What does he complain of?"

"Dar! dat's it!—him never plain of notin—but him berry sick for all dat."

"Very sick, Jupiter!—why didn't you say so at once? Is he confined to bed?"

"No, dat he aint!—he aint find nowhar—dat's just whar de shoe pinch—my mind is got to be
berry hebby bout poor Massa Will."

"Jupiter, I should like to understand what it is you are talking about. You say your master is sick.
Hasn't he told you what ails him?"

"Why, massa, taint worf while for to git mad about de matter—Massa Will say noffin at all aint de
matter wid him—but den what make him go about looking dis here way, wid he head down and
he soldiers up, and as white as a gose? And den he keep a syphon all de time"—

"Keeps a what, Jupiter?"

"Keeps a syphon wid de figgurs on de slate—de queerest figgurs I ebber did see. Ise gittin to be
skeered, I tell you. Hab for to keep mighty tight eye pon him noovers. Todder day he gib me slip
fore de sun up and was gone de whole ob de blessed day. I had a big stick ready cut for to gib him
deuced good beating when he did come—but Ise sich a fool dat I hadn't de heart arter all—he look
so berry poorly."

24
"Eh?—what?—ah, yes!—upon the whole I think you had better not be too severe with the poor
fellow—don't flog him, Jupiter—he can't very well stand it—but[Pg 30] can you form no idea of
what has occasioned this illness, or rather this change of conduct? Has anything unpleasant
happened since I saw you?"

"No, massa, dey aint bin noffin onpleasant since den—'twas fore den I'm feared—'twas de berry
day you was dare."

"How? what do you mean?"

"Why, massa, I mean de bug—dare now."

"The what?"

"De bug—I'm berry sartain that Massa Will bin bit somewhere bout de head by dat goole-bug."

"And what cause have you, Jupiter, for such a supposition?"

"Claws enuff, massa, and mouff too. I nebber did see sich a deuced bug—he kick and he bite
ebery ting what cum near him. Massa Will cotch him fuss, but had for to let him go gin mighty
quick, I tell you—den was de time he must hab got de bite. I didn't like de look of de bug mouff,
myself, no how, so I wouldn't take hold ob him wid my finger, but I cotch him wid a piece ob
paper dat I found. I rap him up in de paper and stuff piece ob it in he mouff—dad was de way."

"And you think, then, that your master was really bitten by the beetle, and that the bite made him
sick?"

"I don't tink noffin bout it—I nose it. What make him dream bout de goole so much, if taint cause
he bit by de goole-bug? Ise heerd bout dem goole-bugs fore dis."

"But how do you know he dreams about gold?"

"How I know? why, cause he talk bout it in he sleep, dat's how I nose."

"Well, Jup, perhaps you are right; but to what fortunate circumstance am I to attribute the honor
of a visit from you to-day?"[Pg 31]

"What de matter, massa?"

"Did you bring any message from Mr. Legrand?"

"No, massa, I bring dis here pissel;" and here Jupiter handed me a note which ran thus:—

"My dear ——

Why have I not seen you for so long a time? I hope you have not been so foolish as to take
offence at any little brusquerie of mine; but no, that is improbable.

Since I saw you I have had great cause for anxiety. I have something to tell you, yet scarcely
know how to tell it, or whether I should tell it at all.

25
I have not been quite well for some days past, and poor old Jup annoys me, almost beyond
endurance, by his well-meant attentions. Would you believe it?—he had prepared a huge stick, the
other day, with which to chastise me for giving him the slip, and spending the day, solus, among
the hills on the main land. I verily believe that my ill looks alone saved me a flogging.

I have made no addition to my cabinet since we met.

If you can, in any way, make it convenient, come over with Jupiter. Do come. I wish to see you
to-night, upon business of importance. I assure you that it is of the highest importance.        Ever
yours,

William Legrand."

There was something in the tone of this note which gave me great uneasiness. Its whole style
differed materially from that of Legrand. What could he be dreaming of? What new crotchet
possessed his excitable brain? What "business of the highest importance" could he possibly have
to transact? Jupiter's account of him boded no good. I dreaded lest the continued pressure of
misfortune had, at length, fairly unsettled the reason[Pg 32] of my friend. Without a moment's
hesitation, therefore, I prepared to accompany the negro.

Upon reaching the wharf, I noticed a scythe and three spades, all apparently new, lying in the
bottom of the boat in which we were to embark.

"What is the meaning of all this, Jup?" I inquired.

"Him syfe, massa, and spade."

"Very true; but what are they doing here?"

"Him de syfe and de spade what Massa Will sis pon my buying for him in de town, and de
debbil's own lot of money I had to gib for em."

"But what, in the name of all that is mysterious, is your 'Massa Will' going to do with scythes and
spades?"

"Dat's more dan I know, and debbil take me if I don't believe 'tis more dan he know, too. But it's
all cum ob de bug."

Finding that no satisfaction was to be obtained of Jupiter, whose whole intellect seemed to be
absorbed by "de bug," I now stepped into the boat and made sail. With a fair and strong breeze we
soon ran into the little cove to the northward of Fort Moultrie, and a walk of some two miles
brought us to the hut. It was about three in the afternoon when we arrived. Legrand had been
awaiting us in eager expectation. He grasped my hand with a nervous empressement which
alarmed me, and strengthened the suspicions already entertained. His countenance was pale even
to ghastliness, and his deep-set eyes glared with unnatural lustre. After some inquiries respecting
his health, I asked him, not knowing what better to say, if he had yet obtained the scarabæus from
Lieutenant G——.

"Oh, yes," he replied, coloring violently; "I got it from him the next morning. Nothing should
tempt me[Pg 33] to part with that scarabæus. Do you know that Jupiter is quite right about it?"

"In what way?" I asked, with a sad foreboding at heart.

26
"In supposing it to be a bug of real gold." He said this with an air of profound seriousness, and I
felt inexpressibly shocked.

"This bug is to make my fortune," he continued with a triumphant smile, "to reinstate me in my
family possessions. Is it any wonder, then, that I prize it? Since Fortune has thought fit to bestow
it upon me, I have only to use it properly, and I shall arrive at the gold of which it is the index.
Jupiter, bring me that scarabæus!"

"What, de bug, massa? I'd rudder not go fer trubble dat bug; you mus git him for your own self."
Hereupon Legrand arose, with a grave and stately air, and brought me the beetle from a glass case
in which it was enclosed. It was a beautiful scarabæus, and, at that time, unknown to naturalists—
of course a great prize in a scientific point of view. There were two round black spots near one
extremity of the back, and a long one near the other. The scales were exceedingly hard and glossy,
with all the appearance of burnished gold. The weight of the insect was very remarkable, and,
taking all things into consideration, I could hardly blame Jupiter for his opinion respecting it; but
what to make of Legrand's concordance with that opinion, I could not, for the life of me, tell.

"I sent for you," said he, in a grandiloquent tone, when I had completed my examination of the
beetle, "I sent for you that I might have your counsel and assistance in furthering the views of
Fate and of the bug"—

"My dear Legrand," I cried interrupting him, "you are certainly unwell, and had better use some
little pre[Pg 34]cautions. You shall go to bed, and I will remain with you a few days until you get
over this. You are feverish and"—

"Feel my pulse," said he.

I felt it, and, to say the truth, found not the slightest indication of fever.

"But you may be ill, and yet have no fever. Allow me this once to prescribe for you. In the first
place, go to bed. In the next"—

"You are mistaken," he interposed; "I am as well as I can expect to be under the excitement which
I suffer. If you really wish me well, you will relieve this excitement."

"And how is this to be done?"

"Very easily. Jupiter and myself are going upon an expedition into the hills upon the mainland;
and in this expedition we shall need the aid of some person in whom we can confide. You are the
only one we can trust. Whether we succeed or fail, the excitement which you now perceive in me
will be equally allayed."

"I am anxious to oblige you in any way," I replied; "but do you mean to say that this infernal
beetle has any connection with your expedition into the hills."

"It has."

"Then, Legrand, I can become a party to no such absurd proceeding."

"I am sorry—very sorry—for we shall have to try it by ourselves."

"Try it by yourselves! The man is surely mad! but stay, how long do you propose to be absent?"
27
"Probably all night. We shall start immediately, and be back, at all events, by sunrise."

"And will you promise me, upon your honor, that when[Pg 35] this freak of yours is over, and the
bug business (good God!) settled to your satisfaction, you will then return home and follow my
advice implicitly, as that of your physician?"

"Yes, I promise; and now let us be off, for we have no time to lose."

With a heavy heart I accompanied my friend. We started about four o'clock—Legrand, Jupiter,
the dog, and myself. Jupiter had with him the scythe and spades, the whole of which he insisted
upon carrying, more through fear, it seemed to me, of trusting either of the implements within
reach of his master, than from any excess of industry or complaisance. His demeanor was dogged
in the extreme, and "dat deuced bug" were the sole words which escaped his lips during the
journey. For my own part, I had charge of a couple of dark lanterns, while Legrand contented
himself with the scarabæus, which he carried attached to the end of a bit of whip-cord; twirling it
to and fro, with the air of a conjurer, as he went. When I observed this last, plain evidence of my
friend's aberration of mind, I could scarcely refrain from tears. I thought it best, however, to
humor his fancy, at least for the present, or until I could adopt some more energetic measures with
a chance of success. In the meantime I endeavored, but all in vain, to sound him in regard to the
object of the expedition. Having succeeded in inducing me to accompany him, he seemed
unwilling to hold conversation upon any topic of minor importance, and to all my questions
vouchsafed no other reply than "we shall see!"

We crossed the creek at the head of the island by means of a skiff, and, ascending the high
grounds on the shore of the mainland, proceeded in a northwesterly direction, through a tract of
country excessively wild and[Pg 36] desolate, where no trace of a human footstep was to be seen.
Legrand led the way with decision; pausing only for an instant, here and there, to consult what
appeared to be certain landmarks of his own contrivance upon a former occasion.

In this manner we journeyed for about two hours, and the sun was just setting when we entered a
region infinitely more dreary than any yet seen. It was a species of tableland, near the summit of
an almost inaccessible hill, densely wooded from base to pinnacle, and interspersed with huge
crags that appeared to lie loosely upon the soil, and in many cases were prevented from
precipitating themselves into the valleys below, merely by the support of the trees against which
they reclined. Deep ravines, in various directions, gave an air of still sterner solemnity to the
scene.

The natural platform to which we had clambered was thickly overgrown with brambles, through
which we soon discovered that it would have been impossible to force our way but for the scythe;
and Jupiter, by direction of his master, proceeded to clear for us a path to the foot of an
enormously tall tulip-tree, which stood, with some eight or ten oaks, upon the level, and far
surpassed them all, and all other trees which I had then ever seen, in the beauty of its foliage and
form, in the wide spread of its branches, and in the general majesty of its appearance. When we
reached this tree, Legrand turned to Jupiter, and asked him if he thought he could climb it. The old
man seemed a little staggered by the question, and for some moments made no reply. At length he
approached the huge trunk, walked slowly around it, and examined it with minute attention. When
he had completed his scrutiny, he merely said,[Pg 37]—

"Yes, massa, Jup climb any tree he ebber see in he life."

"Then up with you as soon as possible, for it will soon be too dark to see what we are about."

28
"How far mus go up, massa?" inquired Jupiter.

"Get up the main trunk first, and then I will tell you which way to go—and here—stop! take this
beetle with you."

"De bug, Massa Will!—de goole-bug!" cried the negro, drawing back in dismay—"what for mus
tote de bug way up the tree?—damn if I do!"

"If you are afraid, Jup, a great big negro like you, to take hold of a harmless little dead beetle, why
you can carry it up by this string—but, if you do not take it up with you in some way, I shall be
under the necessity of breaking your head with this shovel."

"What de matter now, massa?" said Jup, evidently shamed into compliance; "always want for to
raise fuss wid old nigger. Was only funnin, any how. Me feered de bug! what I keer for de bug?"
Here he took cautiously hold of the extreme end of the string, and, maintaining the insect as far
from his person as circumstances would permit, prepared to ascend the tree.

In youth, the tulip-tree, or Liriodendron Tulipiferum, the most magnificent of American foresters,
has a trunk peculiarly smooth, and often rises to a great height without lateral branches; but, in its
riper age, the bark becomes gnarled and uneven, while many short limbs make their appearance
on the stem. Thus the difficulty of ascension, in the present case, lay more in semblance than in
reality. Embracing the huge cylinder as closely as possible with his arms and knees, seizing with
his hands some projections, and resting his naked toes upon others,[Pg 38] Jupiter, after one or
two narrow escapes from falling, at length wriggled himself into the first great fork, and seemed
to consider the whole business as virtually accomplished. The risk of the achievement was, in
fact, now over, although the climber was some sixty or seventy feet from the ground.

"Which way mus go now, Massa Will?" he asked.

"Keep up the largest branch—the one on this side," said Legrand. The negro obeyed him
promptly, and apparently with but little trouble, ascending higher and higher, until no glimpse of
his squat figure could be obtained through the dense foliage which enveloped it. Presently his
voice was heard in a sort of halloo.

"How much fudder is got for go?"

"How high up are you?" asked Legrand.

"Ebber so fur," replied the negro; "can see de sky fru de top ob de tree."

"Never mind the sky, but attend to what I say. Look down the trunk, and count the limbs below
you on this side. How many limbs have you passed?"

"One, two, tree, four, fibe—I done pass fibe big limb, massa, pon dis side."

"Then go one limb higher."

In a few minutes the voice was heard again, announcing that the seventh limb was attained.

"Now, Jup," cried Legrand, evidently much excited, "I want you to work your way out upon that
limb as far as you can. If you see anything strange, let me know."

29
By this time what little doubt I might have entertained of my poor friend's insanity was put finally
at rest. I had no alternative but to conclude him stricken with lunacy, and I became seriously
anxious about getting him home.[Pg 39] While I was pondering upon what was best to be done,
Jupiter's voice was again heard.

"Mos feerd for to ventur pon dis limb berry far—'tis dead limb putty much all de way."

"Did you say it was a dead limb, Jupiter?" cried Legrand in a quivering voice.

"Yes, massa; him dead as de door-nail; done up for sartain; done departed dis here life."

"What in the name of heaven shall I do?" asked Legrand, seemingly in the greatest distress.

"Do!" said I, glad of an opportunity to interpose a word, "why, come home and go to bed. Come,
now, that's a fine fellow! It's getting late, and, besides, you remember your promise."

"Jupiter," cried he, without heeding me in the least, "do you hear me?"

"Yes, Massa Will, hear you ebber so plain."

"Try the wood well, then, with your knife, and see if you think it is very rotten."

"Him rotten, massa, sure nuff," replied the negro in a few moments; "but not so berry rotten as
mought be. Mought ventur out leetle way pon de limb by myself, dat's true."

"By yourself? what do you mean?"

"Why, I mean de bug. 'Tis berry hebby bug. Spose I drop him down fuss, and den de limb won't
break wid just de weight ob one nigger."

"You infernal scoundrel!" cried Legrand, apparently much relieved; "what do you mean by telling
me such nonsense as that? As sure as you drop that beetle I'll break your neck. Look here, Jupiter,
do you hear me?"

"Yes, massa; needn't hollo at poor nigger dat style."

"Well, now listen. If you will venture out on the limb[Pg 40] as far as you think safe, and not let
go the beetle, I'll make you a present of a silver dollar as soon as you get down."

"I'm gwine, Mass Will—deed I is," replied the negro, very promptly—"mos out to the end now."

"Out to the end!" here fairly screamed Legrand, "do you say you are out to the end of that limb?"

"Soon be to de eend, massa,—o-o-o-o-oh! Lor-gol-a-marcy! what is dis here pon de tree?"

"Well!" cried Legrand, highly delighted, "what is it?"

"Why, taint noffin but a skull—somebody bin lef him head up de tree, and de crows done gobble
ebery bit ob de meat off."

"A skull, you say!—very well!—how is it fastened to the limb?—what holds it on?"

30
"Sure nuff, massa; mus look. Why, dis berry curous cumstance, pon my word—dare's a great big
nail in de skull what fastens ob it on to de tree."

"Well, now, Jupiter, do exactly as I tell you—do you hear?"

"Yes, massa."

"Pay attention, then!—find the left eye of the skull."

"Hum! hoo! dat's good! why, dare aint no eye lef at all."

"Curse your stupidity! do you know your right hand from your left?"

"Yes, I nose dat—nose all bout dat—'tis my lef hand what I chops de wood wid."

"To be sure! you are left-handed; and your left eye is on the same side as your left hand. Now, I
suppose you can find the left eye of the skull, or the place where the left eye has been. Have you
found it?"

Here was a long pause. At length the negro asked,[Pg 41]—

"Is de lef eye ob de skull pon de same side as de lef hand ob de skull, too?—cause de skull aint
got not a bit ob a hand at all—nebber mind! I got de lef eye now—here de lef eye! what mus do
with it?"

"Let the beetle drop through it, as far as the string will reach—but be careful and not let go your
hold of the string."

"All dat done, Mass Will; mighty easy ting for to put de bug frue de hole—look out for him dare
below!"

During this colloquy no portion of Jupiter's person could be seen; but the beetle, which he had
suffered to descend, was now visible at the end of the string, and glistened, like a globe of
burnished gold, in the last rays of the setting sun, some of which still faintly illumined the
eminence upon which we stood. The scarabæus hung quite clear of any branches, and, if allowed
to fall, would have fallen at our feet. Legrand immediately took the scythe and cleared with it a
circular space, three or four yards in diameter, just beneath the insect, and, having accomplished
this, ordered Jupiter to let go the string and come down from the tree.

Driving a peg, with great nicety, into the ground, at the precise spot where the beetle fell, my
friend now produced from his pocket a tape-measure. Fastening one end of this at that point of the
trunk of the tree which was nearest the peg, he unrolled it till it reached the peg, and thence
further unrolled it, in the direction already established by the two points of the tree and the peg,
for the distance of fifty feet—Jupiter clearing away the brambles with the scythe. At the spot thus
attained a second peg was driven, and about this, as a centre, a rude circle, about four feet in
diameter, described. Taking now a spade himself, and giving one to Jupiter and one to me,[Pg 42]
Legrand begged us to set about digging as quickly as possible.

To speak the truth, I had no special relish for such amusement at any time, and, at that particular
moment, would most willingly have declined it; for the night was coming on, and I felt much
fatigued with the exercise already taken; but I saw no mode of escape, and was fearful of
disturbing my poor friend's equanimity by a refusal. Could I have depended, indeed, upon
31
Jupiter's aid, I would have had no hesitation in attempting to get the lunatic home by force; but I
was too well assured of the old negro's disposition to hope that he would assist me, under any
circumstances, in a personal contest with his master. I made no doubt that the latter had been
infected with some of the innumerable Southern superstitions about money buried, and that his
fantasy had received confirmation by the finding of the scarabæus, or, perhaps, by Jupiter's
obstinacy in maintaining it to be "a bug of real gold." A mind disposed to lunacy would readily be
led away by such suggestions—especially if chiming in with favorite preconceived ideas—and
then I called to mind the poor fellow's speech about the beetle's being "the index of his fortune."
Upon the whole, I was sadly vexed and puzzled, but at length, I concluded to make a virtue of
necessity—to dig with a good will, and thus the sooner to convince the visionary, by ocular
demonstration, of the fallacy of the opinions he entertained.

The lanterns having been lit, we all fell to work with a zeal worthy a more rational cause; and, as
the glare fell upon our persons and implements, I could not help thinking how picturesque a group
we composed, and how strange and suspicious our labors must have appeared to[Pg 43] any
interloper who, by chance, might have stumbled upon our whereabouts.

We dug very steadily for two hours. Little was said; and our chief embarrassment lay in the
yelpings of the dog, who took exceeding interest in our proceedings. He at length became so
obstreperous that we grew fearful of his giving alarm to some stragglers in the vicinity; or, rather,
this was the apprehension of Legrand; for myself, I should have rejoiced at any interruption which
might have enabled me to get the wanderer home. The noise was at length very effectually
silenced by Jupiter, who, getting out of the hole with a dogged air of deliberation, tied the brute's
mouth up with one of his suspenders, and then returned, with a grave chuckle, to his task.

When the time mentioned had expired, we had reached a depth of five feet, and yet no signs of
any treasure became manifest. A general pause ensued, and I began to hope that the farce was at
an end. Legrand, however, although evidently much disconcerted, wiped his brow thoughtfully
and recommenced. We had excavated the entire circle of four feet diameter, and now we slightly
enlarged the limit, and went to the further depth of two feet. Still nothing appeared. The gold-
seeker, whom I sincerely pitied, at length clambered from the pit, with the bitterest
disappointment imprinted upon every feature, and proceeded, slowly and reluctantly, to put on his
coat, which he had thrown off at the beginning of his labor. In the meantime I made no remark.
Jupiter, at a signal from his master, began to gather up his tools. This done, and the dog having
been unmuzzled, we turned in profound silence toward home.

We had taken, perhaps, a dozen steps in this direction, when, with a loud oath, Legrand strode up
to Jupiter, and[Pg 44] seized him by the collar. The astonished negro opened his eyes and mouth
to the fullest extent, let fall the spades, and fell upon his knees.

"You scoundrel," said Legrand, hissing out the syllables from between his clinched teeth—"you
infernal black villain!—speak, I tell you!—answer me this instant, without prevarication!—which
—which is your left eye?"

"Oh, my golly, Massa Will! aint dis here my lef eye for sartin?" roared the terrified Jupiter,
placing his hand upon his right organ of vision, and holding it there with a desperate pertinacity,
as if in immediate dread of his master's attempt at a gouge.

"I thought so!—I knew it! hurrah!" vociferated Legrand, letting the negro go and executing a
series of curvets and caracoles, much to the astonishment of his valet, who, arising from his
knees, looked mutely from his master to myself, and then from myself to his master.

32
"Come! we must go back," said the latter, "the game's not up yet;" and he again led the way to the
tulip-tree.

"Jupiter," said he, when we reached its foot, "come here; was the skull nailed to the limb with the
face outward, or with the face to the limb?"

"De face was out, massa, so dat de crows could get at de eyes good, widout any trouble."

"Well, then, was it this eye or that through which you dropped the beetle?"—here Legrand
touched each of Jupiter's eyes.

"'Twas dis eye, massa—de lef eye—jis as you tell me," and here it was his right eye that the negro
indicated.

"That will do—we must try it again."

Here my friend, about whose madness I now saw, or fancied that I saw, certain indications of
method, removed[Pg 45] the peg which marked the spot where the beetle fell, to a spot about
three inches to the westward of its former position. Taking, now, the tape-measure from the
nearest point of the trunk to the peg, as before, and continuing the extension in a straight line to
the distance of fifty feet, a spot was indicated, removed, by several yards, from the point at which
we had been digging.

Around the new position a circle, somewhat larger than in the former instance, was now
described, and we again set to work with the spades. I was dreadfully weary, but scarcely
understanding what had occasioned the change in my thoughts, I felt no longer any great aversion
from the labor imposed. I had become most unaccountably interested—nay, even excited. Perhaps
there was something, amid all the extravagant demeanor of Legrand, some air of forethought, or
of deliberation, which impressed me. I dug eagerly, and now and then caught myself actually
looking, with something that very much resembled expectation, for the fancied treasure, the vision
of which had demented my unfortunate companion. At a period when such vagaries of thought
most fully possessed me, and when we had been at work perhaps an hour and a half, we were
again interrupted by the violent howlings of the dog. His uneasiness, in the first instance, had
been, evidently, but the result of playfulness or caprice, but he now assumed a bitter and serious
tone. Upon Jupiter's again attempting to muzzle him, he made furious resistance, and leaping into
the hole, tore up the mould frantically with his claws. In a few seconds he had uncovered a mass
of human bones, forming two complete skeletons, intermingled with several buttons of metal, and
what appeared to be the dust of decayed woollen. One or two strokes of a spade upturned the
blade of a large Spanish knife, and, as we[Pg 46] dug further, three or four loose pieces of gold
and silver coin came to light.

At sight of these the joy of Jupiter could scarcely be restrained; but the countenance of his master
wore an air of extreme disappointment. He urged us, however, to continue our exertions; and the
words were hardly uttered when I stumbled and fell forward, having caught the toe of my boot in
a large ring of iron that lay half buried in the loose earth.

We now worked in earnest; and never did I pass ten minutes of more intense excitement. During
this interval we had fairly unearthed an oblong chest of wood, which, from its perfect preservation
and wonderful hardness, had plainly been subjected to some mineralizing process—perhaps that
of the bichloride of mercury. This box was three feet and a half long, three feet broad, and two
and a half feet deep. It was firmly secured by bands of wrought iron, riveted, and forming a kind
of open trelliswork over the whole. On each side of the chest, near the top, were three rings of

33
iron—six in all—by means of which a firm hold could be obtained by six persons. Our utmost
united endeavors served only to disturb the coffer very slightly in its bed. We at once saw the
impossibility of removing so great a weight. Luckily, the sole fastenings of the lid consisted of
two sliding bolts. These we drew back, trembling and panting with anxiety. In an instant a
treasure of incalculable value lay gleaming before us. As the rays of the lanterns fell within the
pit, there flashed upward a glow and a glare, from a confused heap of gold and of jewels, that
absolutely dazzled our eyes.

I shall not pretend to describe the feelings with which I gazed. Amazement was, of course,
predominant. Legrand appeared exhausted with excitement, and spoke[Pg 47] very few words.
Jupiter's countenance wore, for some minutes, as deadly a pallor as it is possible, in the nature of
things, for any negro's visage to assume. He seemed stupefied, thunderstricken. Presently he fell
upon his knees in the pit, and, burying his naked arms up to the elbows in gold, let them there
remain, as if enjoying the luxury of a bath. At length, with a deep sigh, he exclaimed, as if in a
soliloquy:—

"And dis all cum ob de goole-bug! de putty goole-bug! de poor little goole-bug, what I boosed in
dat sabage kind ob style! Ain't you ashamed ob yourself, nigger? Answer me dat!"

It became necessary at last that I should arouse both master and valet to the expediency of
removing the treasure. It was growing late, and it behooved us to make exertion, that we might get
everything housed before daylight. It was difficult to say what should be done, and much time
was spent in deliberation, so confused were the ideas of all. We finally lightened the box by
removing two-thirds of its contents, when we were enabled, with some trouble, to raise it from the
hole. The articles taken out were deposited among the brambles, and the dog left to guard them,
with strict orders from Jupiter, neither, upon any pretence, to stir from the spot, nor to open his
mouth until our return. We then hurriedly made for home with the chest, reaching the hut in
safety, but after excessive toil, at one o'clock in the morning. Worn out as we were, it was not in
human nature to do more immediately. We rested until two, and had supper, starting for the hills
immediately afterward, armed with three stout sacks, which, by good luck, were upon the
premises. A little before four we arrived at the pit, divided the remainder of the booty as equally
as[Pg 48] might be among us; and, leaving the holes unfilled, again set out for the hut, at which,
for the second time, we deposited our golden burthens, just as the first faint streaks of the dawn
gleamed from over the tree-tops in the east.

We were now thoroughly broken down; but the intense excitement of the time denied us repose.
After an unquiet slumber of some three or four hours' duration, we arose, as if by preconcert, to
make examination of our treasure.

The chest had been full to the brim, and we spent the whole day, and the greater part of the next
night, in scrutiny of its contents. There had been nothing like order or arrangement. Everything
had been heaped in promiscuously. Having assorted all with care, we found ourselves possessed
of even vaster wealth than we had at first supposed. In coin there was rather more than four
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, estimating the value of the pieces as accurately as we could by
the tables of the period. There was not a particle of silver. All was gold of antique date and of
great variety,—French, Spanish, and German money, with a few English guineas, and some
counters, of which we had never seen specimens before. There were several very large and heavy
coins, so worn that we could make nothing of their inscriptions. There was no American money.

The value of the jewels we found more difficulty in estimating. There were diamonds, some of
them exceedingly large and fine—a hundred and ten in all, and not one of them small; eighteen
rubies of remarkable brilliancy; three hundred and ten emeralds, all very beautiful; and twenty one

34
sapphires, with an opal. These stones had all been broken from their settings, and thrown loose in
the chest. The settings themselves,[Pg 49] which we picked out from among the other gold,
appeared to have been beaten up with hammers, as if to prevent identification. Besides all this,
there was a vast quantity of solid gold ornaments; nearly two hundred massive finger and ear
rings; rich chains—thirty of these, if I remember; eighty-three very large and heavy crucifixes;
five gold censers of great value; a prodigious golden punch-bowl, ornamented with richly chased
vine-leaves and bacchanalian figures; with two sword-handles exquisitely embossed, and many
other smaller articles which I cannot recollect.

The weight of these valuables exceeded three hundred and fifty pounds avoirdupois; and in this
estimate I have not included one hundred and ninety-seven superb gold watches, three of the
number being worth each five hundred dollars, if one. Many of them were very old, and as
timekeepers valueless, the works having suffered more or less from corrosion; but all were richly
jewelled, and in cases of great worth. We estimated the entire contents of the chest that night at a
million and a half of dollars; and upon the subsequent disposal of the trinkets and jewels (a few
being retained for our own use), it was found that we had greatly undervalued the treasure.

When at length we had concluded our examination, and the intense excitement of the time had, in
some measure, subsided, Legrand, who saw that I was dying with impatience for a solution of this
most extraordinary riddle, entered into a full detail of all the circumstances connected with it.

"You remember," said he, "the night when I handed you the rough sketch I had made of the
scarabæus. You recollect, also, that I became quite vexed at you for insisting that my drawing
resembled a death's-head. When[Pg 50] you first made this assertion, I thought you were jesting;
but afterward I called to mind the peculiar spots on the back of the insect, and admitted to myself
that your remark had some little foundation in fact. Still the sneer at my graphic powers irritated
me—for I am considered a good artist; and therefore, when you handed me the scrap of
parchment, I was about to crumple it up and throw it angrily into the fire."

"The scrap of paper, you mean," said I.

"No; it had much the appearance of paper, and at first I supposed it to be such; but when I came to
draw upon it, I discovered it at once to be a piece of very thin parchment. It was quite dirty, you
remember. Well, as I was in the very act of crumpling it up, my glance fell upon the sketch at
which you had been looking; and you may imagine my astonishment when I perceived, in fact,
the figure of a death's-head just where, it seemed to me, I had made the drawing of the beetle. For
a moment I was too much amazed to think with accuracy. I knew that my design was very
different in detail from this, although there was a certain similarity in general outline. Presently I
took a candle, and, seating myself at the other end of the room, proceeded to scrutinize the
parchment more closely. Upon turning it over, I saw my own sketch upon the reverse, just as I had
made it. My first idea now was mere surprise at the really remarkable similarity of outline—at the
singular coincidence involved in the fact that, unknown to me, there should have been a skull
upon the other side of the parchment, immediately beneath my figure of the scarabæus, and that
this skull, not only in outline, but in size, should so closely resemble my drawing. I say the
singularity of this coincidence absolutely stupefied me for a time.[Pg 51]

"This is the usual effect of such coincidences. The mind struggles to establish a connection, a
sequence of cause and effect; and, being unable to do so, suffers a species of temporary paralysis.
But when I recovered from this stupor, there dawned upon me gradually a conviction which
startled me even far more than the coincidence. I began distinctly, positively, to remember that
there had been no drawing upon the parchment when I made my sketch of the scarabæus. I
became perfectly certain of this; for I recollected turning up first one side and then the other, in

35
search of the cleanest spot. Had the skull been then there, of course I could not have failed to
notice it. Here was indeed a mystery which I felt it impossible to explain; but, even at that early
moment, there seemed to glimmer faintly within the most remote and secret chambers of my
intellect a glowworm-like conception of that truth which last night's adventure brought to so
magnificent a demonstration. I arose at once, and, putting the parchment securely away, dismissed
all further reflection until I should be alone.

"When you had gone, and when Jupiter was fast asleep, I betook myself to a more methodical
investigation of the affair. In the first place I considered the manner in which the parchment had
come into my possession. The spot where we discovered the scarabæus was on the coast of the
main land, about a mile eastward of the island, and but a short distance above high-water mark.
Upon my taking hold of it, it gave me a sharp bite, which caused me to let it drop. Jupiter, with his
accustomed caution, before seizing the insect, which had flown towards him, looked about him
for a leaf, or something of that nature, by which to take hold of it. It was at this moment that his
eyes, and mine also, fell upon the[Pg 52] scrap of parchment, which I then supposed to be paper.
It was lying half buried in the sand, a corner sticking up. Near the spot where we found it, I
observed the remnant of the hull of what appeared to have been a ship's long boat. The wreck
seemed to have been there for a very great while; for the resemblance to boat timbers could
scarcely be traced.

"Well, Jupiter picked up the parchment, wrapped the beetle in it, and gave it to me. Soon
afterwards we turned to go home, and on the way met Lieutenant G——. I showed him the insect,
and he begged me to let him take it to the fort. Upon my consenting, he thrust it forthwith into his
waistcoat pocket, without the parchment in which it had been wrapped, and which I had continued
to hold in my hand during his inspection. Perhaps he dreaded my changing my mind, and thought
it best to make sure of the prize at once—you know how enthusiastic he is on all subjects
connected with Natural History. At the same time, without being conscious of it, I must have
deposited the parchment in my own pocket.

"You remember that when I went to the table, for the purpose of making a sketch of the beetle, I
found no paper where it was usually kept. I looked in the drawer and found none there. I searched
my pockets, hoping to find an old letter, when my hand fell upon the parchment. I thus detail the
precise mode in which it came into my possession; for the circumstances impressed me with
peculiar force.

"No doubt you will think me fanciful—but I had already established a kind of connection. I had
put together two links of a great chain. There was a boat lying upon a sea-coast, and not far from
the boat was a parchment—not a paper—with a skull depicted upon it. You will, of[Pg 53]
course, ask, 'where is the connection?' I reply that the skull, or death's-head, is the well-known
emblem of the pirate. The flag of the death's-head is hoisted in all engagements.

"I have said that the scrap was parchment, and not paper. Parchment is durable—almost
imperishable. Matters of little moment are rarely consigned to parchment; since for the mere
ordinary purposes of drawing or writing it is not nearly so well adapted as paper. This reflection
suggested some meaning—some relevancy—in the death's-head. I did not fail to observe, also, the
form of the parchment. Although one of its corners had been, by some accident, destroyed, it
could be seen that the original form was oblong. It was just a slip, indeed, as might have been
chosen for a memorandum—for a record of something to be long remembered and carefully
preserved."

"But," I interposed, "you say that the skull was not upon the parchment when you made the
drawing of the beetle. How then do you trace any connection between the boat and the skull—

36
since this latter, according to your own admission, must have been designed (God only knows
how or by whom) at some period subsequent to your sketching the scarabæus?"

"Ah, hereupon turns the whole mystery; although the secret, at this point, I had comparatively
little difficulty in solving. My steps were sure, and could afford but a single result. I reasoned, for
example, thus: When I drew the scarabæus, there was no skull apparent upon the parchment.
When I had completed the drawing I gave it to you and observed you narrowly until you returned
it. You, therefore, did not design the skull, and no one else was present to do it. Then it was not
done by human agency. And nevertheless it was done.[Pg 54]

"At this stage of my reflections I endeavored to remember, and did remember, with entire
distinctness, every incident which occurred about the period in question. The weather was chilly
(oh, rare and happy accident!), and a fire was blazing upon the hearth. I was heated with exercise
and sat near the table. You, however, had drawn a chair close to the chimney. Just as I placed the
parchment in your hand, and you were in the act of inspecting it, Wolf, the Newfoundland,
entered, and leaped upon your shoulders. With your left hand you caressed him and kept him off,
while your right, holding the parchment, was permitted to fall listlessly between your knees, and
in close proximity to the fire. At one moment I thought the blaze had caught it, and was about to
caution you, but, before I could speak, you had withdrawn it, and were engaged in its
examination. When I considered all these particulars, I doubted not for a moment that heat had
been the agent in bringing to light, upon the parchment, the skull which I saw designed upon it.
You are well aware that chemical preparations exist, and have existed time out of mind, by means
of which it is possible to write upon either paper or vellum, so that the characters shall become
visible only when subjected to the action of fire. Zaffre, digested in aqua regia, and diluted with
four times its weight of water, is sometimes employed; a green tint results. The regulus of cobalt,
dissolved in spirit of nitre, gives a red. These colors disappear at longer or shorter intervals after
the material written upon cools, but again become apparent upon the reapplication of heat.

"I now scrutinized the death's-head with care. Its outer edges—the edges of the drawing nearest
the edge of the vellum—were far more distinct than the others. It was clear that the action of the
caloric had been imperfect[Pg 55] or unequal. I immediately kindled a fire, and subjected every
portion of the parchment to a glowing heat. At first, the only effect was the strengthening of the
faint lines in the skull; but, upon persevering in the experiment, there became visible, at the corner
of the slip, diagonally opposite to the spot in which the death's-head was delineated, the figure of
what I at first supposed to be a goat. A closer scrutiny, however, satisfied me that it was intended
for a kid."

"Ha! ha!" said I, "to be sure I have no right to laugh at you—a million and a half of money is too
serious a matter for mirth—but you are not about to establish a third link in your chain—you will
not find any special connection between your pirates and a goat—pirates, you know, have nothing
to do with goats; they appertain to the farming interest."

"But I have just said that the figure was not that of a goat."

"Well, a kid then—pretty much the same thing."

"Pretty much, but not altogether," said Legrand. "You may have heard of one Captain Kidd. I at
once looked upon the figure of the animal as a kind of punning or hieroglyphical signature. I say
signature, because its position on the vellum suggested this idea. The death's-head at the corner
diagonally opposite, had, in the same manner, the air of a stamp, or seal. But I was sorely put out
by the absence of all else—of the body to my imagined instrument—of the text for my context."

37
"I presume you expected to find a letter between the stamp and the signature."

"Something of that kind. The fact is, I felt irresistibly impressed with a presentiment of some vast
good fortune impending. I can scarcely say why. Perhaps, after[Pg 56] all, it was rather a desire
than an actual belief; but do you know that Jupiter's silly words, about the bug being of solid gold,
had a remarkable effect upon my fancy? And then the series of accidents and coincidences—these
were so very extraordinary. Do you observe how mere an accident it was that these events should
have occurred upon the sole day of all the year in which it has been, or may be, sufficiently cool
for fire, and that without the fire, or without the intervention of the dog at the precise moment in
which he appeared, I should never have become aware of the death's-head, and so never the
possessor of the treasure?"

"But proceed, I am all impatience."

"Well, you have heard, of course, the many stories current, the thousand vague rumors afloat,
about money buried, somewhere upon the Atlantic coast, by Kidd and his associates. These
rumors must have some foundation in fact. And that the rumors have existed so long and so
continuous, could have resulted, it appeared to me, only from the circumstance of the buried
treasure still remaining entombed. Had Kidd concealed his plunder for a time, and afterward
reclaimed it, the rumors would scarcely have reached us in their present unvarying form. You will
observe that the stories told are all about money-seekers, not about money-finders. Had the pirate
recovered his money, there the affair would have dropped. It seemed to me that some accident—
say the loss of a memorandum indicating its locality—had deprived him of the means of
recovering it, and that this accident had become known to his followers, who otherwise might
never have heard that treasure had been concealed at all, and who, busying themselves in vain,
because unguided, attempts to regain it, had given first birth, and then universal currency,[Pg 57]
to the reports which are now so common. Have you ever heard of any important treasure being
unearthed along the coast?"

"Never."

"But that Kidd's accumulations were immense, is well known. I took it for granted, therefore, that
the earth still held them; and you will scarcely be surprised when I tell you that I felt a hope,
nearly amounting to certainty, that the parchment so strangely found, involved a lost record of the
place of deposit."

"But how did you proceed?"

"I held the vellum again to the fire, after increasing the heat, but nothing appeared. I now thought
it possible that the coating of dirt might have something to do with the failure; so I carefully
rinsed the parchment by pouring warm water over it, and having done this, I placed it in a tin pan,
with the skull downward, and put the pan upon a furnace of lighted charcoal. In a few minutes, the
pan having become thoroughly heated, I removed the slip, and to my inexpressible joy, found it
spotted in several places, with what appeared to be figures arranged in lines. Again I placed it in
the pan, and suffered it to remain another minute. Upon taking it off, the whole was just as you
see it now."

Here Legrand, having re-heated the parchment, submitted it to my inspection. The following
characters were rudely traced, in a red tint, between the death's-head and the goat:—

38
53‡‡†305))6*;4826)4‡.)4‡);806*;48†8¶60))85;;]8*;:‡*8†83(88)5*†;46(;88*96*?;8)*‡(;485);5*†
2:*‡(;4956*2(5*-4)8¶ 8*;4069285);)6†8)4‡‡;1 (‡9;48081;8:8‡1;48†85;4)485†528806*81(‡9;48;
(88;4(‡?34;48)4‡;161;:188; ‡?;[Pg 58]

"But," said I, returning him the slip, "I am as much in the dark as ever. Were all the jewels of
Golconda awaiting me upon my solution of this enigma, I am quite sure that I should be unable to
earn them."

"And yet," said Legrand, "the solution is by no means so difficult as you might be led to imagine
from the first hasty inspection of the characters. These characters, as any one might readily guess,
form a cipher—that is to say, they convey a meaning; but then, from what is known of Kidd, I
could not suppose him capable of constructing any of the more abstruse cryptographs. I made up
my mind at once that this was of a simple species—such, however, as would appear to the crude
intellect of the sailor absolutely insoluble without the key."

"And you really solved it?"

"Readily; I have solved others of an abstruseness ten thousand times greater. Circumstances, and a
certain bias of mind, have led me to take interest in such riddles, and it may well be doubted
whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma of the kind which human ingenuity may not,
by proper application, resolve. In fact, having once established connected and legible characters, I
scarcely gave a thought to the mere difficulty of developing their import.

"In the present case—indeed in all cases of secret writing—the question regards the language of
the cipher; for the principles of solution, so far especially as the more simple ciphers are
concerned, depend upon, and are varied by, the genius of the particular idiom. In general, there is
no alternative but experiment (directed by probabilities) of every tongue known to him who
attempts the solution, until the true one be attained. But, with the cipher now before us, all
difficulty was removed by the[Pg 59] signature. The pun upon the word 'Kidd' is appreciable in no
other language than the English. But for this consideration I should have begun my attempts with
the Spanish and French, as the tongues in which a secret of this kind would most naturally have
been written by a pirate of the Spanish main. As it was, I assumed the cryptograph to be English.

"You observe there are no divisions between the words. Had there been divisions, the task would
have been comparatively easy. In such cases I should have commenced with a collation and
analysis of the shorter words, and, had a word of a single letter occurred, as it is most likely (a or
I, for example), I should have considered the solution as assured. But, there being no division, my
first step was to ascertain the predominant letters, as well as the least frequent. Counting all, I
constructed a table thus:—

Of the character 8 there are 33

; " 26
4 " 19
‡) " 16
* " 13
5 " 12
6 " 11
( " 10
†1 " 8
0 " 6
92 " 5
39
 :3 " 4
? " 3
¶ " 2
]-. " 1

"Now, in English, the letter which most frequently occurs is e. Afterward, the succession runs
thus: a o i d h n r s t u y c f g l m w b k p q x z.[Pg 60] E predominates so remarkably that an
individual sentence of any length is rarely seen in which it is not the prevailing character.

"Here, then, we have, in the very beginning, the groundwork for something more than a mere
guess. The general use which may be made of the table is obvious, but, in this particular cipher,
we shall only very partially require its aid. As our predominant character is 8, we will commence
by assuming it as the e of the natural alphabet. To verify the supposition, let us observe if the 8 be
seen often in couples—for e is doubled with great frequency in English—in such words, for
example, as 'meet,' 'fleet,' 'speed,' 'seen,' 'been,' 'agree,' etc. In the present instance we see it
doubled no less than five times, although the cryptograph is brief.

"Let us assume 8, then, as e. Now, of all the words in the language, 'the' is most usual; let us see,
therefore, whether there are not repetitions of any three characters, in the same order of
collocation, the last of them being 8. If we discover repetitions of such letters, so arranged, they
will most probably represent the word 'the.' Upon inspection, we find no less than seven such
arrangements, the characters being;48. We may, therefore, assume that; represents t, 4 represents
h, and 8 represents e—the last being now well confirmed. Thus a great step has been taken.

"But, having established a single word, we are enabled to establish a vastly important point; that is
to say, several commencements and terminations of other words. Let us refer, for example, to the
last instance but one, in which the combination;48 occurs—not far from the end of the cipher. We
know that the; immediately ensuing is the commencement of a word, and of the six characters[Pg
61] succeeding this 'the,' we are cognizant of no less than five. Let us set these characters down,
thus, by the letters we know them to represent, leaving a space for the unknown:—

t eeth.

"Here we are enabled, at once, to discard the 'th,' as forming no portion of the word commencing
with the first t; since, by experiment of the entire alphabet for a letter adapted to the vacancy, we
perceive that no word can be formed of which this th can be a part. We are thus narrowed into—

t ee,

and, going through the alphabet, if necessary, as before, we arrive at the word 'tree' as the sole
possible reading. We thus gain another letter, r, represented by (, with the words 'the tree,' in
juxtaposition.

"Looking beyond these words, for a short distance, we again see the combination;48, and employ
it by way of termination to what immediately precedes. We have thus this arrangement:—

the tree; 4(‡?34 the,

or, substituting the natural letters, where known, it reads thus:—

the tree thr‡?3h the.

40
"Now, if, in place of the unknown characters, we leave blank spaces, or substitute dots, we read
thus:—

the tree thr ...h the,

when the word 'through' makes itself evident at once. But this discovery gives us three new
letters, o, u, g, represented by ‡? and 3.

"Looking now, narrowly, through the cipher for com[Pg 62]binations of known characters, we
find, not very far from the beginning, this arrangement:—

83(88, or egree,

which plainly is the conclusion of the word 'degree,' and gives us another letter d, represented by
†.

"Four letters beyond the word 'degree,' we perceive the combination:—

;46(;88.

"Translating the known characters, and representing the unknown by dots, as before, we read
thus:—

th rtee,

an arrangement immediately suggestive of the word 'thirteen,' and again furnishing us with two
new characters i and n, represented by 6 and *.

"Referring, now, to the beginning of the cryptograph, we find the combination:—

53‡‡†

"Translating as before, we obtain:—

.good,

which assures us that the first letter is A, and that the first two words are 'A good.'

"It is now time that we arrange our key, as far as discovered, in a tabular form, to avoid confusion.
It will stand thus:—

5 represents a
† " d
8 " e
3 " g
4 " h
6 " i
* " n
‡ " o
( " r
; " t
41
have, therefore, no less than ten of the most important letters[Pg 63]
represented, and it will be unnecessary to proceed with the details of the solution. I have said
enough to convince you that ciphers of this nature are readily soluble, and to give you some
insight into the rationale of their development. But be assured that the specimen before us
appertains to the very simplest species of cryptograph. It now only remains to give you the full
translation of the characters upon the parchment, as unriddled. Here it is:—

"'A good glass in the bishop's hostel in the devil's seat forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes
north-east and by north main branch seventh limb east side shoot from the left eye of the death's-
head a bee-line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out.'"

"But," said I, "the enigma seems still in as bad a condition as ever. How is it possible to extort a
meaning from all this jargon about 'devil's seats,' 'death's-heads,' and 'bishop's hotels'?"

"I confess," replied Legrand, "that the matter still wears a serious aspect when regarded with a
casual glance. My first endeavor was to divide the sentence into the natural division intended by
the cryptographist."

"You mean, to punctuate it?"

"Something of that kind."

"I reflected that it had been a point with the writer to run his words together without division, so
as to increase the difficulty of solution. Now, a not over-acute man, in pursuing such an object,
would be nearly certain to overdo the matter. When, in the course of his composition, he arrived
at a break in his subject which would naturally require a pause, or a point, he would be
exceedingly apt to run his characters, at this place, more than usually close together. If you will
observe the MS., in[Pg 64] the present instance, you will easily detect five such cases of unusual
crowding. Acting upon this hint, I made the division thus:—

"'A good glass in the Bishop's hostel in the Devil's seat—forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes—
north-east and by north—main branch seventh limb east side—shoot from the left eye of the
death's-head—a bee-line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out.'"

"Even this division," said I, "leaves me still in the dark."

"It left me also in the dark," replied Legrand, "for a few days; during which I made diligent
inquiry, in the neighborhood of Sullivan's Island, for any building which went by the name of the
'Bishop's Hotel'; for of course I dropped the obsolete word 'hostel.' Gaining no information on the
subject, I was on the point of extending my sphere of search, and proceeding in a more systematic
manner, when one morning it entered into my head, quite suddenly, that this 'Bishop's Hostel'
might have some reference to an old family of the name of Bessop, which, time out of mind, had
held possession of an ancient manor-house, about four miles to the northward of the Island. I
accordingly went over to the plantation, and re-instituted my inquiries among the older negroes of
the place. At length one of the most aged of the women said that she had heard of such a place as
Bessop's Castle, and thought that she could guide me to it, but that it was not a castle, nor a
tavern, but a high rock.

"I offered to pay her well for her trouble, and, after some demur, she consented to accompany me
to the spot. We found it without much difficulty, when, dismissing her, I proceeded to examine
the place. The 'castle' consisted of an irregular assemblage of cliffs and rocks—one[Pg 65] of the

42
latter being quite remarkable for its height as well as for its insulated and artificial appearance. I
clambered to its apex, and then felt much at a loss as to what should be next done.

"While I was busied in reflection, my eyes fell upon a narrow ledge in the eastern face of the rock,
perhaps a yard below the summit upon which I stood. This ledge projected about eighteen inches,
and was not more than a foot wide, while a niche in the cliff just above it, gave it a rude
resemblance to one of the hollow-backed chairs used by our ancestors. I made no doubt that here
was the 'devil's seat' alluded to in the MS., and now I seemed to grasp the full secret of the riddle.

"The 'good glass' I knew could have reference to nothing but a telescope; for the word 'glass' is
rarely employed in any other sense by seamen. Now here, I at once saw a telescope to be used,
and a definite point of view, admitting no variation, from which to use it. Nor did I hesitate to
believe that the phrases, 'forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes,' and 'north-east and by north,'
were intended as directions for the levelling of the glass. Greatly excited by these discoveries, I
hurried home, procured a telescope, and returned to the rock.

"I let myself down to the ledge, and found that it was impossible to retain a seat upon it except in
one particular position. This fact confirmed my preconceived idea. I proceeded to use the glass.
Of course, the 'forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes' could allude to nothing but elevation above
the visible horizon, since the horizontal direction was clearly indicated by the words, 'north-east
and by north.' This latter direction I at once established by means of a pocket-compass; then,
pointing the glass as nearly at an angle of forty-one degrees of elevation as[Pg 66] I could do it by
guess, I moved it cautiously up or down, until my attention was arrested by a circular rift or
opening in the foliage of a large tree that overtopped its fellows in the distance. In the centre of
this rift I perceived a white spot, but could not, at first, distinguish what it was. Adjusting the
focus of the telescope, I again looked, "Upon this discovery I was so sanguine as to consider the
enigma solved; for the phrase 'main branch, seventh limb, east side,' could refer only to the
position of the skull upon the tree, while 'shoot from the left eye of the death's-head' admitted,
also, of but one interpretation, in regard to a search for buried treasure. I perceived that the design
was to drop a bullet from the left eye of the skull, and that a bee-line, or, in other words, a straight
line, drawn from the nearest point of the trunk through 'the shot' (or the spot where the bullet fell)
and thence extended to a distance of fifty feet, would indicate a definite point—and beneath this
point I thought it at least possible that a deposit of value lay concealed."

"All this," I said, "is exceedingly clear, and, although ingenious, still simple and explicit. When
you left the Bishop's Hotel, what then?"

"Why, having carefully taken the bearings of the tree, I turned homewards. The instant that I left
the 'devil's seat,' however, the circular rift vanished; nor could I get a glimpse of it afterwards,
turn as I would. What seems to me the chief ingenuity in this whole business is the fact (for
repeated experiment has convinced me it is a fact) that the circular opening in question is visible
from no other attainable point of view than that afforded by the narrow ledge on the face of the
rock.

"In this expedition to the 'Bishop's Hotel' I had been[Pg 67] attended by Jupiter, who had no doubt
observed for some weeks past the abstraction of my demeanor, and took especial care not to leave
me alone. But, on the next day, getting up very early, I contrived to give him the slip, and went
into the hills in search of the tree. After much toil I found it. When I came home at night my valet
proposed to give me a flogging. With the rest of the adventure I believe you are as well
acquainted as myself."

43
"I suppose," said I, "you missed the spot, in the first attempt at digging, through Jupiter's stupidity
in letting the bug fall through the right instead of through the left eye of the skull."

"Precisely. This mistake made a difference of about two inches and a half in the 'shot,' that is to
say, in the position of the peg nearest the tree; and had the treasure been beneath the 'shot,' the
error would have been of little moment; but 'the shot,' together with the nearest point of the tree,
were merely two points for the establishment of a line of direction; of course the error, however
trivial in the beginning, increased as we proceeded with the line, and by the time we had gone
fifty feet, threw us quite off the scent. But for my deep-seated impression that treasure was here
somewhere actually buried, we might have had all our labor in vain."

"I presume the fancy of the skull—of letting fall a bullet through the skull's eye—was suggested
to Kidd by the piratical flag. No doubt he felt a kind of poetical consistency in recovering his
money through this ominous insignium."

"Perhaps so; still, I cannot help thinking that common-sense had quite as much to do with the
matter as poetical consistency. To be visible from the Devil's seat, it was[Pg 68] necessary that the
object, if small, should be white: and there is nothing like your human skull for retaining and even
increasing its whiteness under exposure to all vicissitudes of weather."

"But your grandiloquence, and your conduct in swinging the beetle—how excessively odd! I was
sure you were mad. And why did you insist upon letting fall the bug, instead of a bullet, from the
skull?"

"Why, to be frank, I felt somewhat annoyed by your evident suspicions touching my sanity, and
so resolved to punish you quietly, in my own way, by a little bit of sober mystification. For this
reason I swung the beetle, and for this reason I let it fall from the tree. An observation of yours
about its great weight suggested the latter idea."

"Yes, I perceive; and now there is only one point which puzzles me. What are we to make of the
skeletons found in the hole?"

"That is a question I am no more able to answer than yourself. There seems, however, only one
plausible way of accounting for them, and yet it is dreadful to believe in such atrocity as my
suggestion would imply. It is clear that Kidd—if Kidd indeed secreted this treasure, which I doubt
not—it is clear that he must have had assistance in the labor. But this labor concluded, he may
have thought it expedient to remove all participants in his secret. Perhaps a couple of blows with a
mattock were sufficient, while his coadjutors were busy in the pit; perhaps it required a dozen—
who shall tell?"[Pg 69]

THE PURLOINED LETTER

Nil sapientiæ odiosius acumine nimio.

Seneca.

At Paris, just after dark one gusty evening in the autumn of 18—, I was enjoying the twofold
luxury of meditation and a meerschaum, in company with my friend, C. Auguste Dupin, in his
little back library, or book-closet, au troisième, No. 33, Rue Dunôt, Faubourg Saint Germain. For
one hour at least we had maintained a profound silence; while each, to any casual observer, might
44
have seemed intently and exclusively occupied with the curling eddies of smoke that oppressed
the atmosphere of the chamber. For myself, however, I was mentally discussing certain topics
which had formed matter for conversation between us at an earlier period of the evening; I mean
the affair of the Rue Morgue, and the mystery attending the murder of Marie Rogêt. I looked upon
it, therefore, as something of a coincidence, when the door of our apartment was thrown open and
admitted our old acquaintance, Monsieur G——, the Prefect of the Parisian police.

We gave him a hearty welcome; for there was nearly half as much of the entertaining as of the
contemptible about the man, and we had not seen him for several years. We had been sitting in the
dark, and Dupin now arose for the purpose of lighting a lamp, but sat down again without doing
so, upon G——'s saying that he had called to consult us, or rather to ask the opinion of my friend,
about[Pg 70] some official business which had occasioned a great deal of trouble.

"If it is any point requiring reflection," observed Dupin, as he forebore to enkindle the wick, "we
shall examine it to better purpose in the dark."

"This is another of your odd notions," said the Prefect, who had a fashion of calling everything
"odd" that was beyond his comprehension, and thus lived amid an absolute legion of "oddities."

"Very true," said Dupin, as he supplied his visitor with a pipe, and rolled towards him a
comfortable chair.

"And what is the difficulty now?" I asked. "Nothing more in the assassination way, I hope?"

"Oh, no; nothing of that nature. The fact is, the business is very simple indeed, and I make no
doubt that we can manage it sufficiently well ourselves; but then I thought Dupin would like to
hear the details of it, because it is so excessively odd."

"Simple and odd," said Dupin.

"Why, yes; and not exactly that, either. The fact is, we have all been a good deal puzzled because
the affair is so simple, and yet baffles us altogether."

"Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the thing which puts you at fault," said my friend.

"What nonsense you do talk!" said the Prefect, laughing heartily.

"Perhaps the mystery is a little too plain," said Dupin.

"Oh, good heavens! who ever heard of such an idea?"

"A little too self-evident."

"Ha! ha! ha!—ha! ha! ha!—ho! ho! ho!" roared our visitor, profoundly amused, "O Dupin, you
will be the death of me yet!"

"And what, after all, is the matter on hand?" I asked.[Pg 71]

"Why, I will tell you," replied the Prefect, as he gave a long, steady, and contemplative puff, and
settled himself in his chair. "I will tell you in a few words; but, before I begin, let me caution you
that this is an affair demanding the greatest secrecy, and that I should most probably lose the
position I now hold, were it known that I had confided it to any one."
45
"Proceed," said I.

"Or not," said Dupin.

"Well, then; I have received personal information, from a very high quarter, that a certain
document of the last importance has been purloined from the royal apartments. The individual
who purloined it is known; this beyond a doubt; he was seen to take it. It is known, also, that it
still remains in his possession."

"How is this known?" asked Dupin.

"It is clearly inferred," replied the Prefect, "from the nature of the document, and from the non-
appearance of certain results which would at once arise from its passing out of the robber's
possession;—that is to say, from his employing it as he must design in the end to employ it."

"Be a little more explicit," I said.

"Well, I may venture so far as to say that the paper gives its holder a certain power in a certain
quarter where such power is immensely valuable." The Prefect was fond of the cant of diplomacy.

"Still I do not quite understand," said Dupin.

"No? Well; the disclosure of the document to a third person, who shall be nameless, would bring
in question the honor of a personage of most exalted station; and this fact gives the holder of the
document an ascendency over the illustrious personage whose honor and peace are so
jeopardized."[Pg 72]

"But this ascendency," I interposed, "would depend upon the robber's knowledge of the loser's
knowledge of the robber. Who would dare—"

"The thief," said G——, "is the minister D——, who dares all things, those unbecoming as well
as those becoming a man. The method of the theft was not less ingenious than bold. The
document in question—a letter, to be frank—had been received by the personage robbed while
alone in the royal boudoir. During its perusal she was suddenly interrupted by the entrance of the
other exalted personage, from whom especially it was her wish to conceal it. After a hurried and
vain endeavor to thrust it in a drawer, she was forced to place it, open as it was, upon a table. The
address, however, was uppermost, and, the contents thus unexposed, the letter escaped notice. At
this juncture enters the minister D——. His lynx eye immediately perceives the paper, recognizes
the handwriting of the address, observes the confusion of the personage addressed, and fathoms
her secret. After some business transactions, hurried through in his ordinary manner, he produces
a letter somewhat similar to the one in question, opens it, pretends to read it, and then places it in
close juxtaposition to the other. Again he converses for some fifteen minutes upon the public
affairs. At length, in taking leave, he takes also from the table the letter to which he had no claim.
Its rightful owner saw, but, of course, dared not call attention to the act, in the presence of the
third personage, who stood at her elbow. The minister decamped, leaving his own letter—one of
no importance—upon the table."

"Here, then," said Dupin to me, "you have precisely what you demand to make the ascendency
complete—the robber's knowledge of the loser's knowledge of the robber."[Pg 73]

"Yes," replied the Prefect; "and the power thus attained has for some months past been wielded,
for political purposes, to a very dangerous extent. The personage robbed is more thoroughly

46
convinced every day of the necessity of reclaiming her letter. But this, of course, cannot be done
openly. In fine, driven to despair, she has committed the matter to me."

"Than whom," said Dupin, amid a perfect whirlwind of smoke, "no more sagacious agent could, I
suppose, be desired, or even imagined."

"You flatter me," replied the Prefect; "but it is possible that some such opinion may have been
entertained."

"It is clear," said I, "as you observe, that the letter is still in possession of the minister; since it is
this possession, and not any employment of the letter, which bestows the power. With the
employment the power departs."

"True," said G——; "and upon this conviction I proceeded. My first care was to make thorough
search of the minister's hôtel; and here my chief embarrassment lay in the necessity of searching
without his knowledge. Beyond all things, I have been warned of the danger which would result
from giving him reason to suspect our design."

"But," said I, "you are quite au fait in these investigations. The Parisian police have done this
thing often before."

"Oh yes; and for this reason I did not despair. The habits of the minister gave me, too, a great
advantage. He is frequently absent from home all night. His servants are by no means numerous.
They sleep at a distance from their master's apartment, and, being chiefly Neapolitans, are readily
made drunk. I have keys, as you know, with which I can open any chamber or cabinet[Pg 74] in
Paris. For three months a night has not passed, during the greater part of which I have not been
engaged, personally, in ransacking the D—— Hôtel. My honor is interested, and, to mention a
great secret, the reward is enormous. So I did not abandon the search until I had become fully
satisfied that the thief is a more astute man than myself. I fancy that I have investigated every
nook and corner of the premises in which it is possible that the paper can be concealed."

"But is it not possible," I suggested, "that although the letter may be in possession of the minister,
as it unquestionably is, he may have concealed it elsewhere than upon his own premises?"

"This is barely possible," said Dupin. "The present peculiar condition of affairs at court, and
especially of those intrigues in which D—— is known to be involved, would render the instant
availability of the document—its susceptibility of being produced at a moment's notice—a point
of nearly equal importance with its possession."

"Its susceptibility of being produced?" said I.

"That is to say, of being destroyed," said Dupin.

"True," I observed; "the paper is clearly then upon the premises. As for its being upon the person
of the minister, we may consider that as out of the question."

"Entirely," said the Prefect. "He has been twice waylaid, as if by footpads, and his person
rigorously searched under my own inspection."

"You might have spared yourself the trouble," said Dupin. "D——, I presume, is not altogether a
fool, and, if not, must have anticipated these waylayings, as a matter of course."

47
"Not altogether a fool," said G——; "but then he's a poet, which I take to be only one remove
from a fool."[Pg 75]

"True," said Dupin, after a long and thoughtful whiff from his meerschaum, "although I have been
guilty of certain doggerel myself."

"Suppose you detail," said I, "the particulars of your search."

"Why, the fact is, we took our time, and we searched everywhere. I have had long experience in
these affairs. I took the entire building, room by room, devoting the nights of a whole week to
each. We examined, first, the furniture of each apartment. We opened every possible drawer; and
I presume you know that, to a properly trained police agent, such a thing as a secret drawer is
impossible. Any man is a dolt who permits a 'secret' drawer to escape him in a search of this kind.
The thing is so plain. There is a certain amount of bulk—of space—to be accounted for in every
cabinet. Then we have accurate rules. The fiftieth part of a line could not escape us. After the
cabinets we took the chairs. The cushions we probed with the fine long needles you have seen me
employ. From the tables we removed the tops."

"Why so?"

"Sometimes the top of a table or other similarly arranged piece of furniture is removed by the
person wishing to conceal an article; then the leg is excavated, the article deposited within the
cavity, and the top replaced. The bottoms and tops of bed-posts are employed in the same way."

"But could not the cavity be detected by sounding?" I asked.

"By no means, if, when the article is deposited, a sufficient wadding of cotton be placed around it.
Besides, in our case we were obliged to proceed without noise."[Pg 76]

"But you could not have removed—you could not have taken to pieces all articles of furniture in
which it would have been possible to make a deposit in the manner you mention. A letter may be
compressed into a thin spiral roll, not differing much in shape or bulk from a large knitting-
needle, and in this form it might be inserted into the rung of a chair, for example. You did not take
to pieces all the chairs?"

"Certainly not; but we did better—we examined the rungs of every chair in the hôtel, and indeed,
the jointings of every description of furniture, by the aid of a most powerful microscope. Had
there been any traces of recent disturbance we should not have failed to detect it instantly. A
single grain of gimlet-dust, for example, would have been as obvious as an apple. Any disorder in
the gluing, any unusual gaping in the joints, would have sufficed to insure detection."

"I presume you looked to the mirrors, between the boards and the plates, and you probed the beds
and the bedclothes, as well as the curtains and carpets."

"That, of course; and when we had absolutely completed every article of furniture in this way,
then we examined the house itself. We divided its entire surface into compartments, which we
numbered, so that none might be missed; then we scrutinized each individual square inch
throughout the premises, including the two houses immediately adjoining, with the microscope, as
before."

"The two houses adjoining!" I exclaimed; "you must have had a great deal of trouble."

48
"We had; but the reward offered is prodigious."

"You include the grounds about the houses?"

"All the grounds are paved with brick. They gave us[Pg 77] comparatively little trouble. We
examined the moss between the bricks, and found it undisturbed."

"You looked among D——'s papers, of course, and into the books of the library?"

"Certainly, we opened every package and parcel; we not only opened every book, but we turned
over every leaf in each volume, not contenting ourselves with a mere shake, according to the
fashion of some of our police officers. We also measured the thickness of every book-cover, with
the most accurate admeasurement, and applied to each the most jealous scrutiny of the
microscope. Had any of the bindings been recently meddled with, it would have been utterly
impossible that the fact should have escaped observation. Some five or six volumes, just from the
hands of the binder, we carefully probed, longitudinally, with the needles."

"You explored the floors beneath the carpets?"

"Beyond doubt. We removed every carpet, and examined the boards with the microscope."

"And the paper on the walls?"

"Yes."

"You looked into the cellars?"

"We did."

"Then," I said, "you have been making a miscalculation, and the letter is not upon the premises, as
you suppose."

"I fear you are right there," said the Prefect. "And now, Dupin, what would you advise me to do?"

"To make a thorough re-search of the premises."

"That is absolutely needless," replied G——. "I am not more sure that I breathe than I am that the
letter is not at the hôtel."

"I have no better advice to give you," said Dupin.[Pg 78] "You have, of course, an accurate
description of the letter?"

"Oh, yes." And here the Prefect, producing a memorandum-book, proceeded to read aloud a
minute account of the internal, and especially of the external appearance of the missing document.
Soon after finishing the perusal of this description, he took his departure, more entirely depressed
in spirits than I had ever known the good gentleman before.

In about a month afterward he paid us another visit, and found us occupied very nearly as before.
He took a pipe and a chair, and entered into some ordinary conversation. At length I said:—

"Well, but G——, what of the purloined letter? I presume you have at last made up your mind
that there is no such thing as overreaching the minister?"
49
"Confound him, say I—yes; I made the re-examination, however, as Dupin suggested; but it was
all labor lost, as I knew it would be."

"How much was the reward offered, did you say?" asked Dupin.

"Why, a very great deal—a very liberal reward—I don't like to say how much precisely; but one
thing I will say, that I wouldn't mind giving my individual check for fifty thousand francs to any
one who obtains me that letter. The fact is, it is becoming of more and more importance every
day; and the reward has been lately doubled. If it were trebled, however, I could do no more than I
have done."

"Why, yes," said Dupin drawlingly, between the whiffs of his meerschaum, "I really—think, G
——, you have not exerted yourself—to the utmost in this matter. You might do a little more, I
think, eh?"[Pg 79]

"How? in what way?"

"Why, [puff, puff] you might [puff, puff] employ counsel in the matter, eh? [puff, puff, puff]. Do
you remember the story they tell of Abernethy?"

"No; hang Abernethy!"

"To be sure! hang him and welcome. But, once upon a time, a certain rich miser conceived the
design of sponging upon this Abernethy for a medical opinion. Getting up, for this purpose, an
ordinary conversation in a private company, he insinuated his case to the physician, as that of an
imaginary individual.

"'We will suppose,' said the miser, 'that his symptoms are such and such; now, doctor, what would
you have directed him to take?'

"'Take!' said Abernethy, 'why, take advice, to be sure.'"

"But," said the Prefect, a little discomposed, "I am perfectly willing to take advice, and to pay for
it. I would really give fifty thousand francs to any one who would aid me in the matter."

"In that case," replied Dupin, opening a drawer, and producing a check-book, "you may as well
fill me up a check for the amount mentioned. When you have signed it, I will hand you the letter."

I was astounded. The Prefect appeared absolutely thunderstricken. For some minutes he remained
speechless and motionless, looking incredulously at my friend with open mouth, and eyes that
seemed starting from their sockets; then, apparently recovering himself in some measure, he
seized a pen, and, after several pauses and vacant stares, finally filled up and signed a check for
fifty thousand francs, and handed it across the table to Dupin. The latter examined it carefully, and
depos[Pg 80]ited it in his pocket-book; then, unlocking an escritoire, took thence a letter and gave
it to the Prefect. This functionary grasped it in a perfect agony of joy, opened it with a trembling
hand, cast a rapid glance at its contents, and then, scrambling and struggling to the door, rushed at
length unceremoniously from the room and from the house, without having offered a syllable
since Dupin had requested him to fill up the check.

When he had gone, my friend entered into some explanations.

50
"The Parisian police," he said, "are exceedingly able in their way. They are persevering,
ingenious, cunning, and thoroughly versed in the knowledge which their duties seem chiefly to
demand. Thus, when G—— detailed to us his mode of searching the premises of the Hôtel D
——, I felt entire confidence in his having made a satisfactory investigation—so far as his labors
extended."

"So far as his labors extended?" said I.

"Yes," said Dupin. "The measures adopted were not only the best of their kind, but carried out to
absolute perfection. Had the letter been deposited within the range of their search, these fellows
would, beyond a question, have found it."

I merely laughed, but he seemed quite serious in all that he said.

"The measures, then," he continued, "were good in their kind, and well executed; their defect lay
in their being inapplicable to the case and to the man. A certain set of highly ingenious resources
are, with the Prefect, a sort of Procrustean bed, to which he forcibly adapts his designs. But he
perpetually errs by being too deep or too shallow, for the matter in hand; and many a school[Pg
81]boy is a better reasoner than he. I knew one about eight years of age, whose success at
guessing in the game of 'even and odd' attracted universal admiration. This game is simple, and is
played with marbles. One player holds in his hand a number of these toys, and demands of
another whether that number is even or odd. If the guess is right, the guesser wins one; if wrong,
he loses one. The boy to whom I allude won all the marbles of the school. Of course he had some
principle of guessing; and this lay in mere observation and admeasurement of the astuteness of his
opponents. For example, an arrant simpleton is his opponent, and, holding up his closed hand
asks, 'Are they even or odd?' Our schoolboy replies, 'Odd,' and loses; but upon the second trial he
wins, for he then says to himself, 'The simpleton had them even upon the first trial, and his
amount of cunning is just sufficient to make him have them odd upon the second; I will therefore
guess odd;' he guesses odd, and wins. Now, with a simpleton a degree above the first he would
have reasoned thus: 'This fellow finds that in the first instance I guessed odd, and in the second he
will propose to himself, upon the first impulse, a simple variation from even to odd, as did the
first simpleton; but then a second thought will suggest that this is too simple a variation, and
finally he will decide upon putting it even as before. I will therefore guess even;' he guesses even,
and wins. Now, this mode of reasoning in the schoolboy, whom his fellows term 'lucky,' what, in
its last analysis, is it?"

"It is merely," I said, "an identification of the reasoner's intellect with that of his opponent."

"It is," said Dupin; "and, upon inquiring of the boy by what means he effected the thorough
identification in which his success consisted, I received answer as follows:[Pg 82] 'When I wish to
find out how wise, or how stupid, or how good, or how wicked is any one, or what are his
thoughts at the moment, I fashion the expression of my face, as accurately as possible, in
accordance with the expression of his, and then wait to see what thoughts or sentiments arise in
my mind or heart, as if to match or correspond with the expression.' This response of the
schoolboy lies at the bottom of all the spurious profundity which has been attributed to
Rochefoucauld, to La Bougive, to Machiavelli, and to Campanella."

"And the identification," I said, "of the reasoner's intellect with that of his opponent depends, if I
understand you aright, upon the accuracy with which the opponent's intellect is admeasured."

"For its practical value it depends upon this," replied Dupin; "and the Prefect and his cohort fail so
frequently, first, by default of this identification, and secondly, by ill-admeasurement, or rather

51
through non-admeasurement, of the intellect with which they are engaged. They consider only
their own ideas of ingenuity; and, in searching for anything hidden, advert only to the modes in
which they would have hidden it. They are right in this much—that their own ingenuity is a
faithful representative of that of the mass; but when the cunning of the individual felon is diverse
in character from their own, the felon foils them, of course. This always happens when it is above
their own, and very usually when it is below. They have no variation of principle in their
investigations; at best, when urged by some unusual emergency—by some extraordinary reward
—they extend or exaggerate their old modes of practice, without touching their principles. What,
for example, in this case of D——, has been done to vary the principle of action? What is all this
boring, and[Pg 83] probing, and sounding, and scrutinizing with the microscope, and dividing the
surface of the building into registered square inches—what is it all but an exaggeration of the
application of the one principle or set of principles of search, which are based upon the one set of
notions regarding human ingenuity, to which the Prefect, in the long routine of his duty, has been
accustomed? Do you not see he has taken it for granted that all men proceed to conceal a letter—
not exactly in a gimlet-hole bored in a chair-leg—but, at least, in some out-of-the-way hole or
corner suggested by the same tenor of thought which would urge a man to secrete a letter in a
gimlet-hole bored in a chair leg? And do you not see also, that such recherché nooks for
concealment are adapted only for ordinary occasions, and would be adopted only by ordinary
intellects?—for, in all cases of concealment, a disposal of the article concealed—a disposal of it in
this recherché manner, is, in the very first instance, presumable and presumed; and thus its
discovery depends, not at all upon the acumen, but altogether upon the mere care, patience, and
determination of the seekers; and where the case is of importance—or, what amounts to the same
thing in the policial eyes, when the reward is of magnitude—the qualities in question have never
been known to fail. You will now understand what I meant in suggesting that, had the purloined
letter been hidden anywhere within the limits of the Prefect's examination—in other words, had
the principle of its concealment been comprehended within the principles of the Prefect—its
discovery would have been a matter altogether beyond question. This functionary, however, has
been thoroughly mystified; and the remote source of his defeat lies in the supposition that the
minister is a fool, because he has acquired renown as a poet. All[Pg 84] fools are poets; this the
Prefect feels; and he is merely guilty of a non distributio medii in thence inferring that all poets
are fools."

"But is this really the poet?" I asked. "There are two brothers, I know; and both have attained
reputation in letters. The minister, I believe, has written learnedly on the Differential Calculus. He
is a mathematician, and no poet."

"You are mistaken; I know him well; he is both. As poet and mathematician he would reason
well; as mere mathematician he could not have reasoned at all, and thus would have been at the
mercy of the Prefect."

"You surprise me," I said, "by these opinions, which have been contradicted by the voice of the
world. You do not mean to set at naught the well-digested idea of centuries. The mathematical
reason has long been regarded as the reason par excellence."

"'Il y a à parier,'" replied Dupin, quoting from Chamfort, "'que toute idée publique, toute
convention reçue, est une sottise, car elle a convenue au plus grande nombre.' The
mathematicians, I grant you, have done their best to promulgate the popular error to which you
allude, and which is none the less an error for its promulgation as truth. With an art worthy a
better cause, for example, they have insinuated the term 'analysis' into application to algebra. The
French are the originators of this practical deception; but if the term is of any importance—if
words derive any value from applicability—then 'analysis' conveys, in algebra, about as much as,

52
in Latin, 'ambitus' implies 'ambition,' 'religio,' 'religion,' or 'homines honesti,' 'a set of honorable
men.'"

"You have a quarrel on hand, I see," said I, "with some of the algebraists of Paris; but
proceed."[Pg 85]

"I dispute the availability, and thus the value, of that reason which is cultivated in any especial
form other than the abstractly logical. I dispute, in particular, the reason educed by mathematical
study. The mathematics are the science of form and quantity; mathematical reasoning is merely
logic applied to observation upon form and quantity. The great error lies in supposing that even
the truths of what is called pure algebra are abstract or general truths. And this error is so
egregious that I am confounded at the universality with which it has been received. Mathematical
axioms are not axioms of general truth. What is true of relation, of form and quantity, is often
grossly false in regard to morals, for example. In this latter science it is very unusually untrue that
the aggregated parts are equal to the whole. In chemistry, also, the axiom fails. In the
consideration of motive it fails; for two motives, each of a given value, have not, necessarily, a
value, when united, equal to the sum of their values apart. There are numerous other mathematical
truths which are only truths within the limits of relation. But the mathematician argues, from his
finite truths, through habit, as if they were of an absolutely general applicability—as the world
indeed imagines them to be. Bryant, in his very learned 'Mythology,' mentions an analogous
source of error, when he says that 'although the Pagan fables are not believed, yet we forget
ourselves continually, and make inferences from them as existing realities.' With the algebraists,
however, who are Pagans themselves, the 'Pagan fables' are believed; and the inferences are
made, not so much through lapse of memory, as through an unaccountable addling of the brains.
In short, I never yet encountered the mere mathematician who could be trusted out of equal roots,
or one who did[Pg 86] not clandestinely hold it as a point of his faith that x2 + px was absolutely
and unconditionally equal to q. Say to one of these gentlemen, by way of experiment if you
please, that you believe occasions may occur where x2 + px is not altogether equal to q, and,
having made him understand what you mean, get out of his reach as speedily as convenient, for,
beyond doubt, he will endeavor to knock you down.

"I mean to say," continued Dupin, while I merely laughed at his last observations, "that if the
minister had been no more than a mathematician, the Prefect would have been under no necessity
of giving me this check. I knew him, however, as both mathematician and poet; and my measures
were adapted to his capacity, with reference to the circumstances by which he was surrounded. I
know him as courtier, too, and as a bold intrigant. Such a man, I consider, could not fail to be
aware of the ordinary political modes of action. He could not have failed to anticipate—and
events have proved that he did not fail to anticipate—the waylayings to which he was subjected.
He must have foreseen, I reflected, the secret investigations of his premises. His frequent absences
from home at night, which were hailed by the Prefect as certain aids to his success, I regarded
only as ruses, to afford opportunity for thorough search to the police, and thus the sooner to
impress them with the conviction to which G——, in fact, did finally arrive—the conviction that
the letter was not upon the premises. I felt, also, that the whole train of thought, which I was at
some pains in detailing to you just now, concerning the invariable principle of policial action in
searches for articles concealed, I felt that this whole train of thought would necessarily pass
through the mind of the[Pg 87] minister. It would imperatively lead him to despise all the ordinary
nooks of concealment. He could not, I reflected, be so weak as not to see that the most intricate
and remote recess of his hôtel would be as open as his commonest closets to the eyes, to the
probes, to the gimlets, and to the microscopes of the Prefect. I saw, in fine, that he would be
driven, as a matter of course, to simplicity, if not deliberately induced to it as a matter of choice.
You will remember, perhaps, how desperately the Prefect laughed when I suggested, upon our

53
first interview, that it was just possible this mystery troubled him so much on account of its being
so very self-evident."

"Yes," said I, "I remember his merriment well. I really thought he would have fallen into
convulsions."

"The material world," continued Dupin, "abounds with very strict analogies to the immaterial; and
thus some color of truth has been given to the rhetorical dogma, that metaphor, or simile, may be
made to strengthen an argument, as well as to embellish a description. The principle of the vis
inertiæ, for example, seems to be identical in physics and metaphysics. It is not more true in the
former, that a large body is with more difficulty set in motion than a smaller one, and that its
subsequent momentum is commensurate with this difficulty, that it is in the latter, that intellects of
the vaster capacity, while more forcible, more constant, and more eventful in their movements
than those of inferior grade, are yet the less readily moved, and more embarrassed and full of
hesitation in the first few steps of their progress. Again; have you ever noticed which of the street
signs over the shop doors are the most attractive of attention?"

"I have never given the matter a thought," I said.[Pg 88]

"There is a game of puzzles," he resumed, "which is played upon a map. One party playing
requires another to find a given word—the name of town, river, state, or empire—any word, in
short, upon the motley and perplexed surface of the chart. A novice in the game generally seeks to
embarrass his opponents by giving them the most minutely lettered names; but the adept selects
such words as stretch, in large characters, from one end of the chart to the other. These, like the
over-largely lettered signs and placards of the street, escape observation by dint of being
excessively obvious; and here the physical oversight is precisely analogous with the moral
inapprehension by which the intellect suffers to pass unnoticed those considerations which are too
obtrusively and too palpably self-evident. But this is a point, it appears, somewhat above or
beneath the understanding of the Prefect. He never once thought it probable, or possible, that the
minister had deposited the letter immediately beneath the nose of the whole world, by way of best
preventing any portion of that world from perceiving it.

"But the more I reflected upon the daring, dashing, and discriminating ingenuity of D——; upon
the fact that the document must always have been at hand, if he intended to use it to good
purpose; and upon the decisive evidence, obtained by the Prefect, that it was not hidden within the
limits of that dignitary's ordinary search—the more satisfied I became that, to conceal this letter,
the minister had resorted to the comprehensive and sagacious expedient of not attempting to
conceal it at all.

"Full of these ideas, I prepared myself with a pair of green spectacles, and called one fine
morning, quite by accident, at the ministerial hôtel. I found D—— at home, yawning, lounging,
and dawdling, as usual, and[Pg 89] pretending to be in the last extremity of ennui. He is, perhaps,
the most really energetic human being now alive—but that is only when nobody sees him.

"To be even with him, I complained of my weak eyes, and lamented the necessity of the
spectacles, under cover of which I cautiously and thoroughly surveyed the whole apartment, while
seemingly intent only upon the conversation of my host.

"I paid especial attention to a large writing-table near which he sat, and upon which lay
confusedly some miscellaneous letters and other papers, with one or two musical instruments and
a few books. Here, however, after a long and very deliberate scrutiny, I saw nothing to excite
particular suspicion.

54
"At length my eyes, in going the circuit of the room, fell upon a trumpery filigree card-rack of
paste-board, that hung dangling by a dirty blue ribbon, from a little brass knob just beneath the
middle of the mantel-piece. In this rack, which had three or four compartments, were five or six
visiting cards and a solitary letter. This last was much soiled and crumpled. It was torn nearly in
two, across the middle—as if a design, in the first instance, to tear it entirely up as worthless, had
been altered, or stayed, in the second. It had a large black seal, bearing the D—— cipher very
conspicuously, and was addressed, in a diminutive female hand, to D——, the minister himself. It
was thrust carelessly, and even, as it seemed, contemptuously, into one of the uppermost divisions
of the rack.

"No sooner had I glanced at this letter, than I concluded it to be that of which I was in search. To
be sure, it was, to all appearance, radically different from the one of which the Prefect had read us
so minute a [Pg 90]description. Here the seal was large and black, with the D—— cipher; there it
was small and red, with the ducal arms of the S—— family. Here the address, to the minister, was
diminutive and feminine; there the superscription, to a certain royal personage, was markedly bold
and decided; the size alone formed a point of correspondence. But, then, the radicalness of these
differences, which was excessive; the dirt, the soiled and torn condition of the paper, so
inconsistent with the true methodical habits of D——, and so suggestive of a design to delude the
beholder into an idea of the worthlessness of the document; these things, together with the hyper-
obtrusive situation of this document, full in the view of every visitor, and thus exactly in
accordance with the conclusions to which I had previously arrived—these things, I say, were
strongly corroborative of suspicion, in one who came with the intention to suspect.

"I protracted my visit as long as possible; and while I maintained a most animated discussion with
the minister, upon a topic which I knew well had never failed to interest and excite him, I kept my
attention really riveted upon the letter. In this examination, I committed to memory its external
appearance and arrangement in the rack; and also fell, at length, upon a discovery which set at rest
whatever trivial doubt I might have entertained. In scrutinizing the edges of the paper, I observed
them to be more chafed than seemed necessary. They presented the broken appearance which is
manifested when a stiff paper, having been once folded and pressed with a folder, is refolded in a
reversed direction, in the same creases or edges which had formed the original fold. This
discovery was sufficient. It was clear to me that the letter had been turned, as a glove, inside out,
re[Pg 91]directed, and re-sealed. I bade the minister good-morning, and took my departure at
once, leaving a gold snuff-box upon the table.

"The next morning I called for the snuff-box, when we resumed, quite eagerly, the conversation of
the preceding day. While thus engaged, however, a loud report, as if of a pistol, was heard
immediately beneath the windows of the hotel, and was succeeded by a series of fearful screams,
and the shoutings of a terrified mob. D——rushed to a casement, threw it open, and looked out. In
the meantime, I stepped to the card-rack, took the letter, put it in my pocket, and replaced it by a
fac-simile (so far as regards externals) which I had carefully prepared at my lodgings—imitating
the D—— cipher very readily by means of a seal formed of bread.

"The disturbance in the street had been occasioned by the frantic behavior of a man with a
musket. He had fired it among a crowd of women and children. It proved, however, to have been
without ball, and the fellow was suffered to go his way as a lunatic or a drunkard. When he had
gone, D—— came from the window, whither I had followed him immediately upon securing the
object in view. Soon afterward I bade him farewell. The pretended lunatic was a man in my own
pay."

"But what purpose had you," I asked, "in replacing the letter by a fac-simile? Would it not have
been better, at the first visit, to have seized it openly, and departed?"

55
"D——," replied Dupin, "is a desperate man, and a man of nerve. His hôtel, too, is not without
attendants devoted to his interest. Had I made the wild attempt you suggest, I might never have
left the ministerial presence alive. The good people of Paris might have heard of me no more. But
I had an object apart from these[Pg 92] considerations. You know my political prepossessions. In
this matter I act as a partisan of the lady concerned. For eighteen months the minister has had her
in his power. She has now him in hers—since, being unaware that the letter is not in his
possession, he will proceed with his exactions as if it was. Thus will he inevitably commit
himself, at once, to his political destruction. His downfall, too, will not be more precipitate than
awkward. It is all very well to talk about the facilis descensus Averni; but in all kinds of climbing,
as Catalani said of singing, it is far more easy to get up than to come down. In the present instance
I have no sympathy—at least no pity—for him who descends. He is that monstrum horrendum, an
unprincipled man of genius. I confess, however, that I should like very well to know the precise
character of his thoughts, when, being defied by her whom the Prefect terms 'a certain personage,'
he is reduced to opening the letter which I left for him in the card-rack."

"How? did you put anything particular in it?"

"Why, it did not seem altogether right to leave the interior blank—that would have been insulting.
D——, at Vienna once, did me an evil turn, which I told him, quite good-humoredly, that I should
remember. So, as I knew he would feel some curiosity in regard to the identity of the person who
had outwitted him, I thought it a pity not to give him a clew. He is well acquainted with my MS.;
and I just copied into the middle of the blank sheet the words—

"'——Un dessein si funeste,

S'il n'est digne d'Atrée, est digne de Thyeste.'

They are to be found in Crébillon's Atrée."

HOWE'S MASQUERADE
One afternoon, last summer, while walking along Washington Street, my eye was attracted by a
signboard protruding over a narrow archway, nearly opposite the Old South Church. The sign
represented the front of a stately edifice, which was designated as the "Old Province House, kept
by Thomas Waite." I was glad to be thus reminded of a purpose, long entertained, of visiting and
rambling over the mansion of the old royal governors of Massachusetts; and entering the arched
passage, which penetrated through the middle of a brick row of shops, a few steps transported me
from the busy heart of modern Boston into a small and secluded court-yard. One side of this space
was occupied by the square front of the Province House, three stories high, and surmounted by a
cupola, on the top of which a gilded Indian was discernible, with his bow bent and his arrow on
the string, as if aiming at the weathercock on the spire of the Old South. The figure has kept this
attitude for seventy years or more, ever since good Deacon Drowne, a cunning carver of wood,
first stationed him on his long sentinel's watch over the city.

The Province House is constructed of brick, which seems recently to have been overlaid with a
coat of light-colored paint. A flight of red freestone steps, fenced in by a balustrade of curiously
wrought iron, ascends from the court-yard to the spacious porch, over which is a balcony, with an
iron balustrade of similar pattern and work[Pg 94]manship to that beneath. These letters and
figures—16 P. S. 79—are wrought into the iron work of the balcony, and probably express the
56
date of the edifice, with the initials of its founder's name. A wide door with double leaves
admitted me into the hall or entry, on the right of which is the entrance to the bar-room.

It was in this apartment, I presume, that the ancient governors held their levees, with vice-regal
pomp, surrounded by the military men, the councillors, the judges, and other officers of the
crown, while all the loyalty of the province thronged to do them honor. But the room, in its
present condition, cannot boast even of faded magnificence. The panelled wainscot is covered
with dingy paint, and acquires a duskier hue from the deep shadow into which the Province House
is thrown by the brick block that shuts it in from Washington Street. A ray of sunshine never
visits this apartment any more than the glare of the festal torches, which have been extinguished
from the era of the Revolution. The most venerable and ornamental object is a chimneypiece set
round with Dutch tiles of blue-figured China, representing scenes from Scripture; and, for aught I
know, the lady of Pownall or Bernard may have sat beside this fire-place, and told her children the
story of each blue tile. A bar in modern style, well replenished with decanters, bottles, cigar
boxes, and network bags of lemons, and provided with a beer pump and a soda fount, extends
along one side of the room. At my entrance, an elderly person was smacking his lips with a zest
which satisfied me that the cellars of the Province House still hold good liquor, though doubtless
of other vintages than were quaffed by the old governors. After sipping a glass of port sangaree,
prepared by the skilful hands of Mr. Thomas Waite, I besought that worthy suc[Pg 95]cessor and
representative of so many historic personages to conduct me over their time honored mansion.

He readily complied; but, to confess the truth, I was forced to draw strenuously upon my
imagination, in order to find aught that was interesting in a house which, without its historic
associations, would have seemed merely such a tavern as is usually favored by the custom of
decent city boarders, and old-fashioned country gentlemen. The chambers, which were probably
spacious in former times, are now cut up by partitions, and subdivided into little nooks, each
affording scanty room for the narrow bed and chair and dressing-table of a single lodger. The
great staircase, however, may be termed, without much hyperbole, a feature of grandeur and
magnificence. It winds through the midst of the house by flights of broad steps, each flight
terminating in a square landing-place, whence the ascent is continued towards the cupola. A
carved balustrade, freshly painted in the lower stories, but growing dingier as we ascend, borders
the staircase with its quaintly twisted and intertwined pillars, from top to bottom. Up these stairs
the military boots, or perchance the gouty shoes, of many a governor have trodden, as the wearers
mounted to the cupola, which afforded them so wide a view over their metropolis and the
surrounding country. The cupola is an octagon, with several windows, and a door opening upon
the roof. From this station, as I pleased myself with imagining, Gage may have beheld his
disastrous victory on Bunker Hill (unless one of the tri-mountains intervened), and Howe have
marked the approaches of Washington's besieging army; although the buildings since erected in
the vicinity have shut out almost every object, save the steeple of the Old South, which seems
almost within arm's length. Descend[Pg 96]ing from the cupola, I paused in the garret to observe
the ponderous white-oak framework, so much more massive than the frames of modern houses,
and thereby resembling an antique skeleton. The brick walls, the materials of which were
imported from Holland, and the timbers of the mansion, are still as sound as ever; but the floors
and other interior parts being greatly decayed, it is contemplated to gut the whole, and build a new
house within the ancient frame and brick work. Among other inconveniences of the present
edifice, mine host mentioned that any jar or motion was apt to shake down the dust of ages out of
the ceiling of one chamber upon the floor of that beneath it.

We stepped forth from the great front window into the balcony, where, in old times, it was
doubtless the custom of the king's representative to show himself to a loyal populace, requiting
their huzzas and tossed-up hats with stately bendings of his dignified person. In those days the
front of the Province House looked upon the street; and the whole site now occupied by the brick

57
range of stores, as well as the present court-yard, was laid out in grass plats, overshadowed by
trees and bordered by a wrought-iron fence. Now, the old aristocratic edifice hides its time-worn
visage behind an upstart modern building; at one of the back windows I observed some pretty
tailoresses, sewing and chatting and laughing, with now and then a careless glance towards the
balcony. Descending thence, we again entered the bar-room, where the elderly gentleman above
mentioned, the smack of whose lips had spoken so favorably for Mr. Waite's good liquor, was still
lounging in his chair. He seemed to be, if not a lodger, at least a familiar visitor of the house, who
might be supposed to have his regular score at the bar, his summer[Pg 97] seat at the open
window, and his prescriptive corner at the winter's fireside. Being of a sociable aspect, I ventured
to address him with a remark calculated to draw forth his historical reminiscences, if any such
were in his mind; and it gratified me to discover, that, between memory and tradition, the old
gentleman was really possessed of some very pleasant gossip about the Province House. The
portion of his talk which chiefly interested me was the outline of the following legend. He
professed to have received it at one or two removes from an eye-witness; but this derivation,
together with the lapse of time, must have afforded opportunities for many variations of the
narrative; so that despairing of literal and absolute truth, I have not scrupled to make such further
changes as seemed conducive to the reader's profit and delight.

At one of the entertainments given at the Province House, during the latter part of the siege of
Boston, there passed a scene which has never yet been satisfactorily explained. The officers of the
British army, and the loyal gentry of the province, most of whom were collected within the
beleaguered town, had been invited to a masked ball; for it was the policy of Sir William Howe to
hide the distress and danger of the period, and the desperate aspect of the siege, under an
ostentation of festivity. The spectacle of this evening, if the oldest members of the provincial
court circle might be believed, was the most gay and gorgeous affair that had occurred in the
annals of the government. The brilliantly-lighted apartments were thronged with figures that
seemed to have stepped from the dark canvas of historic portraits, or to have flitted forth from the
magic pages of romance,[Pg 98] or at least to have flown hither from one of the London theatres,
without a change of garments. Steeled knights of the Conquest, bearded statesmen of Queen
Elizabeth, and high-ruffled ladies of her court, were mingled with characters of comedy, such as a
party-colored Merry Andrew, jingling his cap and bells; a Falstaff, almost as provocative of
laughter as his prototype; and a Don Quixote, with a bean pole for a lance, and a pot lid for a
shield.

But the broadest merriment was excited by a group of figures ridiculously dressed in old
regimentals, which seemed to have been purchased at a military rag fair, or pilfered from some
receptacle of the cast-off clothes of both the French and British armies. Portions of their attire had
probably been worn at the siege of Louisburg, and the coats of most recent cut might have been
rent and tattered by sword, ball, or bayonet, as long ago as Wolfe's victory. One of these worthies
—a tall, lank figure, brandishing a rusty sword of immense longitude—purported to be no less a
personage than General George Washington; and the other principal officers of the American
army, such as Gates, Lee, Putnam, Schuyler, Ward and Heath, were represented by similar
scarecrows. An interview in the mock heroic style, between the rebel warriors and the British
commander-in-chief, was received with immense applause, which came loudest of all from the
loyalists of the colony. There was one of the guests, however, who stood apart, eyeing these antics
sternly and scornfully, at once with a frown and a bitter smile.

It was an old man, formerly of high station and great repute in the province, and who had been a
very famous soldier in his day. Some surprise had been expressed that a person of Colonel
Joliffe's known whig principles,[Pg 99] though now too old to take an active part in the contest,

58
should have remained in Boston during the siege, and especially that he should consent to show
himself in the mansion of Sir William Howe. But thither he had come, with a fair granddaughter
under his arm; and there, amid all the mirth and buffoonery, stood this stern old figure, the best
sustained character in the masquerade, because so well representing the antique spirit of his native
land. The other guests affirmed that Colonel Joliffe's black puritanical scowl threw a shadow
round about him; although in spite of his sombre influence their gayety continued to blaze higher,
like—(an ominous comparison)—the flickering brilliancy of a lamp which has but a little while to
burn. Eleven strokes, full half an hour ago, had pealed from the clock of the Old South, when a
rumor was circulated among the company that some new spectacle or pageant was about to be
exhibited, which should put a fitting close to the splendid festivities of the night.

"What new jest has your Excellency in hand?" asked the Rev. Mather Byles, whose Presbyterian
scruples had not kept him from the entertainment. "Trust me, sir, I have already laughed more
than beseems my cloth at your Homeric confabulation with yonder ragamuffin General of the
rebels. One other such fit of merriment, and I must throw off my clerical wig and band."

"Not so, good Doctor Byles," answered Sir William Howe; "if mirth were a crime, you had never
gained your doctorate in divinity. As to this new foolery, I know no more about it than yourself;
perhaps not so much. Honestly now, Doctor, have you not stirred up the sober brains of some of
your countrymen to enact a scene in our masquerade?"[Pg 100]

"Perhaps," slyly remarked the granddaughter of Colonel Joliffe, whose high spirit had been stung
by many taunts against New England,—"perhaps we are to have a mask of allegorical figures.
Victory, with trophies from Lexington and Bunker Hill—Plenty, with her overflowing horn, to
typify the present abundance in this good town—and Glory, with a wreath for his Excellency's
brow."

Sir William Howe smiled at words which he would have answered with one of his darkest frowns
had they been uttered by lips that wore a beard. He was spared the necessity of a retort, by a
singular interruption. A sound of music was heard without the house, as if proceeding from a full
band of military instruments stationed in the street, playing not such a festal strain as was suited to
the occasion, but a slow funeral march. The drums appeared to be muffled, and the trumpets
poured forth a wailing breath, which at once hushed the merriment of the auditors, filling all with
wonder, and some with apprehension. The idea occurred to many that either the funeral
procession of some great personage had halted in front of the Province House, or that a corpse, in
a velvet-covered and gorgeously-decorated coffin, was about to be borne from the portal. After
listening a moment, Sir William Howe called, in a stern voice, to the leader of the musicians, who
had hitherto enlivened the entertainment with gay and lightsome melodies. The man was drum-
major to one of the British regiments.

"Dighton," demanded the General, "what means this foolery? Bid your band silence that dead
march—or, by my word, they shall have sufficient cause for their lugubrious strains! Silence it,
sirrah!"

"Please your honor," answered the drum-major, whose[Pg 101] rubicund visage had lost all its
color, "the fault is none of mine. I and my band are all here together, and I question whether there
be a man of us that could play that march without book. I never heard it but once before, and that
was at the funeral of his late Majesty, King George the Second."

"Well, well!" said Sir William Howe, recovering his composure—"it is the prelude to some
masquerading antic. Let it pass."

59
A figure now presented itself, but among the many fantastic masks that were dispersed through
the apartments none could tell precisely from whence it came. It was a man in an old-fashioned
dress of black serge, and having the aspect of a steward or principal domestic in the household of
a nobleman or great English landholder. This figure advanced to the outer door of the mansion,
and throwing both its leaves wide open, withdrew a little to one side and looked back towards the
grand staircase as if expecting some person to descend. At the same time the music in the street
sounded a loud and doleful summons. The eyes of Sir William Howe and his guests being
directed to the staircase, there appeared, on the uppermost landing-place that was discernible from
the bottom, several personages descending towards the door. The foremost was a man of stern
visage, wearing a steeple-crowned hat and a skull-cap beneath it; a dark cloak, and huge wrinkled
boots that came half-way up his legs. Under his arm was a rolled-up banner, which seemed to be
the banner of England, but strangely rent and torn; he had a sword in his right hand, and grasped a
Bible in his left. The next figure was of milder aspect, yet full of dignity, wearing a broad ruff,
over which descended a beard, a gown of wrought[Pg 102] velvet, and a doublet and hose of
black satin. He carried a roll of manuscript in his hand. Close behind these two came a young man
of very striking countenance and demeanor, with deep thought and contemplation on his brow,
and perhaps a flash of enthusiasm in his eye. His garb, like that of his predecessors, was of an
antique fashion, and there was a stain of blood upon his ruff. In the same group with these were
three or four others, all men of dignity and evident command, and bearing themselves like
personages who were accustomed to the gaze of the multitude. It was the idea of the beholders
that these figures went to join the mysterious funeral that had halted in front of the Province
House; yet that supposition seemed to be contradicted by the air of triumph with which they
waved their hands, as they crossed the threshold and vanished through the portal.

"In the devil's name what is this?" muttered Sir William Howe to a gentleman beside him; "a
procession of the regicide judges of King Charles the martyr?"

"These," said Colonel Joliffe, breaking silence almost for the first time that evening,—"these, if I
interpret them aright, are the Puritan governors—the rulers of the old original Democracy of
Massachusetts. Endicott, with the banner from which he had torn the symbol of subjection, and
Winthrop, and Sir Henry Vane, and Dudley, Haynes, Bellingham, and Leverett."

"Why had that young man a stain of blood upon his ruff?" asked Miss Joliffe.

"Because, in after years," answered her grandfather, "he laid down the wisest head in England
upon the block for the principles of liberty."

"Will not your Excellency order out the guard?" whispered Lord Percy, who, with other British
officers, had[Pg 103] now assembled round the General. "There may be a plot under this
mummery."

"Tush! we have nothing to fear," carelessly replied Sir William Howe. "There can be no worse
treason in the matter than a jest, and that somewhat of the dullest. Even were it a sharp and bitter
one, our best policy would be to laugh it off. See—here comes more of these gentry."

Another group of characters had now partly descended the staircase. The first was a venerable and
white-bearded patriarch, who cautiously felt his way downward with a staff. Treading hastily
behind him, and stretching forth his gauntleted hand as if to grasp the old man's shoulder, came a
tall, soldier-like figure, equipped with a plumed cap of steel, a bright breast-plate, and a long
sword, which rattled against the stairs. Next was seen a stout man, dressed in rich and courtly
attire, but not of courtly demeanor; his gait had the swinging motion of a seaman's walk; and
chancing to stumble on the staircase, he suddenly grew wrathful, and was heard to mutter an oath.

60
He was followed by a noble-looking personage in a curled wig, such as are represented in the
portraits of Queen Anne's time and earlier; and the breast of his coat was decorated with an
embroidered star. While advancing to the door, he bowed to the right hand and to the left, in a
very gracious and insinuating style; but as he crossed the threshold, unlike the early Puritan
governors, he seemed to wring his hands with sorrow.

"Prithee, play the part of a chorus, good Doctor Byles," said Sir William Howe. "What worthies
are these?"

"If it please your Excellency they lived somewhat before my day," answered the doctor; "but
doubtless our friend, the Colonel, has been hand and glove with them."[Pg 104]

"Their living faces I never looked upon," said Colonel Joliffe, gravely; "although I have spoken
face to face with many rulers of this land, and shall greet yet another with an old man's blessing
ere I die. But we talk of these figures. I take the venerable patriarch to be Bradstreet, the last of
the Puritans, who was governor at ninety, or thereabouts. The next is Sir Edmund Andros, a
tyrant, as any New England schoolboy will tell you; and therefore the people cast him down from
his high seat into a dungeon. Then comes Sir William Phipps, shepherd, cooper, sea-captain, and
governor—may many of his countrymen rise as high from as low an origin! Lastly, you saw the
gracious Earl of Bellamont, who ruled us under King William."

"But what is the meaning of it all?" asked Lord Percy.

"Now, were I a rebel," said Miss Joliffe, half aloud, "I might fancy that the ghosts of these ancient
governors had been summoned to form the funeral procession of royal authority in New
England."

Several other figures were now seen at the turn of the staircase. The one in advance had a
thoughtful, anxious, and somewhat crafty expression of face, and in spite of his loftiness of
manner, which was evidently the result both of an ambitious spirit and of long continuance in high
stations, he seemed not incapable of cringing to a greater than himself. A few steps behind came
an officer in a scarlet and embroidered uniform, cut in a fashion old enough to have been worn by
the Duke of Marlborough. His nose had a rubicund tinge, which, together with the twinkle of his
eye, might have marked him as a lover of the wine cup and good fellowship; notwithstanding
which tokens he appeared ill at ease, and often glanced around him as if[Pg 105] apprehensive of
some secret mischief. Next came a portly gentleman, wearing a coat of shaggy cloth, lined with
silken velvet; he had sense, shrewdness, and humor in his face, and a folio volume under his arm;
but his aspect was that of a man vexed and tormented beyond all patience, and harassed almost to
death. He went hastily down, and was followed by a dignified person, dressed in a purple velvet
suit, with very rich embroidery; his demeanor would have possessed much stateliness, only that a
grievous fit of the gout compelled him to hobble from stair to stair, with contortions of face and
body. When Doctor Byles beheld this figure on the staircase, he shivered as with an ague, but
continued to watch him steadfastly, until the gouty gentleman had reached the threshold, made a
gesture of anguish and despair, and vanished into the outer gloom, whither the funeral music
summoned him.

"Governor Belcher!—my old patron!—in his very shape and dress!" gasped Doctor Byles. "This
is an awful mockery!"

"A tedious foolery, rather," said Sir William Howe, with an air of indifference. "But who were the
three that preceded him?"

61
"Governor Dudley, a cunning politician—yet his craft once brought him to a prison," replied
Colonel Joliffe. "Governor Shute, formerly a Colonel under Marlborough, and whom the people
frightened out of the province; and learned Governor Burnet, whom the legislature tormented into
a mortal fever."

"Methinks they were miserable men, these royal governors of Massachusetts," observed Miss
Joliffe. "Heavens, how dim the light grows!"

It was certainly a fact that the large lamp which illuminated the staircase now burned dim and
duskily: so[Pg 106] that several figures, which passed hastily down the stairs and went forth from
the porch, appeared rather like shadows than persons of fleshly substance. Sir William Howe and
his guests stood at the doors of the contiguous apartments, watching the progress of this singular
pageant, with various emotions of anger, contempt, or half-acknowledged fear, but still with an
anxious curiosity. The shapes which now seemed hastening to join the mysterious procession
were recognized rather by striking peculiarities of dress, of broad characteristics of manner, than
by any perceptible resemblance of features to their prototypes. Their faces, indeed, were
invariably kept in deep shadow. But Doctor Byles, and other gentlemen who had long been
familiar with the successive rulers of the province, were heard to whisper the names of Shirley, of
Pownall, of Sir Francis Bernard, and of the well-remembered Hutchinson; thereby confessing that
the actors, whoever they might be, in this spectral march of governors, had succeeded in putting
on some distant portraiture of the real personages. As they vanished from the door, still did these
shadows toss their arms into the gloom of night, with a dread expression of woe. Following the
mimic representative of Hutchinson came a military figure, holding before his face the cocked hat
which he had taken from his powdered head; but his epaulettes and other insignia of rank were
those of a general officer, and something in his mien reminded the beholders of one who had
recently been master of the Province House, and chief of all the land.

"The shape of Gage, as true as in a looking-glass," exclaimed Lord Percy, turning pale.

"No, surely," cried Miss Joliffe, laughing hysterically; "it could not be Gage, or Sir William
would have greeted[Pg 107] his old comrade in arms! Perhaps he will not suffer the next to pass
unchallenged."

"Of that be assured, young lady," answered Sir William Howe, fixing his eyes, with a very
marked expression, upon the immovable visage of her grandfather. "I have long enough delayed
to pay the ceremonies of a host to these departing guests. The next that takes his leave shall
receive due courtesy."

A wild and dreary burst of music came through the open door. It seemed as if the procession,
which had been gradually filling up its ranks, were now about to move, and that this loud peal of
the wailing trumpets, and roll of the muffled drums, were a call to some loiterer to make haste.
Many eyes, by an irresistible impulse, were turned upon Sir William Howe, as if it were he whom
the dreary music summoned to the funeral of the departed power.

"See!—here comes the last!" whispered Miss Joliffe, pointing her tremulous finger to the
staircase.

A figure had come into view as if descending the stairs; although so dusky was the region whence
it emerged, some of the spectators fancied that they had seen this human shape suddenly
moulding itself amid the gloom. Downward the figure came, with a stately and martial tread, and
reaching the lowest stair was observed to be a tall man, booted and wrapped in a military cloak,
which was drawn up around the face so as to meet the flapped brim of a laced hat. The features,

62
therefore, were completely hidden. But the British officers deemed that they had seen that military
cloak before, and even recognized the frayed embroidery on the collar, as well as the gilded
scabbard of a sword which protruded from the folds of the cloak, and glittered in a vivid gleam of
light. Apart from[Pg 108] these trifling particulars, there were characteristics of gait and bearing
which impelled the wondering guests to glance from the shrouded figure to Sir William Howe, as
if to satisfy themselves that their host had not suddenly vanished from the midst of them.

With a dark flush of wrath upon his brow they saw the General draw his sword and advance to
meet the figure in the cloak before the latter had stepped one pace upon the floor.

"Villain, unmuffle yourself!" cried he. "You pass no farther!"

The figure, without blenching a hair's breadth from the sword which was pointed at his breast,
made a solemn pause and lowered the cape of the cloak from about his face, yet not sufficiently
for the spectators to catch a glimpse of it. But Sir William Howe had evidently seen enough. The
sternness of his countenance gave place to a look of wild amazement, if not horror, while he
recoiled several steps from the figure, and let fall his sword upon the floor. The martial shape
again drew the cloak about his features and passed on; but reaching the threshold, with his back
towards the spectators, he was seen to stamp his foot and shake his clinched hands in the air. It
was afterwards affirmed that Sir William Howe had repeated that selfsame gesture of rage and
sorrow, when, for the last time, and as the last royal governor, he passed through the portal of the
Province House.

"Hark!—the procession moves," said Miss Joliffe.

The music was dying away along the street, and its dismal strains were mingled with the knell of
midnight from the steeple of the Old South, and with the roar of artillery, which announced that
the beleaguering army of Washington had intrenched itself upon[Pg 109] a nearer height than
before. As the deep boom of the cannon smote upon his ear, Colonel Joliffe raised himself to the
full height of his aged form, and smiled sternly on the British General.

"Would your Excellency inquire further into the mystery of the pageant?" said he.

"Take care of your gray head!" cried Sir William Howe, fiercely, though with a quivering lip. "It
has stood too long on a traitor's shoulders!"

"You must make haste to chop it off, then," calmly replied the Colonel; "for a few hours longer,
and not all the power of Sir William Howe, nor of his master, shall cause one of these gray hairs
to fall. The empire of Britain in this ancient province is at its last gasp to-night;—almost while I
speak it is a dead corpse;—and methinks the shadows of the old governors are fit mourners at its
funeral!"

With these words Colonel Joliffe threw on his cloak, and drawing his granddaughter's arm within
his own, retired from the last festival that a British ruler ever held in the old province of
Massachusetts Bay. It was supposed that the Colonel and the young lady possessed some secret
intelligence in regard to the mysterious pageant of that night. However this might be, such
knowledge has never become general. The actors in the scene have vanished into deeper obscurity
than even that wild Indian band who scattered the cargoes of the tea ships on the waves, and
gained a place in history, yet left no names. But superstition, among other legends of this
mansion, repeats the wondrous tale, that on the anniversary night of Britain's discomfiture the
ghosts of the ancient governors of Massachusetts still glide through the portal of the Prov[Pg
110]ince House. And, last of all, comes a figure shrouded in a military cloak, tossing his clinched

63
hands into the air, and stamping his iron-shod boots upon the broad freestone steps, with a
semblance of feverish despair, but without the sound of a foot-tramp.

When the truth-telling accents of the elderly gentleman were hushed, I drew a long breath and
looked round the room, striving, with the best energy of my imagination, to throw a tinge of
romance and historic grandeur over the realities of the scene. But my nostrils snuffed up a scent of
cigar smoke, clouds of which the narrator had emitted by way of visible emblem, I suppose, of the
nebulous obscurity of his tale. Moreover, my gorgeous fantasies were wofully disturbed by the
rattling of the spoon in a tumbler of whiskey punch, which Mr. Thomas Waite was mingling for a
customer. Nor did it add to the picturesque appearance of the panelled walls that the slate of the
Brookline stage was suspended against them, instead of the armorial escutcheon of some far-
descended governor. A stage-driver sat at one of the windows, reading a penny paper of the day—
the Boston Times—and presenting a figure which could nowise be brought into any picture of
"Times in Boston" seventy or a hundred years ago. On the window seat lay a bundle, neatly done
up in brown paper, the direction of which I had the idle curiosity to read. "Miss Susan Huggins, at
the Province House." A pretty chambermaid, no doubt. In truth, it is desperately hard work, when
we attempt to throw the spell of hoar antiquity over localities with which the living world, and the
day that is passing over us, have aught to do. Yet, as I glanced at the stately staircase[Pg 111]
down which the procession of the old governors had descended, and as I emerged through the
venerable portal whence their figures had preceded me, it gladdened me to be conscious of a thrill
of awe. Then, diving through the narrow archway, a few strides transported me into the densest
throng of Washington Street.[Pg 112]

THE BIRTHMARK
In the latter part of the last century there lived a man of science, an eminent proficient in every
branch of natural philosophy, who not long before our story opens had made experience of a
spiritual affinity more attractive than any chemical one. He had left his laboratory to the care of an
assistant, cleared his fine countenance from the furnace smoke, washed the stain of acids from his
fingers, and persuaded a beautiful woman to become his wife. In those days when the
comparatively recent discovery of electricity and other kindred mysteries of Nature seemed to
open paths into the region of miracle, it was not unusual for the love of science to rival the love of
woman in its depth and absorbing energy. The higher intellect, the imagination, the spirit, and
even the heart might all find their congenial aliment in pursuits which, as some of their ardent
votaries believed, would ascend from one step of powerful intelligence to another, until the
philosopher should lay his hand on the secret of creative force and perhaps make new worlds for
himself. We know not whether Aylmer possessed this degree of faith in man's ultimate control
over Nature. He had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be
weaned from them by any second passion. His love for his young wife might prove the stronger of
the two; but it could only be by intertwining itself with his love of science, and uniting the
strength of the latter to his own.[Pg 113]

Such a union accordingly took place, and was attended with truly remarkable consequences and a
deeply impressive moral. One day, very soon after their marriage, Aylmer sat gazing at his wife
with a trouble in his countenance that grew stronger until he spoke.

"Georgiana," said he, "has it never occurred to you that the mark on your cheek might be
removed?"
64
"No, indeed," said she, smiling; but perceiving the seriousness of his manner, she blushed deeply.
"To tell you the truth it has been so often called a charm that I was simple enough to imagine it
might be so."

"Ah, upon another face perhaps it might," replied her husband; "but never on yours. No, dearest
Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect,
which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of
earthly imperfection."

"Shocks you, my husband!" cried Georgiana, deeply hurt; at first reddening with momentary
anger, but then bursting into tears. "Then why did you take me from my mother's side? You
cannot love what shocks you!"

To explain this conversation it must be mentioned that in the centre of Georgiana's left cheek
there was a singular mark, deeply interwoven, as it were, with the texture and substance of her
face. In the usual state of her complexion—a healthy though delicate bloom—the mark wore a tint
of deeper crimson, which imperfectly defined its shape amid the surrounding rosiness. When she
blushed it gradually became more indistinct, and finally vanished amid the triumphant rush of
blood that bathed the whole cheek with its brilliant glow. But if any shifting motion caused her to
turn pale there was the mark again, a crimson stain upon the snow, in what Aylmer[Pg 114]
sometimes deemed an almost fearful distinctness. Its shape bore not a little similarity to the
human hand, though of the smallest pygmy size. Georgiana's lovers were wont to say that some
fairy at her birth hour had laid her tiny hand upon the infant's cheek, and left this impress there in
token of the magic endowments that were to give her such sway over all hearts. Many a desperate
swain would have risked life for the privilege of pressing his lips to the mysterious hand. It must
not be concealed, however, that the impression wrought by this fairy sign manual varied
exceedingly, according to the difference of temperament in the beholders. Some fastidious
persons—but they were exclusively of her own sex—affirmed that the bloody hand, as they chose
to call it, quite destroyed the effect of Georgiana's beauty, and rendered her countenance even
hideous. But it would be as reasonable to say that one of those small blue stains which sometimes
occur in the purest statuary marble would convert the Eve of Powers to a monster. Masculine
observers, if the birthmark did not heighten their admiration, contented themselves with wishing it
away, that the world might possess one living specimen of ideal loveliness without the semblance
of a flaw. After his marriage,—for he thought little or nothing of the matter before,—Aylmer
discovered that this was the case with himself.

Had she been less beautiful,—if Envy's self could have found aught else to sneer at,—he might
have felt his affection heightened by the prettiness of this mimic hand, now vaguely portrayed,
now lost, now stealing forth again and glimmering to and fro with every pulse of emotion that
throbbed within her heart; but seeing her otherwise so perfect, he found this one defect grow more
and more intolerable with every moment of their united lives. It[Pg 115] was the fatal flaw of
humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her productions,
either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil
and pain. The crimson hand expressed the ineludible gripe in which mortality clutches the highest
and purest of earthly mould, degrading them into kindred with the lowest, and even with the very
brutes, like whom their visible frames return to dust. In this manner, selecting it as the symbol of
his wife's liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death, Aylmer's sombre imagination was not long in
rendering the birthmark a frightful object, causing him more trouble and horror than ever
Georgiana's beauty, whether of soul or sense, had given him delight.

At all the seasons which should have been their happiest, he invariably and without intending it,
nay, in spite of a purpose to the contrary, reverted to this one disastrous topic. Trifling as it at first

65
appeared, it so connected itself with innumerable trains of thought and modes of feeling that it
became the central point of all. With the morning twilight Aylmer opened his eyes upon his wife's
face and recognized the symbol of imperfection; and when they sat together at the evening hearth
his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek, and beheld, flickering with the blaze of the wood fire,
the spectral hand that wrote mortality where he would fain have worshipped. Georgiana soon
learned to shudder at his gaze. It needed but a glance with the peculiar expression that his face
often wore to change the roses of her cheek into a deathlike paleness, amid which the crimson
hand was brought strongly out, like a bas-relief of ruby on the whitest marble.

Late one night when the lights were growing dim, so as hardly to betray the stain on the poor
wife's cheek,[Pg 116] she, herself, for the first time, voluntarily took up the subject.

"Do you remember, my dear Aylmer," said she, with a feeble attempt at a smile, "have you any
recollection of a dream last night about this odious hand?"

"None! none whatever!" replied Aylmer, starting; but then he added, in a dry, cold tone, affected
for the sake of concealing the real depth of his emotion, "I might well dream of it; for before I fell
asleep it had taken a pretty firm hold of my fancy."

"And you did dream of it?" continued Georgiana, hastily; for she dreaded lest a gush of tears
should interrupt what she had to say. "A terrible dream! I wonder that you can forget it. Is it
possible to forget this one expression?—'It is in her heart now; we must have it out!' Reflect, my
husband; for by all means I would have you recall that dream."

The mind is in a sad state when Sleep, the all-involving, cannot confine her spectres within the
dim region of her sway, but suffers them to break forth, affrighting this actual life with secrets that
perchance belong to a deeper one. Aylmer now remembered his dream. He had fancied himself
with his servant Aminadab, attempting an operation for the removal of the birthmark; but the
deeper went the knife, the deeper sank the hand, until at length its tiny grasp appeared to have
caught hold of Georgiana's heart; whence, however, her husband was inexorably resolved to cut
or wrench it away.

When the dream had shaped itself perfectly in his memory, Aylmer sat in his wife's presence with
a guilty feeling. Truth often finds its way to the mind close muffled in robes of sleep, and then
speaks with uncompromising directness of matters in regard to which we[Pg 117] practise an
unconscious self-deception during our waking moments. Until now he had not been aware of the
tyrannizing influence acquired by one idea over his mind, and of the lengths which he might find
in his heart to go for the sake of giving himself peace.

"Aylmer," resumed Georgiana, solemnly, "I know not what may be the cost to both of us to rid
me of this fatal birthmark. Perhaps its removal may cause cureless deformity; or it may be the
stain goes as deep as life itself. Again: do we know that there is a possibility, on any terms, of
unclasping the firm gripe of this little hand which was laid upon me before I came into the
world?"

"Dearest Georgiana, I have spent much thought upon the subject," hastily interrupted Aylmer. "I
am convinced of the perfect practicability of its removal."

"If there be the remotest possibility of it," continued Georgiana, "let the attempt be made at
whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me; for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of
your horror and disgust,—life is a burden which I would fling down with joy. Either remove this
dreadful hand, or take my wretched life! You have deep science. All the world bears witness of it.

66
You have achieved great wonders. Cannot you remove this little, little mark, which I cover with
the tips of two small fingers? Is this beyond your power, for the sake of your own peace, and to
save your poor wife from madness?"

"Noblest, dearest, tenderest wife," cried Aylmer, rapturously, "doubt not my power. I have already
given this matter the deepest thought—thought which might almost have enlightened me to create
a being less perfect than yourself. Georgiana, you have led me deeper than ever into the heart of
science. I feel myself fully com[Pg 118]petent to render this dear cheek as faultless as its fellow;
and then, most beloved, what will be my triumph when I shall have corrected what Nature left
imperfect in her fairest work! Even Pygmalion, when his sculptured woman assumed life, felt not
greater ecstasy than mine will be."

"It is resolved, then," said Georgiana, faintly smiling. "And, Aylmer, spare me not, though you
should find the birthmark take refuge in my heart at last."

Her husband tenderly kissed her cheek—her right cheek—not that which bore the impress of the
crimson hand.

The next day Aylmer apprised his wife of a plan that he had formed whereby he might have
opportunity for the intense thought and constant watchfulness which the proposed operation
would require; while Georgiana, likewise, would enjoy the perfect repose essential to its success.
They were to seclude themselves in the extensive apartments occupied by Aylmer as a laboratory,
and where, during his toilsome youth, he had made discoveries in the elemental powers of Nature
that had roused the admiration of all the learned societies in Europe. Seated calmly in this
laboratory, the pale philosopher had investigated the secrets of the highest cloud region and of the
profoundest mines; he had satisfied himself of the causes that kindled and kept alive the fires of
the volcano; and had explained the mystery of fountains, and how it is that they gush forth, some
so bright and pure, and others with such rich medicinal virtues, from the dark bosom of the earth.
Here, too, at an earlier period, he had studied the wonders of the human frame, and attempted to
fathom the very process by which Nature assimilates all her precious influences from earth and
air, and from the spiritual world, to create and foster man, her masterpiece. The[Pg 119] latter
pursuit, however, Aylmer had long laid aside in unwilling recognition of the truth—against which
all seekers sooner or later stumble—that our great creative Mother, while she amuses us with
apparently working in the broadest sunshine, is yet severely careful to keep her own secrets, and,
in spite of her pretended openness, shows us nothing but results. She permits us, indeed, to mar,
but seldom to mend, and, like a jealous patentee, on no account to make. Now, however, Aylmer
resumed these half-forgotten investigations; not, of course, with such hopes or wishes as first
suggested them; but because they involved much physiological truth and lay in the path of his
proposed scheme for the treatment of Georgiana.

As he led her over the threshold of the laboratory, Georgiana was cold and tremulous. Aylmer
looked cheerfully into her face, with intent to reassure her, but was so startled with the intense
glow of the birthmark upon the whiteness of her cheek that he could not restrain a strong
convulsive shudder. His wife fainted.

"Aminadab! Aminadab!" shouted Aylmer, stamping violently on the floor.

Forthwith there issued from an inner apartment a man of low stature, but bulky frame, with
shaggy hair hanging about his visage, which was grimed with the vapors of the furnace. This
personage had been Aylmer's under-worker during his whole scientific career, and was admirably
fitted for that office by his great mechanical readiness, and the skill with which, while incapable
of comprehending a single principle, he executed all the details of his master's experiments. With

67
his vast strength, his shaggy hair, his smoky aspect, and the indescribable earthiness that incrusted
him, he seemed to[Pg 120] represent man's physical nature; while Aylmer's slender figure, and
pale, intellectual face, were no less apt a type of the spiritual element.

"Throw open the door of the boudoir, Aminadab," said Aylmer, "and burn a pastil."

"Yes, master," answered Aminadab, looking intently at the lifeless form of Georgiana; and then
he muttered to himself, "If she were my wife, I'd never part with that birthmark."

When Georgiana recovered consciousness she found herself breathing an atmosphere of

penetrating fragrance, the gentle potency of which had recalled her from her deathlike faintness.
The scene around her looked like enchantment. Aylmer had converted those smoky, dingy,
sombre rooms, where he had spent his brightest years in recondite pursuits, into a series of
beautiful apartments not unfit to be the secluded abode of a lovely woman. The walls were hung
with gorgeous curtains, which imparted the combination of grandeur and grace that no other
species of adornment can achieve; and as they fell from the ceiling to the floor, their rich and
ponderous folds, concealing all angles and straight lines, appeared to shut in the scene from
infinite space. For aught Georgiana knew, it might be a pavilion among the clouds. And Aylmer,
excluding the sunshine, which would have interfered with his chemical processes, had supplied its
place with perfumed lamps, emitting flames of various hue, but all uniting in a soft, impurpled
radiance. He now knelt by his wife's side, watching her earnestly, but without alarm; for he was
confident in his science, and felt that he could draw a magic circle round her within which no evil
might intrude.

"Where am I? Ah, I remember," said Georgiana,[Pg 121] faintly; and she placed her hand over her
cheek to hide the terrible mark from her husband's eyes.

"Fear not, dearest!" exclaimed he. "Do not shrink from me! Believe me, Georgiana, I even rejoice
in this single imperfection, since it will be such a rapture to remove it."

"Oh, spare me!" sadly replied his wife. "Pray do not look at it again. I never can forget that
convulsive shudder."

In order to soothe Georgiana, and, as it were, to release her mind from the burden of actual things,
Aylmer now put in practice some of the light and playful secrets which science had taught him
among its profounder lore. Airy figures, absolutely bodiless ideas, and forms of unsubstantial
beauty came and danced before her, imprinting their momentary footsteps on beams of light.
Though she had some indistinct idea of the method of these optical phenomena, still the illusion
was almost perfect enough to warrant the belief that her husband possessed sway over the spiritual
world. Then again, when she felt a wish to look forth from her seclusion, immediately, as if her
thoughts were answered, the possession of external existence flitted across a screen. The scenery
and the figures of actual life were perfectly represented, but with that bewitching, yet
indescribable difference which always makes a picture, an image, or a shadow so much more
attractive than the original. When wearied of this, Aylmer bade her cast her eyes upon a vessel
containing a quantity of earth. She did so, with little interest at first; but was soon startled to
perceive the germ of a plant shooting upward from the soil. Then came the slender stalk; the
leaves gradually unfolded themselves; and amid them was a perfect and lovely flower.[Pg 122]

"It is magical!" cried Georgiana. "I dare not touch it."

68
"Nay, pluck it," answered Aylmer,—"pluck it, and inhale its brief perfume while you may. The
flower will wither in a few moments and leave nothing save its brown seed vessels; but thence
may be perpetuated a race as ephemeral as itself."

But Georgiana had no sooner touched the flower than the whole plant suffered a blight, its leaves
turning coal-black as if by the agency of fire.

"There was too powerful a stimulus," said Aylmer, thoughtfully.

To make up for this abortive experiment, he proposed to take her portrait by a scientific process of
his own invention. It was to be effected by rays of light striking upon a polished plate of metal.
Georgiana assented; but, on looking at the result, was affrighted to find the features of the portrait
blurred and indefinable; while the minute figure of a hand appeared where the cheek should have
been. Aylmer snatched the metallic plate and threw it into a jar of corrosive acid.

Soon, however, he forgot these mortifying failures. In the intervals of study and chemical
experiment he came to her flushed and exhausted, but seemed invigorated by her presence, and
spoke in glowing language of the resources of his art. He gave a history of the long dynasty of the
alchemists, who spent so many ages in quest of the universal solvent by which the golden
principle might be elicited from all things vile and base. Aylmer appeared to believe that, by the
plainest scientific logic, it was altogether within the limits of possibility to discover this long-
sought medium; "but," he added, "a philosopher who should go deep enough to acquire the power
would attain too lofty a wisdom to stoop to the exercise of it." Not[Pg 123] less singular were his
opinions in regard to the elixir vitæ. He more than intimated that it was at his option to concoct a
liquid that should prolong life for years, perhaps interminably; but that it would produce a discord
in Nature which all the world, and chiefly the quaffer of the immortal nostrum, would find cause
to curse.

"Aylmer, are you in earnest?" asked Georgiana, looking at him with amazement and fear. "It is
terrible to possess such power, or even to dream of possessing it."

"Oh, do not tremble, my love," said her husband. "I would not wrong either you or myself by
working such inharmonious effects upon our lives; but I would have you consider how trifling, in
comparison, is the skill requisite to remove this little hand."

At the mention of the birthmark, Georgiana, as usual, shrank as if a red-hot iron had touched her
cheek.

Again Aylmer applied himself to his labors. She could hear his voice in the distant furnace room
giving directions to Aminadab, whose harsh, uncouth, misshapen tones were audible in response,
more like the grunt or growl of a brute than human speech. After hours of absence, Aylmer
reappeared and proposed that she should now examine his cabinet of chemical products and
natural treasures of the earth. Among the former he showed her a small vial, in which, he
remarked, was contained a gentle yet most powerful fragrance, capable of impregnating all the
breezes that blow across the kingdom. They were of inestimable value, the contents of that little
vial; and, as he said so, he threw some of the perfume into the air and filled the room with
piercing and invigorating delight.

"And what is this?" asked Georgiana, pointing to a small crystal globe containing a gold-colored
liquid. "It[Pg 124] is so beautiful to the eye that I could imagine it the elixir of life."

69
"In one sense it is," replied Aylmer; "or, rather, the elixir of immortality. It is the most precious
poison that ever was concocted in this world. By its aid I could apportion the lifetime of any
mortal at whom you might point your finger. The strength of the dose would determine whether
he were to linger out years, or drop dead in the midst of a breath. No king on his guarded throne
could keep his life if I, in my private station, should deem that the welfare of millions justified me
in depriving him of it."

"Why do you keep such a terrific drug?" inquired Georgiana in horror.

"Do not mistrust me, dearest," said her husband, smiling; "its virtuous potency is yet greater than
its harmful one. But see! here is a powerful cosmetic. With a few drops of this in a vase of water,
freckles may be washed away as easily as the hands are cleansed. A stronger infusion would take
the blood out of the cheek, and leave the rosiest beauty a pale ghost."

"Is it with this lotion that you intend to bathe my cheek?" asked Georgiana, anxiously.

"Oh, no," hastily replied her husband; "this is merely superficial. Your case demands a remedy
that shall go deeper."

In his interviews with Georgiana, Aylmer generally made minute inquiries as to her sensations
and whether the confinement of the rooms and the temperature of the atmosphere agreed with her.
These questions had such a particular drift that Georgiana began to conjecture that she was
already subjected to certain physical influences, either breathed in with the fragrant air or taken
with her[Pg 125] food. She fancied likewise, but it might be altogether fancy, that there was a
stirring up of her system—a strange, indefinite sensation creeping through her veins, and tingling,
half painfully, half pleasurably, at her heart. Still, whenever she dared to look into the mirror,
there she beheld herself pale as a white rose and with the crimson birthmark stamped upon her
cheek. Not even Aylmer now hated it so much as she.

To dispel the tedium of the hours which her husband found it necessary to devote to the processes
of combination and analysis, Georgiana turned over the volumes of his scientific library. In many
dark old tomes she met with chapters full of romance and poetry. They were the works of the
philosophers of the middle ages, such as Albertus Magnus, Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, and the
famous friar who created the prophetic Brazen Head. All these antique naturalists stood in
advance of their centuries, yet were imbued with some of their credulity, and therefore were
believed, and perhaps imagined themselves to have acquired from the investigation of Nature a
power above Nature, and from physics a sway over the spiritual world. Hardly less curious and
imaginative were the early volumes of the Transactions of the Royal Society, in which the
members, knowing little of the limits of natural possibility, were continually recording wonders or
proposing methods whereby wonders might be wrought.

But to Georgiana the most engrossing volume was a large folio from her husband's own hand, in
which he had recorded every experiment of his scientific career, its original aim, the methods
adopted for its development, and its final success or failure, with the circumstances to which
either event was attributable. The book, in truth, was both the history and emblem of his ardent,
ambitious,[Pg 126] imaginative, yet practical and laborious life. He handled physical details as if
there were nothing beyond them; yet spiritualized them all, and redeemed himself from
materialism by his strong and eager aspiration towards the infinite. In his grasp the veriest clod of
earth assumed a soul. Georgiana, as she read, reverenced Aylmer and loved him more profoundly
than ever, but with a less entire dependence on his judgment than heretofore. Much as he had
accomplished, she could not but observe that his most splendid successes were almost invariably
failures, if compared with the ideal at which he aimed. His brightest diamonds were the merest

70
pebbles, and felt to be so by himself, in comparison with the inestimable gems which lay hidden
beyond his reach. The volume, rich with achievements that had won renown for its author, was
yet as melancholy a record as ever mortal hand had penned. It was the sad confession and
continual exemplification of the shortcomings of the composite man, the spirit burdened with clay
and working in matter, and of the despair that assails the higher nature at finding itself so
miserably thwarted by the earthly part. Perhaps every man of genius in whatever sphere might
recognize the image of his own experience in Aylmer's journal.

So deeply did these reflections affect Georgiana that she laid her face upon the open volume and
burst into tears. In this situation she was found by her husband.

"It is dangerous to read in a sorcerer's books," said he with a smile, though his countenance was
uneasy and displeased. "Georgiana, there are pages in that volume which I can scarcely glance
over and keep my senses. Take heed less it prove as detrimental to you."

"It has made me worship you more than ever," said she.[Pg 127]

"Ah, wait for this one success," rejoined he, "then worship me if you will. I shall deem myself
hardly unworthy of it. But come, I have sought you for the luxury of your voice. Sing to me,
dearest."

So she poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst of his spirit. He then took his
leave with a boyish exuberance of gayety, assuring her that her seclusion would endure but a little
longer, and that the result was already certain. Scarcely had he departed when Georgiana felt
irresistibly impelled to follow him. She had forgotten to inform Aylmer of a symptom which for
two or three hours past had begun to excite her attention. It was a sensation in the fatal birthmark,
not painful, but which induced a restlessness throughout her system. Hastening after her husband,
she intruded for the first time into the laboratory.

The first thing that struck her eye was the furnace, that hot and feverish worker, with the intense
glow of its fire, which by the quantities of soot clustered above it seemed to have been burning for
ages. There was a distilling apparatus in full operation. Around the room were retorts, tubes,
cylinders, crucibles, and other apparatus of chemical research. An electrical machine stood ready
for immediate use. The atmosphere felt oppressively close, and was tainted with gaseous odors
which had been tormented forth by the processes of science. The severe and homely simplicity of
the apartment, with its naked walls and brick pavement, looked strange, accustomed as Georgiana
had become to the fantastic elegance of her boudoir. But what chiefly, indeed almost solely, drew
her attention, was the aspect of Aylmer himself.

He was pale as death, anxious and absorbed, and hung over the furnace as if it depended upon his
utmost watch[Pg 128]fulness whether the liquid which it was distilling should be the draught of
immortal happiness or misery. How different from the sanguine and joyous mien that he had
assumed for Georgiana's encouragement!

"Carefully now, Aminadab; carefully, thou human machine; carefully, thou man of clay!"
muttered Aylmer, more to himself than to his assistant. "Now, if there be a thought too much or
too little, it is all over."

"Ho! ho!" mumbled Aminadab. "Look, master! look!"

71
Aylmer raised his eyes hastily, and at first reddened, then grew paler than ever, on beholding
Georgiana. He rushed towards her and seized her arm with a gripe that left the print of his fingers
upon it.

"Why do you come hither? Have you no trust in your husband?" cried he, impetuously. "Would
you throw the blight of that fatal birthmark over my labors? It is not well done. Go, prying
woman, go!"

"Nay, Aylmer," said Georgiana with the firmness of which she possessed no stinted endowment,
"it is not you that have a right to complain. You mistrust your wife; you have concealed the
anxiety with which you watch the development of this experiment. Think not so unworthily of
me, my husband. Tell me all the risk we run, and fear not that I shall shrink; for my share in it is
far less than your own."

"No, no, Georgiana!" said Aylmer, impatiently; "it must not be."

"I submit," replied she calmly. "And, Aylmer, I shall quaff whatever draught you bring me; but it
will be on the same principle that would induce me to take a dose of poison if offered by your
hand."

"My noble wife," said Aylmer, deeply moved, "I knew[Pg 129] not the height and depth of your
nature until now. Nothing shall be concealed. Know, then, that this crimson hand, superficial as it
seems, has clutched its grasp into your being with a strength of which I had no previous
conception. I have already administered agents powerful enough to do aught except to change
your entire physical system. Only one thing remains to be tried. If that fail us we are ruined."

"Why did you hesitate to tell me this?" asked she.

"Because, Georgiana," said Aylmer, in a low voice, "there is danger."

"Danger? There is but one danger—that this horrible stigma shall be left upon my cheek!" cried
Georgiana. "Remove it, remove it, whatever be the cost, or we shall both go mad!"

"Heaven knows your words are too true," said Aylmer, sadly. "And now, dearest, return to your
boudoir. In a little while all will be tested."

He conducted her back and took leave of her with a solemn tenderness which spoke far more than
his words how much was now at stake. After his departure Georgiana became rapt in musings.
She considered the character of Aylmer, and did it completer justice than at any previous moment.
Her heart exalted, while it trembled, at his honorable love—so pure and lofty that it would accept
nothing less than perfection nor miserably make itself contented with an earthlier nature than he
had dreamed of. She felt how much more precious was such a sentiment than that meaner kind
which would have borne with the imperfection for her sake, and have been guilty of treason to
holy love by degrading its perfect idea to the level of the actual; and with her whole spirit she
prayed that, for a single moment, she might satisfy his highest and deepest conception. Longer
than one moment she well knew it could[Pg 130] not be; for his spirit was ever on the march, ever
ascending, and each instant required something that was beyond the scope of the instant before.

The sound of her husband's footsteps aroused her. He bore a crystal goblet containing a liquor
colorless as water, but bright enough to be the draught of immortality. Aylmer was pale; but it
seemed rather the consequence of a highly-wrought state of mind and tension of spirit than of fear
or doubt.

72
"The concoction of the draught has been perfect," said he, in answer to Georgiana's look. "Unless
all my science have deceived me, it cannot fail."

"Save on your account, my dearest Aylmer," observed his wife, "I might wish to put off this
birthmark of mortality by relinquishing mortality itself in preference to any other mode. Life is
but a sad possession to those who have attained precisely the degree of moral advancement at
which I stand. Were I weaker and blinder it might be happiness. Were I stronger, it might be
endured hopefully. But, being what I find myself, methinks I am of all mortals the most fit to die."

"You are fit for heaven without tasting death!" replied her husband. "But why do we speak of
dying? The draught cannot fail. Behold its effect upon this plant."

On the window seat there stood a geranium diseased with yellow blotches, which had overspread
all its leaves. Aylmer poured a small quantity of the liquid upon the soil in which it grew. In a
little time, when the roots of the plant had taken up the moisture, the unsightly blotches began to
be extinguished in a living verdure.

"There needed no proof," said Georgiana, quietly. "Give me the goblet. I joyfully stake all upon
your word."[Pg 131]

"Drink, then, thou lofty creature!" exclaimed Aylmer, with fervid admiration. "There is no taint of
imperfection on thy spirit. Thy sensible frame, too, shall soon be all perfect."

She quaffed the liquid and returned the goblet to his hand.

"It is grateful," said she with a placid smile. "Methinks it is like water from a heavenly fountain;
for it contains I know not what of unobtrusive fragrance and deliciousness. It allays a feverish
thirst that had parched me for many days. Now, dearest, let me sleep. My earthly senses are
closing over my spirit like the leaves around the heart of a rose at sunset."

She spoke the last words with a gentle reluctance, as if it required almost more energy than she
could command to pronounce the faint and lingering syllables. Scarcely had they loitered through
her lips ere she was lost in slumber. Aylmer sat by her side, watching her aspect with the
emotions proper to a man the whole value of whose existence was involved in the process now to
be tested. Mingled with this mood, however, was the philosophic investigation characteristic of
the man of science. Not the minutest symptom escaped him. A heightened flush of the cheek, a
slight irregularity of breath, a quiver of the eyelid, a hardly perceptible tremor through the frame,
—such were the details which, as the moments passed, he wrote down in his folio volume. Intense
thought had set its stamp upon every previous page of that volume, but the thoughts of years were
all concentrated upon the last.

While thus employed, he failed not to gaze often at the fatal hand, and not without a shudder. Yet
once, by a strange and unaccountable impulse, he pressed it with his lips. His spirit recoiled,
however, in the very act; and[Pg 132] Georgiana, out of the midst of her deep sleep, moved
uneasily and murmured as if in remonstrance. Again Aylmer resumed his watch. Nor was it
without avail. The crimson hand, which at first had been strongly visible upon the marble paleness
of Georgiana's cheek, now grew more faintly outlined. She remained not less pale than ever; but
the birthmark, with every breath that came and went, lost somewhat of its former distinctness. Its
presence had been awful; its departure was more awful still. Watch the stain of the rainbow fading
out of the sky, and you will know how that mysterious symbol passed away.

73
"By Heaven! it is well nigh gone!" said Aylmer to himself, in almost irrepressible ecstasy. "I can
scarcely trace it now. Success! success! And now it is like the faintest rose color. The lightest
flush of blood across her cheek would overcome it. But she is so pale!"

He drew aside the window curtain and suffered the light of natural day to fall into the room and
rest upon her cheek. At the same time he heard a gross, hoarse chuckle, which he had long known
as his servant Aminadab's expression of delight.

"Ah, clod! ah, earthly mass!" cried Aylmer, laughing in a sort of frenzy, "you have served me
well! Matter and spirit—earth and heaven—have both done their part in this! Laugh, thing of the
senses! You have earned the right to laugh."

These exclamations broke Georgiana's sleep. She slowly unclosed her eyes and gazed into the
mirror which her husband had arranged for that purpose. A faint smile flitted over her lips when
she recognized how barely perceptible was now that crimson hand which had once blazed forth
with such disastrous brilliancy as to scare away all their happiness. But then her eyes sought
Aylmer's face with[Pg 133] a trouble and anxiety that he could by no means account for.

"My poor Aylmer!" murmured she.

"Poor? Nay, richest, happiest, most favored!" exclaimed he. "My peerless bride, it is successful!
You are perfect!"

"My poor Aylmer," she repeated, with a more than human tenderness. "You have aimed loftily;
you have done nobly. Do not repent that with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the
best the earth could offer. Aylmer, dearest Aylmer, I am dying!"

Alas! it was too true! The fatal hand had grappled with the mystery of life, and was the bond by
which an angelic spirit kept itself in union with a mortal frame. As the last crimson tint of the
birthmark—that sole token of human imperfection—faded from her cheek, the parting breath of
the now perfect woman passed into the atmosphere, and her soul, lingering a moment near her
husband, took its heavenward flight. Then a hoarse, chuckling laugh was heard again! Thus ever
does the gross fatality of earth exult in its invariable triumph over the immortal essence which, in
this dim sphere of half development, demands the completeness of a higher state. Yet, had
Aylmer reached a profounder wisdom, he need not thus have flung away the happiness which
would have woven his mortal life of the selfsame texture with the celestial. The momentary
circumstance was too strong for him; he failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of time, and
living once for all in eternity, to find the perfect future in the present.[Pg 134]

THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT

As Mr. John Oakhurst, gambler, stepped into the main street of Poker Flat on the morning of the
23d of November, 1850, he was conscious of a change in its moral atmosphere since the
preceding night. Two or three men, conversing earnestly together, ceased as he approached, and
exchanged significant glances. There was a Sabbath lull in the air, which, in a settlement unused
to Sabbath influences, looked ominous.

Mr. Oakhurst's calm, handsome face betrayed small concern in these indications. Whether he was
conscious of any predisposing cause was another question. "I reckon they're after somebody," he
reflected; "likely it's me." He returned to his pocket the handkerchief with which he had been
74
whipping away the red dust of Poker Flat from his neat boots, and quietly discharged his mind of
any further conjecture.

In point of fact, Poker Flat was "after somebody." It had lately suffered the loss of several
thousand dollars, two valuable horses, and a prominent citizen. It was experiencing a spasm of
virtuous reaction, quite as lawless and ungovernable as any of the acts that had provoked it. A
secret committee had determined to rid the town of all improper persons. This was done
permanently in regard of two men who were then hanging from the boughs of a sycamore in the
gulch, and temporarily in the banishment of certain other objectionable characters. I regret to say
that some of these were ladies. It is but due to the sex,[Pg 135] however, to state that their
impropriety was professional, and it was only in such easily established standards of evil that
Poker Flat ventured to sit in judgment.

Bret Harte

Mr. Oakhurst was right in supposing that he was included in this category. A few of the
committee had urged hanging him as a possible example and a sure method of reimbursing
themselves from his pockets of the sums he had won from them. "It's agin justice," said Jim
Wheeler, "to let this yer young man from Roaring Camp—an entire stranger—carry away our
money." But a crude sentiment of equity residing in the breasts of those who had been fortunate
enough to win from Mr. Oakhurst overruled this narrower local prejudice.

Mr. Oakhurst received his sentence with philosophic calmness, none the less coolly that he was
aware of the hesitation of his judges. He was too much of a gambler not to accept fate. With him
life was at best an uncertain game, and he recognized the usual percentage in favor of the dealer.

A body of armed men accompanied the deported wickedness of Poker Flat to the outskirts of the
settlement. Besides Mr. Oakhurst, who was known to be a coolly desperate man, and for whose
intimidation the armed escort was intended, the expatriated party consisted of a young woman
familiarly known as "The Duchess;" another who had won the title of "Mother Shipton;" and
"Uncle Billy," a suspected sluice-robber and confirmed drunkard. The cavalcade provoked no
comments from the spectators, nor was any word uttered by the escort. Only when the gulch
which marked the uttermost limit of Poker Flat was reached, the leader spoke briefly and to the
point. The exiles were forbidden to return at the peril of their lives.[Pg 136]

As the escort disappeared, their pent-up feelings found vent in a few hysterical tears from the
Duchess, some bad language from Mother Shipton, and a Parthian volley of expletives from
Uncle Billy. The philosophic Oakhurst alone remained silent. He listened calmly to Mother
Shipton's desire to cut somebody's heart out, to the repeated statements of the Duchess that she
would die in the road, and to the alarming oaths that seemed to be bumped out of Uncle Billy as
he rode forward. With the easy good humor characteristic of his class, he insisted upon
exchanging his own riding-horse, "Five-Spot," for the sorry mule which the Duchess rode. But
even this act did not draw the party into any closer sympathy. The young woman readjusted her
somewhat draggled plumes with a feeble, faded coquetry; Mother Shipton eyed the possessor of
"Five-Spot" with malevolence, and Uncle Billy included the whole party in one sweeping
anathema.

The road to Sandy Bar—a camp that, not having as yet experienced the regenerating influences of
Poker Flat, consequently seemed to offer some invitation to the emigrants—lay over a steep
mountain range. It was distant a day's severe travel. In that advanced season the party soon passed

75
out of the moist, temperate regions of the foothills into the dry, cold, bracing air of the Sierras.
The trail was narrow and difficult. At noon the Duchess, rolling out of her saddle upon the
ground, declared her intention of going no farther, and the party halted.

The spot was singularly wild and impressive. A wooded amphitheatre, surrounded on three sides
by precipitous cliffs of naked granite, sloped gently toward the crest of another precipice that
overlooked the valley. It was, undoubtedly, the most suitable spot for a camp, had camp[Pg
137]ing been advisable. But Mr. Oakhurst knew that scarcely half the journey to Sandy Bar was
accomplished, and the party were not equipped or provisioned for delay. This fact he pointed out
to his companions curtly, with a philosophic commentary on the folly of "throwing up their hand
before the game was played out." But they were furnished with liquor, which in this emergency
stood them in place of food, fuel, rest, and prescience. In spite of his remonstrances, it was not
long before they were more or less under its influence. Uncle Billy passed rapidly from a bellicose
state into one of stupor, the Duchess became maudlin, and Mother Shipton snored. Mr. Oakhurst
alone remained erect, leaning against a rock, calmly surveying them.

Mr. Oakhurst did not drink. It interfered with a profession which required coolness,
impassiveness, and presence of mind, and, in his own language, he "couldn't afford it." As he
gazed at his recumbent fellow exiles, the loneliness begotten of his pariah trade, his habits of life,
his very vices, for the first time seriously oppressed him. He bestirred himself in dusting his black
clothes, washing his hands and face, and other acts characteristic of his studiously neat habits, and
for a moment forgot his annoyance. The thought of deserting his weaker and more pitiable
companions never perhaps occurred to him. Yet he could not help feeling the want of that
excitement which, singularly enough, was most conducive to that calm equanimity for which he
was notorious. He looked at the gloomy walls that rose a thousand feet sheer above the circling
pines around him, at the sky ominously clouded, at the valley below, already deepening into
shadow; and, doing so, suddenly he heard his own name called.[Pg 138]

A horseman slowly ascended the trail. In the fresh, open face of the newcomer Mr. Oakhurst
recognized Tom Simson, otherwise known as "The Innocent," of Sandy Bar. He had met him
some months before over a "little game," and had, with perfect equanimity, won the entire fortune
—amounting to some forty dollars—of that guileless youth. After the game was finished, Mr.
Oakhurst drew the youthful speculator behind the door and thus addressed him: "Tommy, you're a
good little man, but you can't gamble worth a cent. Don't try it over again." He then handed him
his money back, pushed him gently from the room, and so made a devoted slave of Tom Simson.

There was a remembrance of this in his boyish and enthusiastic greeting of Mr. Oakhurst. He had
started, he said, to go to Poker Flat to seek his fortune. "Alone?" No, not exactly alone; in fact (a
giggle), he had run away with Piney Woods. Didn't Mr. Oakhurst remember Piney? She that used
to wait on the table at the Temperance House? They had been engaged a long time, but old Jake
Woods had objected, and so they had run away, and were going to Poker Flat to be married, and
here they were. And they were tired out, and how lucky it was they had found a place to camp,
and company. All this the Innocent delivered rapidly, while Piney, a stout, comely damsel of
fifteen, emerged from behind the pine-tree, where she had been blushing unseen, and rode to the
side of her lover.

Mr. Oakhurst seldom troubled himself with sentiment, still less with propriety; but he had a vague
idea that the situation was not fortunate. He retained, however, his presence of mind sufficiently
to kick Uncle Billy, who was[Pg 139] about to say something, and Uncle Billy was sober enough
to recognize in Mr. Oakhurst's kick a superior power that would not bear trifling. He then

76
endeavored to dissuade Tom Simson from delaying further, but in vain. He even pointed out the
fact that there was no provision, nor means of making a camp. But, unluckily, the Innocent met
this objection by assuring the party that he was provided with an extra mule loaded with
provisions, and by the discovery of a rude attempt at a log house near the trail. "Piney can stay
with Mrs. Oakhurst," said the Innocent, pointing to the Duchess, "and I can shift for myself."

Nothing but Mr. Oakhurst's admonishing foot saved Uncle Billy from bursting into a roar of
laughter. As it was, he felt compelled to retire up the cañon until he could recover his gravity.
There he confided the joke to the tall pine-trees, with many slaps of his leg, contortions of his
face, and the usual profanity. But when he returned to the party, he found them seated by a fire—
for the air had grown strangely chill and the sky overcast—in apparently amicable conversation.
Piney was actually talking in an impulsive girlish fashion to the Duchess, who was listening with
an interest and animation she had not shown for many days. The Innocent was holding forth,
apparently with equal effect, to Mr. Oakhurst and Mother Shipton, who was actually relaxing into
amiability. "Is this yer a d——d picnic?" said Uncle Billy, with inward scorn, as he surveyed the
sylvan group, the glancing firelight, and the tethered animals in the foreground. Suddenly an idea
mingled with the alcoholic fumes that disturbed his brain. It was apparently of a jocular nature,
for he felt impelled to slap his leg again and cram his fist into his mouth.[Pg 140]

As the shadows crept slowly up the mountain, a slight breeze rocked the tops of the pine-trees and
moaned through their long and gloomy aisles. The ruined cabin, patched and covered with pine
boughs, was set apart for the ladies. As the lovers parted, they unaffectedly exchanged a kiss, so
honest and sincere that it might have been heard above the swaying pines. The frail Duchess and
the malevolent Mother Shipton were probably too stunned to remark upon this last evidence of
simplicity, and so turned without a word to the hut. The fire was replenished, the men lay down
before the door, and in a few minutes were asleep.

Mr. Oakhurst was a light sleeper. Toward morning he awoke benumbed and cold. As he stirred
the dying fire, the wind, which was now blowing strongly, brought to his cheek that which caused
the blood to leave it,—snow!

He started to his feet with the intention of awakening the sleepers, for there was no time to lose.
But turning to where Uncle Billy had been lying, he found him gone. A suspicion leaped to his
brain, and a curse to his lips. He ran to the spot where the mules had been tethered—they were no
longer there. The tracks were already rapidly disappearing in the snow.

The momentary excitement brought Mr. Oakhurst back to the fire with his usual calm. He did not
waken the sleepers. The Innocent slumbered peacefully, with a smile on his good-humored,
freckled face; the virgin Piney slept beside her frailer sisters as sweetly as though attended by
celestial guardians; and Mr. Oakhurst, drawing his blanket over his shoulders, stroked his
mustaches and waited for the dawn. It came slowly in a whirling mist of snowflakes that dazzled
and confused the eye. What[Pg 141] could be seen of the landscape appeared magically changed.
He looked over the valley, and summed up the present and future in two words, "Snowed in!"

A careful inventory of the provisions, which, fortunately for the party, had been stored within the
hut, and so escaped the felonious fingers of Uncle Billy, disclosed the fact that with care and
prudence they might last ten days longer. "That is," said Mr. Oakhurst sotto voce to the Innocent,
"if you're willing to board us. If you ain't—and perhaps you'd better not—you can wait till Uncle
Billy gets back with provisions." For some occult reason, Mr. Oakhurst could not bring himself to
disclose Uncle Billy's rascality, and so offered the hypothesis that he had wandered from the camp
and had accidentally stampeded the animals. He dropped a warning to the Duchess and Mother
Shipton, who of course knew the facts of their associate's defection. "They'll find out the truth

77
about us all when they find out anything," he added significantly, "and there's no good frightening
them now."

Tom Simson not only put all his worldly store at the disposal of Mr. Oakhurst, but seemed to
enjoy the prospect of their enforced seclusion. "We'll have a good camp for a week, and then the
snow'll melt, and we'll all go back together." The cheerful gayety of the young man and Mr.
Oakhurst's calm infected the others. The Innocent, with the aid of pine boughs, extemporized a
thatch for the roofless cabin, and the Duchess directed Piney in the rearrangement of the interior
with a taste and tact that opened the blue eyes of that provincial maiden to their fullest extent. "I
reckon now you're used to fine things at Poker Flat," said Piney. The Duchess turned away
sharply to conceal something that reddened her cheeks through their professional tint, and Mother
Shipton[Pg 142] requested Piney not to "chatter." But when Mr. Oakhurst returned from a weary
search for the trail, he heard the sound of happy laughter echoed from the rocks. He stopped in
some alarm, and his thoughts first naturally reverted to the whiskey, which he had prudently
cachéd. "And yet it don't somehow sound like whiskey," said the gambler. It was not until he
caught sight of the blazing fire through the still blinding storm, and the group around it, that he
settled to the conviction that it was "square fun."

Whether Mr. Oakhurst had cachéd his cards with the whiskey as something debarred the free
access of the community, I cannot say. It was certain that, in Mother Shipton's words, he "didn't
say 'cards' once" during that evening. Haply the time was beguiled by an accordion, produced
somewhat ostentatiously by Tom Simson from his pack. Notwithstanding some difficulties
attending the manipulation of this instrument, Piney Woods managed to pluck several reluctant
melodies from its keys, to an accompaniment by the Innocent on a pair of bone castanets. But the
crowning festivity of the evening was reached in a rude camp-meeting hymn, which the lovers,
joining hands, sang with great earnestness and vociferation. I fear that a certain defiant tone and
Covenanter's swing to its chorus, rather than any devotional quality, caused it speedily to infect
the others, who at last joined in the refrain:—

"I'm proud to live in the service of the Lord,

And I'm bound to die in His army."

The pines rocked, the storm eddied and whirled above the miserable group, and the flames of their
altar leaped heavenward, as if in token of the vow.

At midnight the storm abated, the rolling clouds parted, and the stars glittered keenly above the
sleeping camp.[Pg 143] Mr. Oakhurst, whose professional habits had enabled him to live on the
smallest possible amount of sleep, in dividing the watch with Tom Simson somehow managed to
take upon himself the greater part of that duty. He excused himself to the Innocent by saying that
he had "often been a week without sleep." "Doing what?" asked Tom. "Poker!" replied Oakhurst
sententiously. "When a man gets a streak of luck,—nigger-luck,—he don't get tired. The luck
gives in first. Luck," continued the gambler reflectively, "is a mighty queer thing. All you know
about it for certain is that it's bound to change. And it's finding out when it's going to change that
makes you. We've had a streak of bad luck since we left Poker Flat,—you come along, and slap
you get into it, too. If you can hold your cards right along you're all right. For," added the
gambler, with cheerful irrelevance—

"'I'm proud to live in the service of the Lord,

And I'm bound to die in His army.'"

The third day came, and the sun, looking through the white-curtained valley, saw the outcasts
divide their slowly decreasing store of provisions for the morning meal. It was one of the

78
peculiarities of that mountain climate that its rays diffused a kindly warmth over the wintry
landscape, as if in regretful commiseration of the past. But it revealed drift on drift of snow piled
high around the hut,—a hopeless, uncharted, trackless sea of white lying below the rocky shores
to which the castaways still clung. Through the marvelously clear air the smoke of the pastoral
village of Poker Flat rose miles away. Mother Shipton saw it, and from a remote pinnacle of her
rocky fastness hurled in that direction a final malediction. It was her last vituperative attempt, and
perhaps for that[Pg 144] reason was invested with a certain degree of sublimity. It did her good,
she privately informed the Duchess. "Just you go out there and cuss, and see." She then set herself
to the task of amusing "the child," as she and the Duchess were pleased to call Piney. Piney was
no chicken, but it was a soothing and original theory of the pair thus to account for the fact that
she didn't swear and wasn't improper.

When night crept up again through the gorges, the reedy notes of the accordion rose and fell in
fitful spasms and long-drawn gasps by the flickering campfire. But music failed to fill entirely the
aching void left by insufficient food, and a new diversion was proposed by Piney,—story-telling.
Neither Mr. Oakhurst nor his female companions caring to relate their personal experiences, this
plan would have failed too, but for the Innocent. Some months before he had chanced upon a stray
copy of Mr. Pope's ingenious translation of the Iliad. He now proposed to narrate the principal
incidents of that poem—having thoroughly mastered the argument and fairly forgotten the words
—in the current vernacular of Sandy Bar. And so for the rest of that night the Homeric demi-gods
again walked the earth. Trojan bully and wily Greek wrestled in the winds, and the great pines in
the cañon seemed to bow to the wrath of the son of Peleus. Mr. Oakhurst listened with quiet
satisfaction. Most especially was he interested in the fate of "Ash-heels," as the Innocent persisted
in denominating the "swift-footed Achilles."

So, with small food and much of Homer and the accordion, a week passed over the heads of the
outcasts. The sun again forsook them, and again from leaden skies the snowflakes were sifted
over the land. Day by day closer around them drew the snowy circle, until at last they looked from
their prison over drifted walls of dazzling[Pg 145] white, that towered twenty feet above their
heads. It became more and more difficult to replenish their fires, even from the fallen trees beside
them, now half hidden in the drifts. And yet no one complained. The lovers turned from the
dreary prospect and looked into each other's eyes, and were happy. Mr. Oakhurst settled himself
coolly to the losing game before him. The Duchess, more cheerful than she had been, assumed the
care of Piney. Only Mother Shipton—once the strongest of the party—seemed to sicken and fade.
At midnight on the tenth day she called Oakhurst to her side. "I'm going," she said, in a voice of
querulous weakness, "but don't say anything about it. Don't waken the kids. Take the bundle from
under my head, and open it." Mr. Oakhurst did so. It contained Mother Shipton's rations for the
last week, untouched. "Give 'em to the child," she said, pointing to the sleeping Piney. "You've
starved yourself," said the gambler. "That's what they call it," said the woman querulously, as she
lay down again, and, turning her face to the wall, passed quietly away.

The accordion and the bones were put aside that day, and Homer was forgotten. When the body of
Mother Shipton had been committed to the snow, Mr. Oakhurst took the Innocent aside, and
showed him a pair of snow-shoes, which he had fashioned from the old pack-saddle. "There's one
chance in a hundred to save her yet," he said, pointing to Piney; "but it's there," he added, pointing
toward Poker Flat. "If you can reach there in two days she's safe." "And you?" asked Tom
Simson. "I'll stay here," was the curt reply.

The lovers parted with a long embrace. "You are not going, too?" said the Duchess, as she saw
Mr. Oakhurst apparently waiting to accompany him. "As far as the[Pg 146] cañon," he replied. He
turned suddenly and kissed the Duchess, leaving her pallid face aflame, and her trembling limbs
rigid with amazement.

79
Night came, but not Mr. Oakhurst. It brought the storm again and the whirling snow. Then the
Duchess, feeding the fire, found that some one had quietly piled beside the hut enough fuel to last
a few days longer. The tears rose to her eyes, but she hid them from Piney.

The women slept but little. In the morning, looking into each other's faces, they read their fate.
Neither spoke, but Piney, accepting the position of the stronger, drew near and placed her arm
around the Duchess's waist. They kept this attitude for the rest of the day. That night the storm
reached its greatest fury, and, rending asunder the protecting vines, invaded the very hut.

Toward morning they found themselves unable to feed the fire, which gradually died away. As the
embers slowly blackened, the Duchess crept closer to Piney, and broke the silence of many hours:
"Piney, can you pray?" "No, dear," said Piney simply. The Duchess, without knowing exactly
why, felt relieved, and, putting her head upon Piney's shoulder, spoke no more. And so reclining,
the younger and purer pillowing the head of her soiled sister upon her virgin breast, they fell
asleep.

The wind lulled as if it feared to waken them. Feathery drifts of snow, shaken from the long pine
boughs, flew like white winged birds, and settled about them as they slept. The moon through the
rifted clouds looked down upon what had been the camp. But all human stain, all trace of earthly
travail, was hidden beneath the spotless mantle mercifully flung from above.

They slept all that day and the next, nor did they waken when voices and footsteps broke the
silence of the camp.[Pg 147] And when pitying fingers brushed the snow from their wan faces,
you could scarcely have told from the equal peace that dwelt upon them which was she that had
sinned. Even the law of Poker Flat recognized this, and turned away, leaving them still locked in
each other's arms.

But at the head of the gulch, on one of the largest pine-trees, they found the deuce of clubs pinned
to the bark with a bowie-knife. It bore the following, written in pencil in a firm hand:—

†
BENEATH THIS TREE
LIES THE BODY
OF
JOHN OAKHURST,
WHO STRUCK A STREAK OF BAD LUCK
ON THE 23D OF NOVEMBER 1850,
AND
HANDED IN HIS CHECKS
ON THE 7TH DECEMBER, 1850.
†

And pulseless and cold, with a Derringer by his side and a bullet in his heart, though still calm as
in life, beneath the snow lay he who was at once the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts
of Poker Flat.[Pg 148]

THE SIRE DE MALÉTROIT'S DOOR

Denis de Beaulieu was not yet two-and-twenty, but he counted himself a grown man, and a very
accomplished cavalier into the bargain. Lads were early formed in that rough, warfaring epoch;
80
and when one has been in a pitched battle and a dozen raids, has killed one's man in an honorable
fashion, and knows a thing or two of strategy and mankind, a certain swagger in the gait is surely
to be pardoned. He had put up his horse with due care, and supped with due deliberation; and
then, in a very agreeable frame of mind, went out to pay a visit in the gray of the evening. It was
not a very wise proceeding on the young man's part. He would have done better to remain beside
the fire or go decently to bed. For the town was full of the troops of Burgundy and England under
a mixed command; and though Denis was there on safe-conduct, his safe-conduct was like to
serve him little on a chance encounter.

It was September, 1429; the weather had fallen sharp; a flighty piping wind, laden with showers,
beat about the township; and the dead leaves ran riot along the streets. Here and there a window
was already lighted up; and the noise of men-at-arms making merry over supper within came forth
in fits and was swallowed up and carried away by the wind. The night fell swiftly; the flag of
England, fluttering on the spire top, grew ever fainter and fainter against the flying clouds—a
black speck like a swallow in[Pg 149] the tumultuous, leaden chaos of the sky. As the night fell
the wind rose, and began to hoot under archways and roar amid the tree-tops in the valley below
the town.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Denis de Beaulieu walked fast and was soon knocking at his friend's door; but though he
promised himself to stay only a little while and make an early return, his welcome was so
pleasant, and he found so much to delay him, that it was already long past midnight before he said
good-by upon the threshold. The wind had fallen again in the meanwhile; the night was as black
as the grave; not a star, nor a glimmer of moonshine, slipped through the canopy of cloud. Denis
was ill-acquainted with the intricate lanes of Chateau Landon; even by daylight he had found
some trouble in picking his way; and in this absolute darkness he soon lost it altogether. He was
certain of one thing only—to keep mounting the hill; for his friend's house lay at the lower end, or
tail, of Chateau Landon, while the inn was up at the head, under the great church spire. With this
clew to go upon he stumbled and groped forward, now breathing more freely in the open places
where there was a good slice of sky overhead, now feeling along the wall in stifling closes. It is an
eerie and mysterious position to be thus submerged in opaque blackness in an almost unknown
town. The silence is terrifying in its possibilities. The touch of cold window bars to the exploring
hand startles the man like the touch of a toad; the inequalities of the pavement shake his heart into
his mouth; a piece of denser darkness threatens an ambuscade or a chasm in the pathway; and
where the air is brighter, the houses put on strange and bewildering appearances, as if to lead him
further from his way. For Denis, who had to regain his inn without attracting notice, there was
real danger as well as mere discomfort in the walk; and he[Pg 150] went warily and boldly at
once, and at every corner paused to make an observation.

He had been for some time threading a lane so narrow that he could touch a wall with either hand,
when it began to open out and go sharply downward. Plainly this lay no longer in the direction of
his inn; but the hope of a little more light tempted him forward to reconnoitre. The lane ended in a
terrace with a bartizan wall, which gave an outlook between high houses, as out of an embrasure,
into the valley lying dark and formless several hundred feet below. Denis looked down, and could
discern a few tree-tops waving and a single speck of brightness where the river ran across a weir.
The weather was clearing up, and the sky had lightened, so as to show the outline of the heavier
clouds and the dark margin of the hills. By the uncertain glimmer, the house on his left hand
should be a place of some pretensions; it was surmounted by several pinnacles and turret-tops; the
round stern of a chapel, with a fringe of flying buttresses, projected boldly from the main block;

81
and the door was sheltered under a deep porch carved with figures and overhung by two long
gargoyles. The windows of the chapel gleamed through their intricate tracery with a light as of
many tapers, and threw out the buttresses and the peaked roof in a more intense blackness against
the sky. It was plainly the hotel of some great family of the neighborhood; and as it reminded
Denis of a town house of his own at Bourges, he stood for some time gazing up at it and mentally
gauging the skill of the architects and the consideration of the two families.

There seemed to be no issue to the terrace but the lane by which he had reached it; he could only
retrace his steps, but he had gained some notion of his whereabouts, and hoped by this means to
hit the main thoroughfare and[Pg 151] speedily regain the inn. He was reckoning without that
chapter of accidents which was to make this night memorable above all others in his career; for he
had not gone back above a hundred yards before he saw a light coming to meet him, and heard
loud voices speaking together in the echoing narrows of the lane. It was a party of men-at-arms
going the night round with torches. Denis assured himself that they had all been making free with
the wine bowl, and were in no mood to be particular about safe-conducts or the niceties of
chivalrous war. It was as like as not that they would kill him like a dog and leave him where he
fell. The situation was inspiriting but nervous. Their own torches would conceal him from sight,
he reflected; and he hoped that they would drown the noise of his footsteps with their own empty
voices. It he were but fleet and silent, he might evade their notice altogether.

Unfortunately, as he turned to beat a retreat, his foot rolled upon a pebble; he fell against the wall
with an ejaculation, and his sword rang loudly on the stones. Two or three voices demanded who
went there—some in French, some in English; but Denis made no reply, and ran the faster down
the lane. Once upon the terrace, he paused to look back. They still kept calling after him, and just
then began to double the pace in pursuit, with a considerable clank of armor, and great tossing of
the torchlight to and fro in the narrow jaws of the passage.

Denis cast a look around and darted into the porch. There he might escape observation, or—if that
were too much to expect—was in a capital posture whether for parley or defence. So thinking, he
drew his sword and tried to set his back against the door. To his surprise it yielded behind his
weight; and though he turned in a moment, continued to swing back on oiled and noiseless hinges
until[Pg 152] it stood wide open on a black interior. When things fall out opportunely for the
person concerned, he is not apt to be critical about the how or why, his own immediate personal
convenience seeming a sufficient reason for the strangest oddities and revolutions in our
sublunary things; and so Denis, without a moment's hesitation, stepped within and partly closed
the door behind him to conceal his place of refuge. Nothing was further from his thoughts than to
close it altogether; but for some inexplicable reason—perhaps by a spring or a weight—the
ponderous mass of oak whipped itself out of his fingers and clanked to, with a formidable rumble
and a noise like the falling of an automatic bar.

The round, at that very moment, debouched upon the terrace and proceeded to summon him with
shouts and curses. He heard them ferreting in the dark corners; the stock of a lance even rattled
along the outer surface of the door behind which he stood; but these gentlemen were in too high a
humor to be long delayed, and soon made off down a corkscrew pathway which had escaped
Denis' observation, and passed out of sight and hearing along the battlements of the town.

Denis breathed again. He gave them a few minutes grace for fear of accidents, and then groped
about for some means of opening the door and slipping forth again. The inner surface was quite
smooth, not a handle, not a moulding, not a projection of any sort. He got his finger nails round
the edges and pulled, but the mass was immovable. He shook it, it was as firm as a rock. Denis de
Beaulieu frowned and gave vent to a little noiseless whistle. What ailed the door? he wondered.
Why was it open? How came it to shut so easily and so effectually after him? There was

82
something obscure and underhand about all[Pg 153] this, that was little to the young man's fancy.
It looked like a snare, and yet who could suppose a snare in such a quiet by-street and in a house
of so prosperous and even noble an exterior? And yet—snare or no snare, intentionally or
unintentionally—here he was, prettily trapped; and for the life of him he could see no way out of
it again. The darkness began to weigh upon him. He gave ear; all was silent without, but within
and close by he seemed to catch a faint sighing, a faint sobbing rustle, a little stealthy creak—as
though many persons were at his side, holding themselves quite still, and governing even their
respiration with the extreme of slyness. The idea went to his vitals with a shock, and he faced
about suddenly as if to defend his life. Then, for the first time, he became aware of a light about
the level of his eyes and at some distance in the interior of the house—a vertical thread of light,
widening toward the bottom, such as might escape between two wings of arras over a doorway.

To see anything was a relief to Denis; it was like a piece of solid ground to a man laboring in a
morass; his mind seized upon it with avidity; and he stood staring at it and trying to piece together
some logical conception of his surroundings. Plainly there was a flight of steps ascending from his
own level to that of this illuminated doorway, and indeed he thought he could make out another
thread of light, as fine as a needle and as faint as phosphorescence, which might very well be
reflected along the polished wood of a handrail. Since he had begun to suspect that he was not
alone, his heart had continued to beat with smothering violence, and an intolerable desire for
action of any sort had possessed itself of his spirit. He was in deadly peril, he believed. What
could be more natural than to mount the staircase, lift the curtain, and confront his difficulty at[Pg
154] once? At least he would be dealing with something tangible; at least he would be no longer
in the dark. He stepped slowly forward with outstretched hands, until his foot struck the bottom
step; then he rapidly scaled the stairs, stood for a moment to compose his expression, lifted the
arras and went in.

He found himself in a large apartment of polished stone. There were three doors, one on each of
three sides, all similarly curtained with tapestry. The fourth side was occupied by two large
windows and a great stone chimneypiece, carved with the arms of the Malétroits. Denis
recognized the bearings, and was gratified to find himself in such good hands. The room was
strongly illuminated; but it contained little furniture except a heavy table and a chair or two; the
hearth was innocent of fire, and the pavement was but sparsely strewn with rushes clearly many
days old.

On a high chair beside the chimney, and directly facing Denis as he entered, sat a little old
gentleman in a fur tippet. He sat with his legs crossed and his hands folded, and a cup of spiced
wine stood by his elbow on a bracket on the wall. His countenance had a strong masculine cast;
not properly human, but such as we see in the bull, the goat, or the domestic boar; something
equivocal and wheedling, something greedy, brutal and dangerous. The upper lip was inordinately
full, as though swollen by a blow or a toothache; and the smile, the peaked eyebrows, and the
small, strong eyes were quaintly and almost comically evil in expression. Beautiful white hair
hung straight all round his head, like a saint's and fell in a single curl upon the tippet. His beard
and mustache were the pink of venerable sweetness. Age, probably in consequence of inordinate
precautions, had left no mark upon his hands; and[Pg 155] the Malétroit hand was famous. It
would be difficult to imagine anything at once so fleshy and so delicate in design; the taper,
sensual fingers were like those of one of Leonardo's women; the fork of the thumb made a
dimpled protuberance when closed; the nails were perfectly shaped, and of a dead, surprising
whiteness. It rendered his aspect tenfold more redoubtable, that a man with hands like these
should keep them devoutly folded like a virgin martyr—that a man with so intent and startling an
expression of face should sit patiently on his seat and contemplate people with an unwinking
stare, like a god, or a god's statue. His quiescence seemed ironical and treacherous, it fitted so
poorly with his looks.

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Such was Alain, Sire de Malétroit.

Denis and he looked silently at each other for a second or two.

"Pray step in," said the Sire de Malétroit. "I have been expecting you all the evening."

He had not risen, but he accompanied his words with a smile and a slight but courteous inclination
of the head. Partly from the smile, partly from the strange musical murmur with which the sire
prefaced his observation, Denis felt a strong shudder of disgust go through his marrow. And what
with disgust and honest confusion of mind, he could scarcely get words together in reply.

"I fear," he said, "that this is a double accident. I am not the person you suppose me. It seems you
were looking for a visit; but for my part, nothing was further from my thoughts—nothing could be
more contrary to my wishes—than this intrusion."

"Well, well," replied the old gentleman indulgently, "here you are, which is the main point. Seat
yourself,[Pg 156] my friend, and put yourself entirely at your ease. We shall arrange our little
affairs presently."

Denis perceived that the matter was still complicated with some misconception, and he hastened
to continue his explanation.

"Your door," he began.

"About my door?" asked the other raising his peaked eyebrows. "A little piece of ingenuity." And
he shrugged his shoulders. "A hospitable fancy! By your own account, you were not desirous of
making my acquaintance. We old people look for such reluctance now and then; when it touches
our honor, we cast about until we find some way of overcoming it. You arrive uninvited, but
believe me, very welcome."

"You persist in error, sir," said Denis. "There can be no question between you and me. I am a
stranger in this countryside. My name is Denis, damoiseau de Beaulieu. If you see me in your
house it is only—"

"My young friend," interrupted the other, "you will permit me to have my own ideas on that
subject. They probably differ from yours at the present moment," he added with a leer, "but time
will show which of us is in the right."

Denis was convinced he had to do with a lunatic. He seated himself with a shrug, content to wait
the upshot; and a pause ensued, during which he thought he could distinguish a hurried gabbling
as of a prayer from behind the arras immediately opposite him. Sometimes there seemed to be but
one person engaged, sometimes two; and the vehemence of the voice, low as it was, seemed to
indicate either great haste or an agony of spirit. It occurred to him that this piece of tapestry
covered the entrance to the chapel he had noticed from without.[Pg 157]

The old gentleman meanwhile surveyed Denis from head to foot with a smile, and from time to
time emitted little noises like a bird or a mouse, which seemed to indicate a high degree of
satisfaction. This state of matters became rapidly insupportable; and Denis, to put an end to it,
remarked politely that the wind had gone down.

The old gentleman fell into a fit of silent laughter, so prolonged and violent that he became quite
red in the face. Denis got upon his feet at once, and put on his hat with a flourish.

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"Sir," he said, "if you are in your wits, you have affronted me grossly. If you are out of them, I
flatter myself I can find better employment for my brains than to talk with lunatics. My
conscience is clear; you have made a fool of me from the first moment; you have refused to hear
my explanations; and now there is no power under God will make me stay here any longer; and if
I cannot make my way out in a more decent fashion, I will hack your door in pieces with my
sword."

The Sire de Malétroit raised his right hand and wagged it at Denis with the fore and little fingers
extended.

"My dear nephew," he said, "sit down."

"Nephew!" retorted Denis, "you lie in your throat;" and he snapped his fingers in his face.

"Sit down, you rogue!" cried the old gentleman, in a sudden, harsh voice like the barking of a dog.
"Do you fancy," he went on, "that when I had made my little contrivance for the door I had
stopped short with that? If you prefer to be bound hand and foot till your bones ache, rise and try
to go away. If you choose to remain a free young buck, agreeably conversing with an old
gentleman—why, sit where you are in peace, and God be with you."[Pg 158]

"Do you mean I am a prisoner?" demanded Denis.

"I state the facts," replied the other. "I would rather leave the conclusion to yourself."

Denis sat down again. Externally he managed to keep pretty calm, but within, he was now boiling
with anger, now chilled with apprehension. He no longer felt convinced that he was dealing with a
madman. And if the old gentleman was sane, what, in God's name, had he to look for? What
absurd or tragical adventure had befallen him? What countenance was he to assume?

While he was thus unpleasantly reflecting, the arras that overhung the chapel door was raised, and
a tall priest in his robes came forth, and, giving a long, keen stare at Denis, said something in an
undertone to Sire de Malétroit.

"She is in a better frame of spirit?" asked the latter.

"She is more resigned, messire," replied the priest.

"Now the Lord help her, she is hard to please!" sneered the old gentleman. "A likely stripling—
not ill-born—and of her own choosing, too? Why, what more would the jade have?"

"The situation is not usual for a young damsel," said the other, "and somewhat trying to her
blushes."

"She should have thought of that before she began the dance! It was none of my choosing, God
knows that; but since she is in it, by our Lady, she shall carry it to the end." And then addressing
Denis, "Monsieur de Beaulieu," he asked, "may I present you to my niece? She has been waiting
your arrival, I may say, with even greater impatience than myself."

Denis had resigned himself with a good grace—all he desired was to know the worst of it as
speedily as possible; so he rose at once, and bowed in acquiescence. The Sire de Malétroit
followed his example and limped, with the[Pg 159] assistance of the chaplain's arm, toward the
chapel door. The priest pulled aside the arras, and all three entered. The building had considerable
85
architectural pretensions. A light groining sprung from six stout columns, and hung down in two
rich pendants from the centre of the vault. The place terminated behind the altar in a round end,
embossed and honeycombed with a superfluity of ornament in relief, and pierced by many little
windows shaped like stars, trefoils, or wheels. These windows were imperfectly glazed, so that
the night air circulated freely in the chapel. The tapers, of which there must have been half a
hundred burning on the altar, were unmercifully blown about; and the light went through many
different phases of brilliancy and semi-eclipse. On the steps in front of the altar knelt a young girl
richly attired as a bride. A chill settled over Denis as he observed her costume; he fought with
desperate energy against the conclusion that was being thrust upon his mind; it could not—it
should not—be as he feared.

"Blanche," said the sire, in his most flute-like tones, "I have brought a friend to see you, my little
girl; turn round and give him your pretty hand. It is good to be devout; but it is necessary to be
polite, my niece."

The girl rose to her feet and turned toward the newcomers. She moved all of a piece; and shame
and exhaustion were expressed in every line of her fresh young body; and she held her head down
and kept her eyes upon the pavement, as she came slowly forward. In the course of her advance
her eyes fell upon Denis de Beaulieu's feet—feet of which he was justly vain, be it remarked, and
wore in the most elegant accoutrement even while travelling. She paused—started, as if his
yellow boots had conveyed some shocking meaning—and glanced suddenly up into[Pg 160] the
wearer's countenance. Their eyes met: shame gave place to horror and terror in her looks; the
blood left her lips, with a piercing scream she covered her face with her hands and sank upon the
chapel floor.

"That is not the man!" she cried. "My uncle, that is not the man!"

The Sire de Malétroit chirped agreeably. "Of course not," he said; "I expected as much. It was so
unfortunate you could not remember his name."

"Indeed," she cried, "indeed, I have never seen this person till this moment—I have never so much
as set eyes upon him—I never wish to see him again. Sir," she said, turning to Denis, "if you are a
gentleman, you will bear me out. Have I ever seen you—have you ever seen me—before this
accursed hour?"

"To speak for myself, I have never had that pleasure," answered the young man. "This is the first
time, messire, that I have met with your engaging niece."

The old gentleman shrugged his shoulders.

"I am distressed to hear it," he said. "But it is never too late to begin. I had little more
acquaintance with my own late lady ere I married her; which proves," he added, with a grimace,
"that these impromptu marriages may often produce an excellent understanding in the long run.
As the bridegroom is to have a voice in the matter, I will give him two hours to make up for lost
time before we proceed with the ceremony." And he turned toward the door, followed by the
clergyman.

The girl was on her feet in a moment. "My uncle, you cannot be in earnest," she said. "I declare
before God I will stab myself rather than be forced on that young man. The heart rises at it; God
forbids such marriages; you dishonor your white hair. Oh, my uncle, pity me! There[Pg 161] is
not a woman in all the world but would prefer death to such a nuptial. Is it possible," she added,

86
faltering—"is it possible that you do not believe me—that you still think this" and she pointed at
Denis with a tremor of anger and contempt—"that you still think this to be the man?"

"Frankly," said the old gentleman, pausing on the threshold, "I do. But let me explain to you once
for all, Blanche de Malétroit, my way of thinking about this affair. When you took it into your
head to dishonor my family and the name that I have borne, in peace and war, for more than
threescore years, you forfeited, not only the right to question my designs, but that of looking me
in the face. If your father had been alive, he would have spat on you and turned you out of doors.
His was the hand of iron. You may bless your God you have only to deal with the hand of velvet,
mademoiselle. It was my duty to get you married without delay. Out of pure goodwill, I have tried
to find your own gallant for you. And I believe I have succeeded. But before God and all the holy
angels, Blanche de Malétroit, if I have not, I care not one jackstraw. So let me recommend you to
be polite to our young friend; for, upon my word, your next groom may be less appetizing."

And with that he went out, with the chaplain at his heels; and the arras fell behind the pair.

The girl turned upon Denis with flashing eyes.

"And what, sir," she demanded, "may be the meaning of all this?"

"God knows," returned Denis, gloomily. "I am a prisoner in this house, which seems full of mad
people. More I know not; and nothing do I understand."

"And pray how came you here?" she asked.

He told her as briefly as he could. "For the rest," he[Pg 162] added, "perhaps you will follow my
example, and tell me the answer to all these riddles, and what, in God's name, is like to be the end
of it."

She stood silent for a little, and he could see her lips tremble and her tearless eyes burn with a
feverish lustre. Then she pressed her forehead in both hands.

"Alas, how my head aches!" she said, wearily—"to say nothing of my poor heart! But it is due to
you to know my story, unmaidenly as it must seem. I am called Blanche de Malétroit; I have been
without father or mother for—oh! for as long as I can recollect, and indeed I have been most
unhappy all my life. Three months ago a young captain began to stand near me every day in
church. I could see that I pleased him; I am much to blame, but I was so glad that any one should
love me; and when he passed me a letter, I took it home with me and read it with great pleasure.
Since that time he has written many. He was so anxious to speak with me, poor fellow! and kept
asking me to leave the door open some evening that we might have two words upon the stair. For
he knew how much my uncle trusted me." She gave something like a sob at that, and it was a
moment before she could go on. "My uncle is a hard man, but he is very shrewd," she said, at last.
"He has performed many feats in war, and was a great person at court, and much trusted by Queen
Isabeau in old days. How he came to suspect me I cannot tell; but it is hard to keep anything from
his knowledge; and this morning, as we came from mass, he took my hand into his, forced it open,
and read my little billet, walking by my side all the while.

"When he finished, he gave it back to me with great politeness. It contained another request to
have the door left open; and this has been the ruin of us all. My uncle[Pg 163] kept me strictly in
my room until evening, and then ordered me to dress myself as you see me—a hard mockery for a
young girl, do you not think so? I suppose, when he could not prevail with me to tell him the
young captain's name, he must have laid a trap for him; into which, alas! you have fallen in the

87
anger of God. I looked for much confusion; for how could I tell whether he was willing to take me
for his wife on these sharp terms? He might have been trifling with me from the first; or I might
have made myself too cheap in his eyes. But truly I had not looked for such a shameful
punishment as this! I could not think that God would let a girl be so disgraced before a young
man. And now I tell you all; and I can scarcely hope that you will not despise me."

Denis made her a respectful inclination.

"Madam," he said, "you have honored me by your confidence. It remains for me to prove that I
am not unworthy of the honor. Is Messire de Malétroit at hand?"

"I believe he is writing in the salle without," she answered.

"May I lead you thither, madam?" asked Denis, offering his hand with his most courtly bearing.

She accepted it; and the pair passed out of the chapel, Blanche in a very drooping and shamefast
condition, but Denis strutting and ruffling in the consciousness of a mission, and the boyish
certainty of accomplishing it with honor.

The Sire Malétroit rose to meet them with an ironical obeisance.

"Sir," said Denis, with the grandest possible air, "I believe I am to have some say in the matter of
this marriage; and let me tell you at once, I will be no party to forcing the inclination of this young
lady. Had it been[Pg 164] freely offered to me, I should have been proud to accept her hand, for I
perceive she is as good as she is beautiful; but as things are, I have now the honor, messire, of
refusing."

Blanche looked at him with gratitude in her eyes; but the old gentleman only smiled and smiled,
until his smile grew positively sickening to Denis.

"I am afraid," he said, "Monsieur de Beaulieu, that you do not perfectly understand the choice I
have offered you. Follow me, I beseech you, to this window." And he led the way to one of the
large windows which stood open on the night. "You observe," he went on, "there is an iron ring in
the upper masonry, and reeved through that, a very efficacious rope. Now, mark my words: if you
should find your disinclination to my niece's person insurmountable, I shall have you hanged out
of this window before sunrise. I shall only proceed to such an extremity with the greatest regret,
you may believe me. For it is not at all your death that I desire, but my niece's establishment in
life. At the same time, it must come to that if you prove obstinate. Your family, Monsieur de
Beaulieu, is very well in its way; but if you sprung from Charlemagne, you should not refuse the
hand of a Malétroit with impunity—not if she had been as common as the Paris road—not if she
was as hideous as the gargoyle over my door. Neither my niece nor you, nor my own private
feelings, move me at all in this matter. The honor of my house has been compromised; I believe
you to be the guilty person, at least you are now in the secret; and you can hardly wonder if I
request you to wipe out the stain. If you will not, your blood be on your own head! It will be no
great satisfaction to me to have your interesting relics kicking their heels in the breeze below my
windows, but half a loaf is[Pg 165] better than no bread, and if I cannot cure the dishonor, I shall
at least stop the scandal."

There was a pause.

"I believe there are other ways of settling such imbroglios among gentlemen," said Denis. "You
wear a sword, and I hear you have used it with distinction."

88
The Sire de Malétroit made a signal to the chaplain, who crossed the room with long silent strides
and raised the arras over the third of the three doors. It was only a moment before he let it fall
again; but Denis had time to see a dusky passage full of armed men.

"When I was a little younger, I should have been delighted to honor you, Monsieur de Beaulieu,"
said Sire Alain; "but now I am too old. Faithful retainers are the sinews of age, and I must employ
the strength I have. This is one of the hardest things to swallow as a man grows up in years; but
with a little patience, even this becomes habitual. You and the lady seem to prefer the salle for
what remains of your two hours; and as I have no desire to cross your preference, I shall resign it
to your use with all the pleasure in the world. No haste!" he added, holding up his hand, as he saw
a dangerous look come into Denis de Beaulieu's face. "If your mind revolt against hanging, it will
be time enough two hours hence to throw yourself out of the window or upon the pikes of my
retainers. Two hours of life are always two hours. A great many things may turn up in even as
little a while as that. And, besides, if I understand her appearance, my niece has something to say
to you. You will not disfigure your last hours by want of politeness to a lady?"

Denis looked at Blanche, and she made him an imploring gesture.

It is likely that the old gentleman was hugely pleased[Pg 166] at this symptom of an
understanding; for he smiled on both, and added sweetly: "If you will give me your word of
honor, Monsieur de Beaulieu, to await my return at the end of the two hours before attempting
anything desperate, I shall withdraw my retainers, and let you speak in greater privacy with
mademoiselle."

Denis again glanced at the girl, who seemed to beseech him to agree.

"I give you my word of honor," he said.

Messire de Malétroit bowed, and proceeded to limp about the apartment, clearing his throat the
while with that odd musical chirp which had already grown so irritating in the ears of Denis de
Beaulieu. He first possessed himself of some papers which lay upon the table; then he went to the
mouth of the passage and appeared to give an order to the men behind the arras; and lastly he
hobbled out through the door by which Denis had come in, turning upon the threshold to address a
last smiling bow to the young couple, and followed by the chaplain with a hand lamp.

No sooner were they alone than Blanche advanced toward Denis with her hands extended. Her
face was flushed and excited, and her eyes shone with tears.

"You shall not die!" she cried, "you shall marry me after all."

"You seem to think, madam," replied Denis, "that I stand much in fear of death."

"Oh, no, no," she said, "I see you are no poltroon. It is for my own sake—I could not bear to have
you slain for such a scruple."

"I am afraid," returned Denis, "that you underrate the difficulty, madam. What you may be too
generous to refuse, I may be too proud to accept. In a moment of noble feeling toward me, you
forget what you perhaps owe to others."[Pg 167] He had the decency to keep his eyes on the floor
as he said this, and after he had finished, so as not to spy upon her confusion. She stood silent for
a moment, then walked suddenly away, and falling on her uncle's chair, fairly burst out sobbing.
Denis was in the acme of embarrassment. He looked round, as if to seek for inspiration, and,
seeing a stool, plumped down upon it for something to do. There he sat, playing with the guard of

89
his rapier, and wishing himself dead a thousand times over, and buried in the nastiest kitchen-heap
in France. His eyes wandered round the apartment, but found nothing to arrest them. There were
such wide spaces between the furniture, the light fell so badly and cheerlessly over all, the dark
outside air looked in so coldly through the windows, that he thought he had never seen a church
so vast, nor a tomb so melancholy. The regular sobs of Blanche de Malétroit measured out the
time like the ticking of a clock. He read the device upon the shield over and over again, until his
eyes became obscured; he stared into shadowy corners until he imagined they were swarming
with horrible animals; and every now and again he awoke with a start, to remember that his last
two hours were running, and death was on the march.

Oftener and oftener, as the time went on, did his glance settle on the girl herself. Her face was
bowed forward and covered with her hands, and she was shaken at intervals by the convulsive
hiccough of grief. Even thus she was not an unpleasant object to dwell upon, so plump and yet so
fine, with a warm brown skin, and the most beautiful hair, Denis thought, in the whole world of
womankind. Her hands were like her uncle's: but they were more in place at the end of her young
arms, and looked infinitely soft and caressing. He remembered how her blue eyes had shone upon
him, full of anger, pity, and innocence.[Pg 168] And the more he dwelt on her perfections, the
uglier death looked, and the more deeply was he smitten with penitence at her continued tears.
Now he felt that no man could have the courage to leave a world which contained so beautiful a
creature; and now he would have given forty minutes of his last hour to have unsaid his cruel
speech.

Suddenly a hoarse and ragged peal of cockcrow rose to their ears from the dark valley below the
windows. And this shattering noise in the silence of all around was like a light in a dark place, and
shook them both out of their reflections.

"Alas, can I do nothing to help you?" she said, looking up.

"Madam," replied Denis, with a fine irrelevancy, "if I have said anything to wound you, believe
me, it was for your own sake and not for mine."

She thanked him with a tearful look.

"I feel your position cruelly," he went on. "The world has been bitter hard on you. Your uncle is a
disgrace to mankind. Believe me, madam, there is no young gentleman in all France but would be
glad of my opportunity, to die in doing you a momentary service."

"I know already that you can be very brave and generous," she answered. "What I want to know is
whether I can serve you—now or afterward," she added, with a quaver.

"Most certainly," he answered, with a smile. "Let me sit beside you as if I were a friend, instead of
a foolish intruder; try to forget how awkwardly we are placed to one another; make my last
moments go pleasantly; and you will do me the chief service possible."

"You are very gallant," she added, with a yet deeper sadness—"very gallant—and it somehow
pains me. But[Pg 169] draw nearer, if you please; and if you find anything to say to me, you will
at least make certain of a very friendly listener. Ah! Monsieur de Beaulieu," she broke forth—"ah!
Monsieur de Beaulieu, how can I look you in the face?" And she fell to weeping again with a
renewed effusion.

90
"Madam," said Denis, taking her hand in both of his, "reflect on the little time I have before me,
and the great bitterness into which I am cast by the sight of your distress. Spare me, in my last
moments, the spectacle of what I cannot cure even with the sacrifice of my life."

"I am very selfish," answered Blanche. "I will be braver, Monsieur de Beaulieu, for your sake. But
think if I can do you no kindness in the future—if you have no friends to whom I could carry your
adieux. Charge me as heavily as you can; every burden will lighten, by so little, the invaluable
gratitude I owe you. Put it in my power to do something more for you than weep."

"My mother is married again, and has a young family to care for. My brother Guichard will
inherit my fiefs; and if I am not in error, that will content him amply for my death. Life is a little
vapor that passeth away, as we are told by those in holy orders. When a man is in a fair way and
sees all life open in front of him, he seems to himself to make a very important figure in the
world. His horse whinnies to him; the trumpets blow and the girls look out of window as he rides
into town before his company; he receives many assurances of trust and regard—sometimes by
express in a letter—sometimes face to face, with persons of great consequence falling on his neck.
It is not wonderful if his head is turned for a time. But once he is dead, were he as brave as
Hercules or as wise as Sol[Pg 170]omon, he is soon forgotten. It is not ten years since my father
fell, with many other knights around him, in a very fierce encounter, and I do not think that any
one of them, nor so much as the name of the fight, is now remembered. No, no, madam, the nearer
you come to it, you see that death is a dark and dusty corner, where a man gets into his tomb and
has the door shut after him till the judgment day. I have few friends just now, and once I am dead
I shall have none."

"Ah, Monsieur de Beaulieu!" she exclaimed, "you forget Blanche de Malétroit."

"You have a sweet nature, madam, and you are pleased to estimate a little service far beyond its
worth."

"It is not that," she answered. "You mistake me if you think I am easily touched by my own
concerns. I say so because you are the noblest man I have ever met; because I recognize in you a
spirit that would have made even a common person famous in the land."

"And yet here I die in a mousetrap—with no more noise about it than my own squeaking,"
answered he.

A look of pain crossed her face and she was silent for a little while. Then a light came into her
eyes, and with a smile she spoke again.

"I cannot have my champion think meanly of himself. Anyone who gives his life for another will
be met in Paradise by all the heralds and angels of the Lord God. And you have no such cause to
hang your head. For—Pray, do you think me beautiful?" she asked, with a deep flush.

"Indeed, madam, I do," he said.

"I am glad of that," she answered heartily. "Do you think there are many men in France who have
been asked in marriage by a beautiful maiden—with her own lips[Pg 171]—and who have refused
her to her face? I know you men would half despise such a triumph; but believe me, we women
know more of what is precious in love. There is nothing that should set a person higher in his own
esteem; and we women would prize nothing more dearly."

91
"You are very good," he said; "but you cannot make me forget that I was asked in pity and not for
love."

"I am not so sure of that," she replied, holding down her head. "Hear me to an end, Monsieur de
Beaulieu. I know how you must despise me; I feel you are right to do so; I am too poor a creature
to occupy one thought of your mind, although, alas! you must die for me this morning. But when I
asked you to marry me, indeed, and indeed, it was because I respected and admired you, and
loved you with my whole soul, from the very moment that you took my part against my uncle. If
you had seen yourself, and how noble you looked, you would pity rather than despise me. And
now," she went on, hurriedly checking him with her hand, "although I have laid aside all reserve
and told you so much, remember that I know your sentiments toward me already. I would not,
believe me, being nobly born, weary you with importunities into consent. I too have a pride of my
own: and I declare before the holy mother of God, if you should now go back from your word
already given, I would no more marry you than I would marry my uncle's groom."

Denis smiled a little bitterly.

"It is a small love," he said, "that shies at a little pride."

She made no answer, although she probably had her own thoughts.

"Come hither to the window," he said with a sigh. "Here is the dawn."[Pg 172]

And indeed the dawn was already beginning. The hollow of the sky was full of essential daylight,
colorless and clean; and the valley underneath was flooded with a gray reflection. A few thin
vapors clung in the coves of the forest or lay along the winding course of the river. The scene
disengaged a surprising effect of stillness, which was hardly interrupted when the cocks began
once more to crow among the steadings. Perhaps the same fellow who had made so horrid a
clangor in the darkness not half an hour before, now sent up the merriest cheer to greet the coming
day. A little wind went bustling and eddying among the tree-tops underneath the windows. And
still the daylight kept flooding insensibly out of the east, which was soon to grow incandescent
and cast up that red-hot cannon-ball, the rising sun.

Denis looked out over all this with a bit of a shiver. He had taken her hand, and retained it in his
almost unconsciously.

"Has the day begun already?" she said; and then illogically enough: "the night has been so long!
Alas! what shall we say to my uncle when he returns?"

"What you will," said Denis, and he pressed her fingers in his.

She was silent.

"Blanche," he said, with a swift, uncertain, passionate utterance, "you have seen whether I fear
death. You must know well enough that I would as gladly leap out of that window into the empty
air as to lay a finger on you without your free and full consent. But if you care for me at all do not
let me lose my life in a misapprehension; for I love you better than the whole world; and though I
will die for you blithely, it would be like all the joys of Paradise to live on and spend my life in
your service."[Pg 173]

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As he stopped speaking, a bell began to ring loudly in the interior of the house; and a clatter of
armor in the corridor showed that the retainers were returning to their post, and the two hours
were at an end.

"After all that you have heard?" she whispered, leaning toward him with her lips and eyes.

"I have heard nothing," he replied.

"The captain's name was Florimond de Champdivers," she said in his ear.

"I did not hear it," he answered, taking her supple body in his arms, and covering her wet face
with kisses.

A melodious chirping was audible behind, followed by a beautiful chuckle, and the voice of
Messire de Malétroit wished his new nephew a good morning.[Pg 174]

MARKHEIM
"Yes," said the dealer, "our windfalls are of various kinds. Some customers are ignorant, and then
I touch a dividend on my superior knowledge. Some are dishonest," and here he held up the
candle, so that the light fell strongly on his visitor, "and in that case," he continued, "I profit by
my virtue."

Markheim had but just entered from the daylight streets, and his eyes had not yet grown familiar
with the mingled shine and darkness in the shop. At these pointed words, and before the near
presence of the flame, he blinked painfully and looked aside.

The dealer chuckled. "You come to me on Christmas Day," he resumed, "when you know that I
am alone in my house, put up my shutters, and make a point of refusing business. Well, you will
have to pay for that; you will have to pay for my loss of time, when I should be balancing my
books; you will have to pay, besides, for a kind of manner that I remark in you to-day very
strongly. I am the essence of discretion, and ask no awkward questions; but when a customer
cannot look me in the eye, he has to pay for it." The dealer once more chuckled; and then,
changing to his usual business voice, though still with a note of irony, "You can give, as usual, a
clear account of how you came into the possession of the object?" he continued. "Still your uncle's
cabinet? A remarkable collector, sir!"[Pg 175]

And the little pale, round-shouldered dealer stood almost on tiptoe, looking over the top of his
gold spectacles, and nodding his head with every mark of disbelief. Markheim returned his gaze
with one of infinite pity, and a touch of horror.

"This time," said he, "you are in error. I have not come to sell, but to buy. I have no curios to
dispose of; my uncle's cabinet is bare to the wainscot; even were it still intact, I have done well on
the Stock Exchange, and should more likely add to it than otherwise, and my errand to-day is
simplicity itself. I seek a Christmas present for a lady," he continued, waxing more fluent as he
struck into the speech he had prepared; "and certainly I owe you every excuse for thus disturbing
you upon so small a matter. But the thing was neglected yesterday; I must produce my little
compliment at dinner; and, as you very well know, a rich marriage is not a thing to be neglected."

93
There followed a pause, during which the dealer seemed to weigh this statement incredulously.
The ticking of many clocks among the curious lumber of the shop, and the faint rushing of the
cabs in a near thoroughfare, filled up the interval of silence.

"Well, sir," said the dealer, "be it so. You are an old customer after all; and if, as you say, you
have the chance of a good marriage, far be it from me to be an obstacle. Here is a nice thing for a
lady, now," he went on, "this hand glass—fifteenth century, warranted; comes from a good
collection, too; but I reserve the name, in the interests of my customer, who was just like yourself,
my dear sir, the nephew and sole heir of a remarkable collector."

The dealer, while he thus ran on in his dry and biting voice, had stooped to take the object from its
place; and, as he had done so, a shock had passed through Markheim,[Pg 176] a start both of hand
and foot, a sudden leap of many tumultuous passions to the face. It passed as swiftly as it came,
and left no trace beyond a certain trembling of the hand that now received the glass.

"A glass," he said hoarsely, and then paused, and repeated it more clearly. "A glass? For
Christmas? Surely not."

"And why not?" cried the dealer. "Why not a glass?"

Markheim was looking upon him with an indefinable expression. "You ask me why not?" he said.
"Why, look here—look in it—look at yourself! Do you like to see it? No! nor I—nor any man."

The little man had jumped back when Markheim had so suddenly confronted him with the mirror;
but now, perceiving there was nothing worse on hand, he chuckled. "Your future lady, sir, must
be pretty hard favored," said he.

"I ask you," said Markheim, "for a Christmas present, and you give me this—this damned
reminder of years and sins and follies—this hand-conscience! Did you mean it? Had you a
thought in your mind? Tell me. It will be better for you if you do. Come, tell me about yourself. I
hazard a guess now, that you are in secret a very charitable man?"

The dealer looked closely at his companion. It was very odd, Markheim did not appear to be
laughing; there was something in his face like an eager sparkle of hope, but nothing of mirth.

"What are you driving at?" the dealer asked.

"Not charitable?" returned the other, gloomily. "Not charitable; not pious; not scrupulous;
unloving; unbeloved; a hand to get money, a safe to keep it. Is that all? Dear God, man, is that
all?"[Pg 177]

"I will tell you what it is," began the dealer, with some sharpness, and then broke off again into a
chuckle. "But I see this is a love match of yours, and you have been drinking the lady's health."

"Ah!" cried Markheim, with a strange curiosity. "Ah, have you been in love? Tell me about that."

"I!" cried the dealer. "I in love! I never had the time, nor have I the time to-day for all this
nonsense. Will you take the glass?"

"Where is the hurry?" returned Markheim. "It is very pleasant to stand here talking; and life is so
short and insecure that I would not hurry away from any pleasure—no, not even from so mild a
one as this. We should rather cling, cling to what little we can get, like a man at a cliff's edge.
94
Every second is a cliff, if you think upon it—a cliff a mile high—high enough, if we fall, to dash
us out of every feature of humanity. Hence it is best to talk pleasantly. Let us talk of each other;
why should we wear this mask? Let us be confidential. Who knows, we might become friends?"

"I have just one word to say to you," said the dealer. "Either make your purchase, or walk out of
my shop."

"True, true," said Markheim. "Enough fooling. To business. Show me something else."

The dealer stooped once more, this time to replace the glass upon the shelf, his thin blond hair
falling over his eyes as he did so. Markheim moved a little nearer, with one hand in the pocket of
his greatcoat; he drew himself up and filled his lungs; at the same time many different emotions
were depicted together on his face—terror, horror, and resolve, fascination, and a physical
repulsion; and through a haggard lift of his upper lip, his teeth looked out.[Pg 178]

"This, perhaps, may suit," observed the dealer; and then, as he began to re-arise, Markheim
bounded from behind upon his victim. The long, skewer-like dagger flashed and fell. The dealer
struggled like a hen, striking his temple on the shelf, and then tumbled on the floor in a heap.

Time had some score of small voices in that shop, some stately and slow as was becoming to their
great age, others garrulous and hurried. All these told out the seconds in an intricate chorus of
tickings. Then the passage of a lad's feet, heavily running on the pavement, broke in upon these
smaller voices and startled Markheim into the consciousness of his surroundings. He looked about
him awfully. The candle stood on the counter, its flame solemnly wagging in a draught; and by
that inconsiderable movement, the whole room was filled with noiseless bustle and kept heaving
like a sea: the tall shadows nodding, the gross blots of darkness swelling and dwindling as with
respiration, the faces of the portraits and the china gods changing and wavering like images in
water. The inner door stood ajar, and peered into that leaguer of shadows with a long slit of
daylight like a pointing finger.

From these fear-stricken rovings, Markheim's eyes returned to the body of his victim, where it lay
both humped and sprawling, incredibly small and strangely meaner than in life. In these poor,
miserly clothes, in that ungainly attitude, the dealer lay like so much sawdust. Markheim had
feared to see it, and, lo! it was nothing. And yet, as he gazed, this bundle of old clothes and pool
of blood began to find eloquent voices. There it must lie; there was none to work the cunning
hinges or direct the miracle of locomotion—there it must lie till it was found. Found! aye, and
then? Then would this dead flesh lift up a cry[Pg 179] that would ring over England, and fill the
world with the echoes of pursuit. Ay, dead or not, this was still the enemy. "Time was that when
the brains were out," he thought; and the first word struck into his mind. Time, now that the deed
was accomplished—time, which had closed for the victim, had become instant and momentous
for the slayer.

The thought was yet in his mind, when, first one and then another, with every variety of pace and
voice—one deep as the bell from a cathedral turret, another ringing on its treble notes the prelude
of a waltz—the clocks began to strike the hour of three in the afternoon.

The sudden outbreak of so many tongues in that dumb chamber staggered him. He began to bestir
himself, going to and fro with the candle, beleaguered by moving shadows, and startled to the soul
by chance reflections. In many rich mirrors, some of home designs, some from Venice or
Amsterdam, he saw his face repeated and repeated, as it were an army of spies; his own eyes met
and detected him; and the sound of his own steps, lightly as they fell, vexed the surrounding quiet.
And still as he continued to fill his pockets, his mind accused him, with a sickening iteration, of

95
the thousand faults of his design. He should have chosen a more quiet hour; he should have
prepared an alibi; he should not have used a knife; he should have been more cautious, and only
bound and gagged the dealer, and not killed him; he should have been more bold, and killed the
servant also; he should have done all things otherwise; poignant regrets, weary, incessant toiling
of the mind to change what was unchangeable, to plan what was now useless, to be the architect
of the irrevocable past. Meanwhile, and behind all this activity, brute terrors, like the scurrying of
rats in a deserted[Pg 180] attic, filled the more remote chambers of his brain with riot; the hand of
the constable would fall heavy on his shoulder, and his nerves would jerk like a hooked fish; or he
beheld, in galloping defile, the dock, the prison, the gallows, and the black coffin. Terror of the
people in the street sat down before his mind like a besieging army. It was impossible, he thought,
but that some rumor of the struggle must have reached their ears and set on edge their curiosity;
and now, in all the neighboring houses, he divined them sitting motionless and with uplifted ear—
solitary people, condemned to spend Christmas dwelling alone on memories of the past, and now
startlingly recalled from that tender exercise; happy family parties, struck into silence round the
table, the mother still with raised finger: every degree and age and humor, but all, by their own
hearths, prying and hearkening and weaving the rope that was to hang him. Sometimes it seemed
to him he could not move too softly; the clink of the tall Bohemian goblets rang out loudly like a
bell; and alarmed by the bigness of the ticking, he was tempted to stop the clocks. And then,
again, with a swift transition of his terrors, the very silence of the place appeared a source of peril,
and a thing to strike and freeze the passer-by; and he would step more boldly, and bustle aloud
among the contents of the shop, and imitate, with elaborate bravado, the movements of a busy
man at ease in his own house.

But he was now so pulled about by different alarms that, while one portion of his mind was still
alert and cunning, another trembled on the brink of lunacy. One hallucination in particular took a
strong hold on his credulity. The neighbor hearkening with white face beside his window, the
passer-by arrested by a horrible surmise on the pavement—these could at worst suspect, they
could not know;[Pg 181] through the brick walls and shuttered windows only sounds could
penetrate. But here, within the house, was he alone? He knew he was; he had watched the servant
set forth sweethearting, in her poor best, "out for the day" written in every ribbon and smile. Yes,
he was alone, of course; and yet, in the bulk of empty house about him, he could surely hear a stir
of delicate footing—he was surely conscious, inexplicably conscious, of some presence. Ay,
surely; to every room and corner of the house his imagination followed it; and now it was a
faceless thing, and yet had eyes to see with; and again it was a shadow of himself; and yet again
behold the image of the dead dealer, reinspired with cunning and hatred.

At times, with a strong effort, he would glance at the open door which still seemed to repel his
eyes. The house was tall, the skylight small and dirty, the day blind with fog; and the light that
filtered down to the ground story was exceedingly faint, and showed dimly on the threshold of the
shop. And yet, in that strip of doubtful brightness, did there not hang wavering a shadow?

Suddenly, from the street outside, a very jovial gentleman began to beat with a staff on the shop
door, accompanying his blows with shouts and railleries in which the dealer was continually
called upon by name. Markheim, smitten into ice, glanced at the dead man. But no! he lay quite
still; he was fled away far beyond earshot of these blows and shoutings; he was sunk beneath seas
of silence; and his name, which would once have caught his notice above the howling of a storm,
had become an empty sound. And presently the jovial gentleman desisted from his knocking and
departed.

Here was a broad hint to hurry what remained to be done, to get forth from this accusing
neighborhood, to[Pg 182] plunge into a bath of London multitudes, and to reach, on the other side
of day, that haven of safety and apparent innocence—his bed. One visitor had come: at any

96
moment another might follow and be more obstinate. To have done the deed, and yet not to reap
the profit, would be too abhorrent a failure. The money, that was now Markheim's concern; and as
a means to that, the keys.

He glanced over his shoulder at the open door, where the shadow was still lingering and
shivering; and with no conscious repugnance of the mind, yet with a tremor of the belly, he drew
near the body of his victim. The human character had quite departed. Like a suit half-stuffed with
bran, the limbs lay scattered, the trunk doubled, on the floor; and yet the thing repelled him.
Although so dingy and inconsiderable to the eye, he feared it might have more significance to the
touch. He took the body by the shoulders, and turned it on its back. It was strangely light and
supple, and the limbs, as if they had been broken, fell into the oddest postures. The face was
robbed of all expression; but it was as pale as wax, and shockingly smeared with blood about one
temple. That was, for Markheim, the one displeasing circumstance. It carried him back, upon the
instant, to a certain fair day in a fishers' village: a gray day, a piping wind, a crowd upon the
street, the blare of brasses, the booming of drums, the nasal voice of a ballad singer; and a boy
going to and fro, buried over head in the crowd and divided between interest and fear, until,
coming out upon the chief place of concourse, he beheld a booth and a great screen with pictures,
dismally designed, garishly colored: Brownrigg with her apprentice; the Mannings with their
murdered guest; Weare in the death grip of Thurtell; and a score besides of famous crimes. The
thing was as clear as an illusion;[Pg 183] he was once again that little boy; he was looking once
again, and with the same sense of physical revolt, at these vile pictures; he was still stunned by the
thumping of the drums. A bar of that day's music returned upon his memory; and at that, for the
first time, a qualm came over him, a breath of nausea, a sudden weakness of the joints, which he
must instantly resist and conquer.

He judged it more prudent to confront than to flee from these considerations; looking the more
hardily in the dead face, bending his mind to realize the nature and greatness of his crime. So little
a while ago that face had moved with every change of sentiment, that pale mouth had spoken, that
body had been all on fire with governable energies; and now, and by his act, that piece of life had
been arrested, as the horologist, with interjected finger, arrests the beating of the clock. So he
reasoned in vain; he could rise to no more remorseful consciousness; the same heart which had
shuddered before the painted effigies of crime, looked on its reality unmoved. At best, he felt a
gleam of pity for one who had been endowed in vain with all those faculties that can make the
world a garden of enchantment, one who had never lived and who was now dead. But of
penitence, no, not a tremor.

With that, shaking himself clear of these considerations, he found the keys and advanced toward
the open door of the shop. Outside, it had begun to rain smartly; and the sound of the shower upon
the roof had banished silence. Like some dripping cavern, the chambers of the house were
haunted by an incessant echoing, which filled the ear and mingled with the ticking of the clocks.
And, as Markheim approached the door, he seemed to hear, in answer to his own cautious tread,
the steps of another[Pg 184] foot withdrawing up the stair. The shadow still palpitated loosely on
the threshold. He threw a ton's weight of resolve upon his muscles, and drew back the door.

The faint, foggy daylight glimmered dimly on the bare floor and stairs; on the bright suit of armor
posted, halbert in hand, upon the landing; and on the dark wood carvings and framed pictures that
hung against the yellow panels of the wainscot. So loud was the beating of the rain through all the
house that, in Markheim's ears, it began to be distinguished into many different sounds. Footsteps
and sighs, the tread of regiments marching in the distance, the chink of money in the counting,
and the creaking of doors held stealthily ajar, appeared to mingle with the patter of the drops upon
the cupola and the gushing of the water in the pipes. The sense that he was not alone grew upon
him to the verge of madness. On every side he was haunted and begirt by presences. He heard

97
them moving in the upper chambers; from the shop, he heard the dead man getting to his legs; and
as he began with a great effort to mount the stairs, feet fled quietly before him and followed
stealthily behind. If he were but deaf, he thought, how tranquilly he would possess his soul! And
then again, and hearkening with ever fresh attention, he blessed himself for that unresting sense
which held the outposts and stood a trusty sentinel upon his life. His head turned continually on
his neck; his eyes, which seemed starting from their orbits, scouted on every side, and on every
side were half rewarded as with the tail of something nameless vanishing. The four-and-twenty
steps to the first floor were four-and-twenty agonies.

On that first story the doors stood ajar, three of them like three ambushes, shaking his nerves like
the throats of[Pg 185] cannon. He could never again, he felt, be sufficiently immured and fortified
from men's observing eyes; he longed to be home, girt in by walls, buried among bedclothes, and
invisible to all but God. And at that thought he wondered a little, recollecting tales of other
murderers and the fear they were said to entertain of heavenly avengers. It was not so, at least,
with him. He feared the laws of nature, lest, in their callous and immutable procedure, they should
preserve some damning evidence of his crime. He feared tenfold more, with a slavish,
superstitious terror, some scission in the continuity of man's experience, some wilful illegality of
nature. He played a game of skill, depending on the rules, calculating consequence from cause;
and what if nature, as the defeated tyrant overthrew the chessboard, should break the mould of
their succession? The like had befallen Napoleon (so writers said) when the winter changed the
time of its appearance. The like might befall Markheim: the solid walls might become transparent
and reveal his doings like those of bees in a glass hive; the stout planks might yield under his foot
like quicksands and detain him in their clutch; ay, and there were soberer accidents that might
destroy him: if, for instance, the house should fall and imprison him beside the body of his victim;
or the house next door should fly on fire, and the firemen invade him from all sides. These things
he feared; and, in a sense, these things might be called the hands of God reached forth against sin.
But about God himself he was at ease; his act was doubtless exceptional, but so were his excuses,
which God knew; it was there, and not among men, that he felt sure of justice.

When he got safe into the drawing-room, and shut the door behind him, he was aware of a respite
from alarms.[Pg 186] The room was quite dismantled, uncarpeted besides, and strewn with
packing cases and incongruous furniture; several great pier glasses, in which he beheld himself at
various angles, like an actor on a stage; many pictures, framed and unframed, standing, with their
faces to the wall; a fine Sheraton sideboard, a cabinet of marquetry, and a great old bed, with
tapestry hangings. The windows opened to the floor; but by great good fortune the lower part of
the shutters had been closed, and this concealed him from the neighbors. Here, then, Markheim
drew in a packing case before the cabinet, and began to search among the keys. It was a long
business, for there were many; and it was irksome, besides; for, after all, there might be nothing in
the cabinet, and time was on the wing. But the closeness of the occupation sobered him. With the
tail of his eye he saw the door—even glanced at it from time to time directly, like a besieged
commander pleased to verify the good estate of his defences. But in truth he was at peace. The
rain falling in the street sounded natural and pleasant. Presently, on the other side, the notes of a
piano were wakened to the music of a hymn, and the voices of many children took up the air and
words. How stately, how comfortable was the melody! How fresh the youthful voices! Markheim
gave ear to it smilingly, as he sorted out the keys; and his mind was thronged with answerable
ideas and images; church-going children and the pealing of the high organ; children afield, bathers
by the brookside, ramblers on the brambly common, kite-flyers in the windy and cloud-navigated
sky; and then, at another cadence of the hymn, back again to church, and the somnolence of
summer Sundays, and the high, genteel voice of the parson (which he smiled a little to recall), and
the painted Jaco[Pg 187]bean tombs, and the dim lettering of the Ten Commandments in the
chancel.

98
And as he sat thus, at once busy and absent, he was startled to his feet. A flash of ice, a flash of
fire, a bursting gush of blood, went over him, and then he stood transfixed and thrilling. A step
mounted the stair slowly and steadily, and presently a hand was laid upon the knob, and the lock
clicked, and the door opened. Fear held Markheim in a vice. What to expect he knew not, whether
the dead man walking, or the official ministers of human justice, or some chance witness blindly
stumbling in to consign him to the gallows. But when a face was thrust into the aperture, glanced
round the room, looked at him, nodded and smiled as if in friendly recognition, and then withdrew
again, and the door closed behind it, his fear broke loose from his control in a hoarse cry. At the
sound of this the visitant returned.

"Did you call me?" he asked pleasantly, and with that he entered the room and closed the door
behind him.

Markheim stood and gazed at him with all his eyes. Perhaps there was a film upon his sight, but
the outlines of the newcomer seemed to change and waver like those of the idols in the wavering
candlelight of the shop: and at times he thought he knew him; and at times he thought he bore a
likeness to himself; and always, like a lump of living terror, there lay in his bosom the conviction
that this thing was not of the earth and not of God.

And yet the creature had a strange air of the commonplace, as he stood looking on Markheim with
a smile; and when he added: "You are looking for the money, I believe?" it was in the tones of
everyday politeness.

Markheim made no answer.

"I should warn you," resumed the other, "that the[Pg 188] maid has left her sweetheart earlier than
usual and will soon be here. If Mr. Markheim be found in this house, I need not describe to him
the consequences."

"You know me?" cried the murderer.

The visitor smiled. "You have long been a favorite of mine," he said; "and I have long observed
and often sought to help you."

"What are you?" cried Markheim: "the devil?"

"What I may be," returned the other, "cannot affect the service I propose to render you."

"It can," cried Markheim; "it does! Be helped by you? No, never; not by you! You do not know
me yet; thank God, you do not know me!"

"I know you," replied the visitant, with a sort of kind severity or rather firmness. "I know you to
the soul."

"Know me!" cried Markheim. "Who can do so? My life is but a travesty and slander on myself. I
have lived to belie my nature. All men do; all men are better than this disguise that grows about
and stifles them. You see each dragged away by life, like one whom bravos have seized and
muffled in a cloak. If they had their own control—if you could see their faces, they would be
altogether different, they would shine out for heroes and saints! I am worse than most; myself is
more overlaid; my excuse is known to me and God. But, had I the time, I could disclose myself."

"To me?" inquired the visitant.

99
"To you before all," returned the murderer. "I supposed you were intelligent. I thought—since you
exist—you would prove a reader of the heart. And yet you would propose to judge me by my acts!
Think of it; my acts! I was born and I have lived in a land of giants; giants have dragged me by
the wrists since I was born[Pg 189] out of my mother—the giants of circumstance. And you
would judge me by my acts! But can you not look within? Can you not understand that evil is
hateful to me? Can you not see within me the clear writing of conscience, never blurred by any
wilful sophistry although too often disregarded? Can you not read me for a thing that surely must
be common as humanity—the unwilling sinner?"

"All this is very feelingly expressed," was the reply, "but it regards me not. These points of
consistency are beyond my province, and I care not in the least by what compulsion you may have
been dragged away, so as you are but carried in the right direction. But time flies; the servant
delays, looking in the faces of the crowd and at the pictures on the hoardings, but still she keeps
moving nearer; and remember, it is as if the gallows itself were striding toward you through the
Christmas streets! Shall I help you—I, who know all? Shall I tell you where to find the money?"

"For what price?" asked Markheim.

"I offer you the service for a Christmas gift," returned the other.

Markheim could not refrain from smiling with a kind of bitter triumph. "No," said he, "I will take
nothing at your hands; if I were dying of thirst, and it was your hand that put the pitcher to my
lips, I should find the courage to refuse. It may be credulous, but I will do nothing to commit
myself to evil."

"I have no objection to a death-bed repentance," observed the visitant.

"Because you disbelieve their efficacy!" Markheim cried.

"I do not say so," returned the other; "but I look on these things from a different side, and when
the life is[Pg 190] done my interest falls. The man has lived to serve me, to spread black looks
under color of religion, or to sow tares in the wheat field, as you do, in a course of weak
compliance with desire. Now that he draws so near to his deliverance, he can add but one act of
service—to repent, to die smiling, and thus to build up in confidence and hope the more timorous
of my surviving followers. I am not so hard a master. Try me. Accept my help. Please yourself in
life as you have done hitherto; please yourself more amply, spread your elbows at the board; and
when the night begins to fall and the curtains to be drawn, I tell you, for your greater comfort, that
you will find it even easy to compound your quarrel with your conscience, and to make a
truckling peace with God. I came but now from such a death-bed, and the room was full of sincere
mourners, listening to the man's last words; and when I looked into that face, which had been set
as a flint against mercy, I found it smiling with hope."

"And do you, then, suppose me such a creature?" asked Markheim. "Do you think I have no more
generous aspirations than to sin, and sin, and sin, and, at last, sneak into heaven? My heart rises at
the thought. Is this, then, your experience of mankind? or is it because you find me with red hands
that you presume such baseness? and is this crime of murder indeed so impious as to dry up the
very springs of good?"

"Murder is to me no special category," replied the other. "All sins are murder, even all life is war.
I behold your race, like starving mariners on a raft, plucking crusts out of the hands of famine and
feeding on each other's lives. I follow sins beyond the moment of their acting; I find in all that the
last consequence is death; and to my eyes, the pretty maid who thwarts her mother[Pg 191] with

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such taking graces on a question of a ball, drips no less visibly with human gore than such a
murderer as yourself. Do I say that I follow sins? I follow virtues also; they differ not by the
thickness of a nail, they are both scythes for the reaping angel of Death. Evil, for which I live,
consists not in action but in character. The bad man is dear to me; not the bad act, whose fruits, if
we could follow them far enough down the hurtling cataract of the ages, might yet be found more
blessed than those of the rarest virtues. And it is not because you have killed a dealer, but because
you are Markheim, that I offered to forward your escape."

"I will lay my heart open to you," answered Markheim. "This crime on which you find me is my
last. On my way to it I have learned many lessons; itself is a lesson, a momentous lesson. Hitherto
I have been driven with revolt to what I would not; I was a bondslave to poverty, driven and
scourged. There are robust virtues that can stand in these temptations; mine was not so: I had a
thirst of pleasure. But to-day, and out of this deed, I pluck both warning and riches—both the
power and a fresh resolve to be myself. I become in all things a free actor in the world; I begin to
see myself all changed, these hands the agents of good, this heart at peace. Something comes over
me out of the past; something of what I have dreamed on Sabbath evenings to the sound of the
church organ, of what I forecast when I shed tears over noble books, or talked, an innocent child,
with my mother. There lies my life; I have wandered a few years, but now I see once more my
city of destination."

"You are to use this money on the Stock Exchange, I think?" remarked the visitor; "and there, if I
mistake not, you have already lost some thousands?"[Pg 192]

"Ah," said Markheim, "but this time I have a sure thing."

"This time, again, you will lose," replied the visitor, quietly.

"Ah, but I keep back the half!" cried Markheim.

"That also you will lose," said the other.

The sweat started upon Markheim's brow. "Well, then, what matter?" he exclaimed. "Say it be
lost, say I am plunged again in poverty, shall one part of me, and that the worse, continue until the
end to override the better? Evil and good run strong in me, hailing me both ways. I do not love the
one thing, I love all. I can conceive great deeds, renunciations, martyrdoms; and though I be fallen
to such a crime as murder, pity is no stranger to my thoughts. I pity the poor; who knows their
trials better than myself? I pity and help them; I prize love, I love honest laughter; there is no
good thing nor true thing on earth but I love it from my heart. And are my vices only to direct my
life, and my virtues to lie without effect, like some passive lumber of the mind? Not so; good,
also, is a spring of acts."

But the visitant raised his finger. "For six-and-thirty years that you have been in this world," said
he, "through many changes of fortune and varieties of humor, I have watched you steadily fall.
Fifteen years ago you would have started at a theft. Three years back you would have blenched at
the name of murder. Is there any crime, is there any cruelty or meanness, from which you still
recoil?—five years from now I shall detect you in the fact! Downward, downward lies your way;
nor can anything but death avail to stop you."

"It is true," Markheim said huskily, "I have in some degree complied with evil. But it is so with
all: the very[Pg 193] saints, in the mere exercise of living, grow less dainty, and take on the tone
of their surroundings."

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"I will propound to you one simple question," said the other; "and as you answer, I shall read to
you your moral horoscope. You have grown in many things more lax; possibly you do right to be
so; and at any account, it is the same with all men. But granting that, are you in any one particular,
however trifling, more difficult to please with your own conduct, or do you go in all things with a
looser rein?"

"In any one?" repeated Markheim, with an anguish of consideration. "No," he added, with despair,
"in none! I have gone down in all."

"Then," said the visitor, "content yourself with what you are, for you will never change; and the
words of your part on this stage are irrevocably written down."

Markheim stood for a long while silent, and indeed it was the visitor who first broke the silence.
"That being so," he said, "shall I show you the money?"

"And grace?" cried Markheim.

"Have you not tried it?" returned the other. "Two or three years ago, did I not see you on the
platform of revival meetings, and was not your voice the loudest in the hymn?"

"It is true," said Markheim; "and I see clearly what remains for me by way of duty. I thank you for
these lessons from my soul; my eyes are opened, and I behold myself at last for what I am."

At this moment, the sharp note of the door-bell rang through the house; and the visitant, as though
this were some concerted signal for which he had been waiting, changed at once in his demeanor.

"The maid!" he cried. "She has returned, as I fore[Pg 194]warned you, and there is now before
you one more difficult passage. Her master, you must say, is ill; you must let her in, with an
assured but rather serious countenance—no smiles, no overacting, and I promise you success!
Once the girl within, and the door closed, the same dexterity that has already rid you of the dealer
will relieve you of this last danger in your path. Thenceforward you have the whole evening—the
whole night, if needful—to ransack the treasures of the house and to make good your safety. This
is help that comes to you with the mask of danger. Up!" he cried: "up, friend; your life hangs
trembling in the scales: up, and act!"

Markheim steadily regarded his counsellor. "If I be condemned to evil acts," he said, "there is still
one door of freedom open—I can cease from action. If my life be an ill thing, I can lay it down.
Though I be, as you say truly, at the beck of every small temptation, I can yet, by one decisive
gesture, place myself beyond the reach of all. My love of good is damned to barrenness; it may,
and let it be! But I have still my hatred of evil; and from that, to your galling disappointment, you
shall see that I can draw both energy and courage."

The features of the visitor began to undergo a wonderful and lovely change: they brightened and
softened with a tender triumph; and, even as they brightened, faded and dislimned. But Markheim
did not pause to watch or understand the transformation. He opened the door and went downstairs
very slowly, thinking to himself. His past went soberly before him; he beheld it as it was, ugly and
strenuous like a dream, random as chance-medley—a scene of defeat. Life, as he thus reviewed it,
tempted him no longer; but on the farther side he perceived a quiet haven for his bark. He paused
in the[Pg 195] passage, and looked into the shop, where the candle still burned by the dead body.
It was strangely silent. Thoughts of the dealer swarmed into his mind, as he stood gazing. And
then the bell once more broke out into impatient clamor.

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He confronted the maid upon the threshold with something like a smile.

"You had better go for the police," said he: "I have killed your master."[Pg 196]

WEE WILLIE WINKIE

"An officer and a gentleman."

His full name was Percival William Williams, but he picked up the other name in a nursery-book,
and that was the end of the christened titles. His mother's ayah called him Willie-Baba, but as he
never paid the faintest attention to anything that the ayah said, her wisdom did not help matters.

His father was the Colonel of the 195th, and as soon as Wee Willie Winkie was old enough to
understand what Military Discipline meant, Colonel Williams put him under it. There was no
other way of managing the child. When he was good for a week, he drew good-conduct pay; and
when he was bad, he was deprived of his good-conduct stripe. Generally he was bad, for India
offers so many chances to little six-year-olds of going wrong.

Children resent familiarity from strangers, and Wee Willie Winkie was a very particular child.
Once he accepted an acquaintance, he was graciously pleased to thaw. He accepted Brandis, a
subaltern of the 195th, on sight. Brandis was having tea at the Colonel's, and Wee Willie Winkie
entered strong in the possession of a good-conduct badge won for not chasing the hens round the
compound. He regarded Brandis with gravity for at least ten minutes, and then delivered himself
of his opinion.

"I like you," said he, slowly, getting off his chair and[Pg 197] coming over to Brandis. "I like you.
I shall call you Coppy, because of your hair. Do you mind being called Coppy? it is because of ve
hair, you know."

Rudyard Kipling

Here was one of the most embarrassing of Wee Willie Winkie's peculiarities. He would look at a
stranger for some time, and then, without warning or explanation, would give him a name. And
the name stuck. No regimental penalties could break Wee Willie Winkie of this habit. He lost his
good-conduct badge for christening the Commissioner's wife "Pobs"; but nothing that the Colonel
could do made the Station forego the nickname, and Mrs. Collen remained Mrs. "Pobs" till the
end of her stay. So Brandis was christened "Coppy," and rose, therefore, in the estimation of the
regiment.

If Wee Willie Winkie took an interest in any one, the fortunate man was envied alike by the mess
and the rank and file. And in their envy lay no suspicion of self-interest. "The Colonel's son" was
idolized on his own merits entirely. Yet Wee Willie Winkie was not lovely. His face was
permanently freckled, as his legs were permanently scratched, and in spite of his mother's almost
tearful remonstrances he had insisted upon having his long yellow locks cut short in the military
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fashion. "I want my hair like Sergeant Tummil's," said Wee Willie Winkie, and, his father
abetting, the sacrifice was accomplished.

Three weeks after the bestowal of his youthful affections on Lieutenant Brandis—henceforward
to be called "Coppy" for the sake of brevity—Wee Willie Winkie was destined to behold strange
things and far beyond his comprehension.

Coppy returned his liking with interest. Coppy had let him wear for five rapturous minutes his
own big sword—just as tall as Wee Willie Winkie. Coppy had prom[Pg 198]ised him a terrier
puppy; and Coppy had permitted him to witness the miraculous operation of shaving. Nay, more
—Coppy had said that even he, Wee Willie Winkie, would rise in time to the ownership of a box
of shiny knives, a silver soap-box and a silver-handled "sputter-brush," as Wee Willie Winkie
called it. Decidedly, there was no one except his father, who could give or take away good-
conduct badges at pleasure, half so wise, strong, and valiant as Coppy with the Afghan and
Egyptian medals on his breast. Why, then, should Coppy be guilty of the unmanly weakness of
kissing—vehemently kissing—a "big girl," Miss Allardyce to wit? In the course of a morning
ride, Wee Willie Winkie had seen Coppy so doing, and, like the gentleman he was, had promptly
wheeled round and cantered back to his groom, lest the groom should also see.

Under ordinary circumstances he would have spoken to his father, but he felt instinctively that
this was a matter on which Coppy ought first to be consulted.

"Coppy," shouted Wee Willie Winkie, reining up outside that subaltern's bungalow early one
morning—"I want to see you, Coppy!"

"Come in, young 'un," returned Coppy, who was at early breakfast in the midst of his dogs. "What
mischief have you been getting into now?"

Wee Willie Winkie had done nothing notoriously bad for three days, and so stood on a pinnacle of
virtue.

"I've been doing nothing bad," said he, curling himself into a long chair with a studious
affectation of the Colonel's languor after a hot parade. He buried his freckled nose in a tea-cup
and, with eyes staring roundly over the rim, asked: "I say, Coppy, is it pwoper to kiss big
girls?"[Pg 199]

"By Jove! You're beginning early. Who do you want to kiss?"

"No one. My muvver's always kissing me if I don't stop her. If it isn't pwoper, how was you
kissing Major Allardyce's big girl last morning, by ve canal?"

Coppy's brow wrinkled. He and Miss Allardyce had with great craft managed to keep their
engagement secret for a fortnight. There were urgent and imperative reasons why Major
Allardyce should not know how matters stood for at least another month, and this small marplot
had discovered a great deal too much.

"I saw you," said Wee Willie Winkie, calmly. "But ve groom didn't see. I said, 'Hut jao.'"

"Oh, you had that much sense, you young Rip," groaned poor Coppy, half amused and half angry.
"And how many people may you have told about it?"

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"Only me myself. You didn't tell when I twied to wide ve buffalo ven my pony was lame; and I
fought you wouldn't like."

"Winkie," said Coppy, enthusiastically, shaking the small hand, "you're the best of good fellows.
Look here, you can't understand all these things. One of these days—hang it, how can I make you
see it!—I'm going to marry Miss Allardyce, and then she'll be Mrs. Coppy, as you say. If your
young mind is so scandalized at the idea of kissing big girls, go and tell your father."

"What will happen?" said Wee Willie Winkie, who firmly believed that his father was
omnipotent.

"I shall get into trouble," said Coppy, playing his trump card with an appealing look at the holder
of the ace.

"Ven I won't," said Wee Willie Winkie, briefly. "But my faver says it's un-man-ly to be always
kissing, and I didn't fink you'd do vat, Coppy."[Pg 200]

"I'm not always kissing, old chap. It's only now and then, and when you're bigger you'll do it too.
Your father meant it's not good for little boys."

"Ah!" said Wee Willie Winkie, now fully enlightened. "It's like ve sputter-brush?"

"Exactly," said Coppy, gravely.

"But I don't fink I'll ever want to kiss big girls, nor no one, 'cept my muvver. And I must vat, you
know."

There was a long pause, broken by Wee Willie Winkie.

"Are you fond of vis big girl, Coppy?"

"Awfully!" said Coppy.

"Fonder van you are of Bell or ve Butcha—or me?"

"It's in a different way," said Coppy. "You see, one of these days Miss Allardyce will belong to
me, but you'll grow up and command the Regiment and—all sorts of things. It's quite different,
you see."

"Very well," said Wee Willie Winkie, rising. "If you're fond of ve big girl, I won't tell any one. I
must go now."

Coppy rose and escorted his small guest to the door, adding: "You're the best of little fellows,
Winkie. I tell you what. In thirty days from now you can tell if you like—tell any one you like."

Thus the secret of the Brandis-Allardyce engagement was dependent on a little child's word.
Coppy, who knew Wee Willie Winkie's idea of truth, was at ease, for he felt that he would not
break promises. Wee Willie Winkie betrayed a special and unusual interest in Miss Allardyce,
and, slowly revolving round that embarrassed young lady, was used to regard her gravely with
unwinking eye. He was trying to discover why Coppy should have kissed her. She was not half so
nice as his own[Pg 201] mother. On the other hand, she was Coppy's property, and would in time

105
belong to him. Therefore it behooved him to treat her with as much respect as Coppy's big sword
or shiny pistol.

The idea that he shared a great secret in common with Coppy kept Wee Willie Winkie unusually
virtuous for three weeks. Then the Old Adam broke out, and he made what he called a "campfire"
at the bottom of the garden. How could he have foreseen that the flying sparks would have lighted
the Colonel's little hayrick and consumed a week's store for the horses? Sudden and swift was the
punishment—deprivation of the good-conduct badge and, most sorrowful of all, two days'
confinement to barracks—the house and veranda—coupled with the withdrawal of the light of his
father's countenance.

He took the sentence like the man he strove to be, drew himself up with a quivering under-lip,
saluted, and, once clear of the room, ran to weep bitterly in his nursery—called by him "my
quarters." Coppy came in the afternoon and attempted to console the culprit.

"I'm under awwest," said Wee Willie Winkie, mournfully, "and I didn't ought to speak to you."

Very early the next morning he climbed on to the roof of the house—that was not forbidden—and
beheld Miss Allardyce going for a ride.

"Where are you going?" cried Wee Willie Winkie.

"Across the river," she answered, and trotted forward.

Now the cantonment in which the 195th lay was bounded on the north by a river—dry in the
winter. From his earliest years, Wee Willie Winkie had been forbidden to go across the river, and
had noted that even Coppy—the almost almighty Coppy—had never set foot[Pg 202] beyond it.
Wee Willie Winkie had once been read to, out of a big blue book, the history of the Princess and
the Goblins—a most wonderful tale of a land where the Goblins were always warring with the
children of men until they were defeated by one Curdie. Ever since that date it seemed to him that
the bare black and purple hills across the river were inhabited by Goblins, and, in truth, every one
had said that there lived the Bad Men. Even in his own house the lower halves of the windows
were covered with green paper on account of the Bad Men who might, if allowed clear view, fire
into peaceful drawing-rooms and comfortable bedrooms. Certainly, beyond the river, which was
the end of all the Earth, lived the Bad Men. And here was Major Allardyce's big girl, Coppy's
property, preparing to venture into their borders! What would Coppy say if anything happened to
her? If the Goblins ran off with her as they did with Curdie's Princess? She must at all hazards be
turned back.

The house was still. Wee Willie Winkie reflected for a moment on the very terrible wrath of his
father; and then—broke his arrest! It was a crime unspeakable. The low sun threw his shadow,
very large and very black, on the trim garden-paths, as he went down to the stables and ordered
his pony. It seemed to him in the hush of the dawn that all the big world had been bidden to stand
still and look at Wee Willie Winkie guilty of mutiny. The drowsy groom handed him his mount,
and, since the one great sin made all others insignificant, Wee Willie Winkie said that he was
going to ride over to Coppy Sahib, and went out at a foot-pace, stepping on the soft mould of the
flower-borders.

The devastating track of the pony's feet was the last misdeed that cut him off from all sympathy of
Humanity.[Pg 203] He turned into the road, leaned forward, and rode as fast as the pony could put
foot to the ground in the direction of the river.

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But the liveliest of twelve-two ponies can do little against the long canter of a Waler. Miss
Allardyce was far ahead, had passed through the crops, beyond the Police-post, when all the
guards were asleep, and her mount was scattering the pebbles of the river bed as Wee Willie
Winkie left the cantonment and British India behind him. Bowed forward and still flogging, Wee
Willie Winkie shot into Afghan territory, and could just see Miss Allardyce a black speck,
flickering across the stony plain. The reason of her wandering was simple enough. Coppy, in a
tone of too-hastily-assumed authority, had told her overnight that she must not ride out by the
river. And she had gone to prove her own spirit and teach Coppy a lesson.

Almost at the foot of the inhospitable hills, Wee Willie Winkie saw the Waler blunder and come
down heavily. Miss Allardyce struggled clear, but her ankle had been severely twisted, and she
could not stand. Having thus demonstrated her spirit, she wept copiously, and was surprised by
the apparition of a white, wide-eyed child in khaki, on a nearly spent pony.

"Are you badly, badly hurted?" shouted Wee Willie Winkie, as soon as he was within range. "You
didn't ought to be here."

"I don't know," said Miss Allardyce, ruefully, ignoring the reproof. "Good gracious, child, what
are you doing here?"

"You said you was going acwoss ve wiver," panted Wee Willie Winkie, throwing himself off his
pony. "And nobody—not even Coppy—must go acwoss ve wiver,[Pg 204] and I came after you
ever so hard, but you wouldn't stop, and now you've hurted yourself, and Coppy will be angwy
wiv me, and—I've bwoken my awwest! I've bwoken my awwest!"

The future Colonel of the 195th sat down and sobbed. In spite of the pain in her ankle the girl was
moved.

"Have you ridden all the way from cantonments, little man? What for?"

"You belonged to Coppy. Coppy told me so!" wailed Wee Willie Winkie, disconsolately. "I saw
him kissing you, and he said he was fonder of you van Bell or ve Butcha or me. And so I came.
You must get up and come back. You didn't ought to be here. Vis is a bad place, and I've bwoken
my awwest."

"I can't move, Winkie," said Miss Allardyce, with a groan. "I've hurt my foot. What shall I do?"

She showed a readiness to weep afresh, which steadied Wee Willie Winkie, who had been
brought up to believe that tears were the depth of unmanliness. Still, when one is as great a sinner
as Wee Willie Winkie, even a man may be permitted to break down.

"Winkie," said Miss Allardyce, "when you've rested a little, ride back and tell them to send out
something to carry me back in. It hurts fearfully."

The child sat still for a little time and Miss Allardyce closed her eyes; the pain was nearly making
her faint. She was roused by Wee Willie Winkie tying up the reins on his pony's neck and setting
it free with a vicious cut of his whip that made it whicker. The little animal headed toward the
cantonments.

"Oh, Winkie! What are you doing?"

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"Hush!" said Wee Willie Winkie. "Vere's a man coming—one of ve Bad Men. I must stay wiv
you. My[Pg 205] faver says a man must always look after a girl. Jack will go home, and ven vey'll
come and look for us. Vat's why I let him go."

Not one man but two or three had appeared from behind the rocks of the hills, and the heart of
Wee Willie Winkie sank within him, for just in this manner were the Goblins wont to steal out
and vex Curdie's soul. Thus had they played in Curdie's garden, he had seen the picture, and thus
had they frightened the Princess's nurse. He heard them talking to each other, and recognized with
joy the bastard Pushto that he had picked up from one of his father's grooms lately dismissed.
People who spoke that tongue could not be the Bad Men. They were only natives after all.

They came up to the boulders on which Miss Allardyce's horse had blundered.

Then rose from the rock Wee Willie Winkie, child of the Dominant Race, aged six and three-
quarters, and said briefly and emphatically "Jao!" The pony had crossed the river-bed.

The men laughed, and laughter from natives was the one thing Wee Willie Winkie could not
tolerate. He asked them what they wanted and why they did not depart. Other men with most evil
faces and crooked-stocked guns crept out of the shadows of the hills, till, soon, Wee Willie
Winkie was face to face with an audience some twenty strong. Miss Allardyce screamed.

"Who are you?" said one of the men.

"I am the Colonel Sahib's son, and my order is that you go at once. You black men are frightening
the Miss Sahib. One of you must run into cantonments and take the news that Miss Sahib has hurt
herself, and that the Colonel's son is here with her."[Pg 206]

"Put our feet into the trap?" was the laughing reply. "Hear this boy's speech!"

"Say that I sent you—I, the Colonel's son. They will give you money."

"What is the use of this talk? Take up the child and the girl, and we can at least ask for the
ransom. Ours are the villages on the heights," said a voice in the background.

These were the Bad Men—worse than Goblins—and it needed all Wee Willie Winkie's training to
prevent him from bursting into tears. But he felt that to cry before a native, excepting only his
mother's ayah, would be an infamy greater than any mutiny. Moreover, he as future Colonel of
the 195th, had that grim regiment at his back.

"Are you going to carry us away?" said Wee Willie Winkie, very blanched and uncomfortable.

"Yes, my little Sahib Bahadur," said the tallest of the men, "and eat you afterward."

"That is child's talk," said Wee Willie Winkie. "Men do not eat men."

A yell of laughter interrupted him, but he went on firmly,—"And if you do carry us away, I tell
you that all my regiment will come up in a day and kill you all without leaving one. Who will take
my message to the Colonel Sahib?"

Speech in any vernacular—and Wee Willie Winkie had a colloquial acquaintance with three—
was easy to the boy who could not yet manage his "r's" and "th's" aright.

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Another man joined the conference, crying: "O foolish men! What this babe says is true. He is the
heart's heart of those white troops. For the sake of peace let them go both, for if he be taken, the
regiment will break[Pg 207] loose and gut the valley. Our villages are in the valley, and we shall
not escape. That regiment are devils. They broke Khoda Yar's breast-bone with kicks when he
tried to take the rifles; and if we touch this child they will fire and rape and plunder for a month,
till nothing remains. Better to send a man back to take the message and get a reward. I say that
this child is their God, and that they will spare none of us, nor our women, if we harm him."

It was Din Mahommed, the dismissed groom of the Colonel, who made the diversion, and an
angry and heated discussion followed. Wee Willie Winkie standing over Miss Allardyce, waited
the upshot. Surely his "wegiment," his own "wegiment," would not desert him if they knew of his
extremity.

The riderless pony brought the news to the 195th, though there had been consternation in the
Colonel's household for an hour before. The little beast came in through the parade ground in
front of the main barracks, where the men were settling down to play Spoil-five till the afternoon.
Devlin, the Color Sergeant of E Company, glanced at the empty saddle and tumbled through the
barrack-rooms, kicking up each Room Corporal as he passed. "Up, ye beggars! There's something
happened to the Colonel's son," he shouted.

"He couldn't fall off! S'elp me, 'e couldn't fall off," blubbered a drummer-boy. "Go an' hunt acrost
the river. He's over there if he's anywhere, an' maybe those Pathans have got 'im. For the love o'
Gawd don't look for 'im in the nullahs! Let's go over the river."

"There's sense in Mott yet," said Devlin. "E Company, double out to the river—sharp!"[Pg 208]

So E Company, in its shirt-sleeves mainly, doubled for the dear life, and in the rear toiled the
perspiring Sergeant, adjuring it to double yet faster. The cantonment was alive with the men of the
195th hunting for Wee Willie Winkie, and the Colonel finally overtook E Company, far too
exhausted to swear, struggling in the pebbles of the river-bed.

Up the hill under which Wee Willie Winkie's Bad Men were discussing the wisdom of carrying
off the child and the girl, a look-out fired two shots.

"What have I said?" shouted Din Mahommed. "There is the warning! The pulton are out already
and are coming across the plain! Get away! Let us not be seen with the boy!"

The men waited for an instant, and then, as another shot was fired, withdrew into the hills, silently
as they had appeared.

"The wegiment is coming," said Wee Willie Winkie, confidently, to Miss Allardyce, "and it's all
wight. Don't cwy!"

He needed the advice himself, for ten minutes later, when his father came up, he was weeping
bitterly with his head in Miss Allardyce's lap.

And the men of the 195th carried him home with shouts and rejoicings; and Coppy, who had
ridden a horse into a lather, met him, and, to his intense disgust, kissed him openly in the presence
of the men.

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But there was balm for his dignity. His father assured him that not only would the breaking of
arrest be condoned, but that the good-conduct badge would be restored as soon as his mother
could sew it on his blouse-sleeve. Miss Allardyce had told the Colonel a story that made him
proud of his son.[Pg 209]

"She belonged to you, Coppy," said Wee Willie Winkie, indicating Miss Allardyce with a grimy
forefinger. "I knew she didn't ought to go acwoss ve wiver, and I knew ve wegiment would come
to me if I sent Jack home."

"You're a hero, Winkie," said Coppy—"a pukka hero!"

"I don't know what vat means," said Wee Willie Winkie, "but you mustn't call me Winkie any no
more. I'm Percival Will'am Will'ams."

And in this manner did Wee Willie Winkie enter into his manhood.[Pg 211][Pg 210]

NOTES
WASHINGTON IRVING

Washington Irving, the son of a Scotch merchant, was born in New York, April 3, 1783. As his
health was delicate his education was desultory, and at sixteen he began to study law but without
much seriousness. He spent most of the time in reading, being in this way really self-educated.
His health continuing a matter of concern, he took many excursions up the state to the woods,
with much physical benefit. In many of the up-state towns he mingled in society to such a degree
that he was in danger of becoming a mere society man. However, all the time he was doing some
writing, a part of which appeared in The Morning Chronicle when he was but nineteen.

In 1804, his health continuing poor, it was decided to send him to Europe. There he stayed nearly
two years, visiting France, England, and Italy, being everywhere received by society and meeting
the best people, as he was a remarkably agreeable young man. The trip completely restored his
health.

On his return to America in 1806, he again plunged into society, giving, however, a hint of his
future occupation in Salmagundi, a semi-monthly periodical of short duration, on the model of
The Spectator, written in conjunction with two of his brothers in 1807-1808. In the meantime he
had been admitted to the bar. In 1809 appeared "The Knickerbocker History of New York," a
piece of humor and satire which made him famous. At this time occurred the death of his fiancée,
a loss from which he never recovered. At the beginning of the War of 1812 he served for four
months on the staff of the Governor of New York.

In 1815 he went again to Europe, this time on the business of his brothers' firm, to which he had
been admitted, and he stayed there seventeen years. The firm failing in 1818, he turned to
literature and began the publication in 1819 of "The Sketch-Book," a collection of sketches and
narratives in the manner of The Spectator. This book definitely established him as an author,
being received both[Pg 212] in America and in England with delight. Besides being successful
financially it gave him an introduction to literary society. "Bracebridge Hall" and "The Tales of a
Traveller" appeared soon after, in 1822 and 1824 respectively. Irving himself had been for years
much of a traveller, both from inclination and from the demands of his health.

110
In 1826 Irving went to Spain to write his "Life and Voyages of Columbus," which appeared in
1828. This residence in Spain, which lasted till September, 1829, was a fruitful one, as Spanish
subjects appealed to his imagination. Besides the "Columbus," he wrote "The Conquest of
Granada," "The Companions of Columbus," and "The Alhambra." These books were financially
profitable in addition to being literary successes. Throughout these years he enjoyed, as usual, the
pleasures of charming society. His stay in Spain was terminated by his unexpected appointment as
Secretary of Legation to the Court of St. James.

Returning to England, he was received with honors, the Royal Society of Literature awarding him
in 1830 one of the two annual medals and the University of Oxford making him an honorary
D.C.L. In 1831 he resigned and the next year returned to America.

America greeted him with enthusiasm. After an extended tour of the South and West he settled at
Tarrytown, on the Hudson, a few miles north of New York, to enjoy the domestic life afforded by
numerous relatives, and to do the writing which was more than ever necessary for the support of
the relatives who had become dependent on him. At Sunnyside, as his place was named, he
resolutely devoted himself to literary work, after declining several offers of public office. He was
a regular contributor to The Knickerbocker Magazine at an annual salary, and he wrote several
volumes, not now much read, while working on more ambitious literary projects.

In 1842 he received the unexpected and unsolicited honor of appointment as Minister to Spain.
For four years he continued in office, performing his duties with tact and discretion. In 1846 he
returned finally to his home, where he devoted his last days to a long-contemplated "Life of
Washington," a task almost beyond his powers. On the 28th of November, 1850, he died, honored
as no American man of letters had ever been.[Pg 213]

REFERENCES

Biography
Warner: Washington Irving.
Boynton: Washington Irving.

Criticism
Howells: My Literary Passions.
Thackeray: Nil Nisi Bonum (Roundabout Papers).
Richardson: American Literature.

NOTES TO "RIP VAN WINKLE"

This story appeared with four other papers in the first number of "The Sketch-Book," which was
published in America in May, 1819, as the work of one Geoffrey Crayon.

Page 1. Diedrich Knickerbocker: the supposed author of "The Knickerbocker History of New
York." All this prefatory matter is merely to carry out the pretence, as do the Note and Postscript
at the end.

2. Peter Stuyvesant: last Dutch governor of New York, born in Holland in 1592, died in New
York in 1672. A man of short temper and with a wooden leg from the knee. Fort Christina: built
by the Swedes on the Delaware River near the present city of Wilmington. There was no fighting.

15. Federal or Democrat: the two political parties after the close of the Revolutionary War. tory:
name applied to all followers of the king during the war.

111
16. Stony Point: this promontory on the west bank of the Hudson was captured by the British,
and later recaptured by the Americans under General Anthony Wayne. Antony's Nose: a bold
cliff, in the shape of a nose, on the east bank of the river. The name is now usually spelled with an
h.

18. Hendrick Hudson: really Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the employ of the Dutch East
India Company. He was on a voyage to discover a north-east passage, when he explored the river
which bears his name. The Half Moon was the name of his boat.[Pg 214]

EDGAR ALLAN POE

Edgar Allan Poe, the child of poor travelling actors, was born in Boston, January 19, 1809. Left
an orphan in his third year, he was taken into the family of Mr. John Allan of Richmond, who
gave him his name. Soon he became a great pet of his foster-parents, who rather spoiled him. In
1815 the Allans went to England, where the boy was in school at Stoke Newington, a suburb of
London, till June, 1820, when the family returned to Richmond. His education was continued in
private schools and by the aid of tutors till he entered the University of Virginia, February 14,
1826. At the University he developed a passion for drink and gambling, which led Mr. Allan to
place him in his own counting-room at the end of the session in December, though he had done
extremely well in some of his studies. Not liking the irksomeness of this occupation, Poe left to
make his own way.

He first went to Boston, where he succeeded in having some of his verses published. His
resources failing, he enlisted in the United States Army, being assigned to the artillery and serving
in different stations, among them Fort Moultrie at Charleston, South Carolina. His conduct being
excellent, he was appointed Sergeant-major in 1829. Shortly afterward he was reconciled to Mr.
Allan, who secured him an appointment to West Point. At the Academy he neglected his duty,
was court-martialled, and was dismissed March 7, 1831.

Poe now settled in Baltimore, where he devoted himself to writing, winning a prize of one
hundred dollars for his tale, "A MS. Found in a Bottle." He lived with his aunt, Mrs. Clemm, to
whose daughter he became engaged and whom he married in 1836 in Richmond, where he had
gone to become an assistant on The Southern Literary Messenger.

His habits and unfortunate disposition made it impossible for him to remain long in one position.
After some drifting, he settled in Philadelphia in 1838, where he did hack work until he became
associate editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and American Monthly Review in July, 1839.
In 1840 appeared a volume of his[Pg 215] tales which attracted favorable notice. In 1841 he
became editor of Graham's Magazine, but in this year, too, his wife became a hopeless invalid.
Anxiety about her had doubtless much to do with the subsequent condition of Poe's mind. In the
next year again he lost his position. At this time he fell into wretched poverty. Then, as always,
his aunt gave him the devotion of a mother. The fortunate gaining of another hundred-dollar prize,
this time for "The Gold Bug," helped along together with some work on Graham's in a minor
capacity.

New York was his next location, where he was on The Evening Mirror. In 1845 his "Raven" was
published and at once sprang into phenomenal favor. Lecturing, magazine work, and the editing
of The Broadway Journal occupied the next year. In 1846 he moved to Fordham. There ill-health
and poverty so oppressed him that money had to be raised to take care of the family. In 1847 Mrs.
Poe died. From this time till his own death, October 7, 1849, his mind, long clouded and affected
by his habits, became hopelessly diseased.

112
Poe was a genius of great analytical power and imagination, but unstable and morbid. His ability
has always received great recognition in Europe, particularly in France, where a translation of his
tales appeared in his lifetime.

REFERENCES

Biography
Woodberry: Edgar Allan Poe.
Harrison: The Life and Letters of Edgar Allan Poe.

Criticism
Stedman: Poets of America.
Gates: Studies and Appreciations.
Brownell: American Prose Masters.

NOTES TO "THE GOLD BUG"

This story, which is classed in the group entitled "Stories of Ratiocination" (see Introduction), was
first published in The Dollar Newspaper of Philadelphia in June, 1843, winning a prize of one
hundred dollars.[Pg 216]

Page 23. Tarantula: the bite of this spider was once supposed to cause a form of madness which
made the victim dance. Compare the musical term "tarantelle." Huguenot: French Protestant.
Many fled to South Carolina from persecutions in France. Sullivan's Island: Poe has been
criticised for his inaccuracies concerning this island. He should have known it well, as he was
stationed at Fort Moultrie in 1828 when a private in the United States Artillery.

24. Swammerdamm: Jan Swammerdam—one final m according to the Century Dictionary—

(1637-1680). A distinguished Dutch naturalist.

27. scarabæus caput hominis: (Latin) a man's head beetle. There is no such species known.

29. syphon: Negro dialect for ciphering, a colloquial word for "reckoning in figures." Poe hardly
seems successful in representing the sounds of the speech of Negroes. Not much attention had
been paid to the subject in literature at that time. To-day, since the work of Joel Chandler Harris
in "Uncle Remus" and of Thomas Nelson Page in "In Ole Virginia," we rather look down on these
early crude attempts. noovers: Negro dialect for manœuvres in the sense of movements.

32. empressement: (French) eagerness.

44. curvets and caracoles: the prancing and turning of a horse.

45. violent howlings of the dog: it is popularly supposed that a dog, through its extraordinary
sense of smell, can indicate the presence of parts of a human body, though buried.

48. counter: obsolete term for pieces of money.

49. solution of this most extraordinary riddle: this story exemplifies Poe's power in such work.
He specialized on it in magazines.

52. long boat: "The largest and strongest boat belonging to a sailing ship."—Century Dictionary.

113
54. aqua regia: (Latin) royal water. A chemical compound so called from its power of dissolving
gold. regulus of cobalt: early chemical term referring to the metallic mass of an ore.

55. Captain Kidd: William Kidd, about whose early life nothing is positively known, was
commissioned by the Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1695 to put down piracy. With a
good ship under him, however, he himself turned pirate. On his return he[Pg 217] was arrested,
sent to England, tried, and executed in London in 1701. Some of his buried treasure was
recovered by the colonial authorities in 1699.

58. Golconda: a place near Hyderabad, India, noted for its diamonds. cryptographs: from two
Greek words meaning hidden and write. The commoner term is "cryptogram."

59. Spanish main: the ocean near the coast of South America and the adjacent parts of the
Caribbean Sea over which the Spaniards exercised power.

67. insignium: (Latin) a sign.

NOTES TO "THE PURLOINED LETTER"

This detective story was published in "The Gift" for 1845.

Page 69. Nil sapientiæ, etc.: (Latin) Nothing is more hateful to wisdom than too great acuteness.
C. Auguste Dupin: clever amateur who solves the mysteries which baffle the police. Most writers
of detective stories follow this example set by Poe. au troisième: (French) on the third floor.
Faubourg: (French) section of a city. Saint Germain: a section of Paris on the south bank of the
Seine, once the abode of the French nobility. affair of the Rue Morgue: a reference to the
detective story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." the murder of Marie Rogêt: a reference to
another detective story, "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt." The writer is playing the same part as
does Dr. Watson in the various Sherlock Holmes stories by Conan Doyle. Prefect: (French) chief.

71. cant of diplomacy: set phrases used in intercourse between representatives of governments by
which they hint at their meaning.

73. hôtel: (French) residence. au fait: (French) expert.

76. microscope: since Poe's time the microscope is, in stories, almost an invariable part of a
detective's outfit.

79. Abernethy: John Abernethy (1764-1831). A celebrated London physician.

80. escritoire: "A piece of furniture with conveniences for writing, as an opening top or falling
front panel, places for inkstand, pens, and stationery, etc."—Century Dictionary. Procrustean
bed: In Greek mythology, Procrustes (derivatively "the stretcher") was[Pg 218] a giant who tied
those whom he caught on a bed, making them fit by stretching them out if too short, and by
cutting off their limbs if too long.

82. Rochefoucauld: François La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680). A French moralist known for his
"Maxims" published in 1665. La Bougive: In the edition of Poe's works prepared by Edmund
Clarence Stedman and Professor George Edward Woodberry, this name is given as La Bruyère.
Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) was a French moralist. Machiavelli: Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-
1527). A celebrated statesman and writer of Florence, Italy, whose book "The Prince" is based on
unscrupulous principles. Campanella: Tomaso Campanella (1568-1639). An Italian writer.

114
83. recherché: (French) far-fetched. policial: a rare word, meaning "pertaining to the police."

84. non distributio medii: (Latin) a non-distribution of the middle, or the undistributed middle.
This is a mistake in reasoning. When the Prefect reasons that all fools are poets, therefore all poets
are fools, he has no middle term at all; that is, no class of which poets and fools are both
members. Correct reasoning is represented by this: all men are mortal; John is a man; therefore
John is mortal. Between mortal and John, two terms, there is a middle term, men, of which both
are members. Differential Calculus: a higher form of mathematics. par excellence: (French)
above all. Il y a, etc.: (French). The odds are that every public idea, every accepted convention, is
a foolish trick, for it is suitable for the greatest number. Chamfort: Sebastian Roch Nicolas
Chamfort (1741-1794). A French writer of maxims. ambitus: (Latin) a going around. Poe means
by this example and by those that follow that mere similarity of two words does not make them of
the same meaning.

85. Bryant: Jacob Bryant (1715-1804). An English writer on mythology.

86. intrigant: (French) intriger.

87. vis inertiæ: (Latin) the force of inertia, the same as inertia, a term of physics which denotes
the tendency of a body to remain at rest or in motion.

88. ministerial hôtel: house of the minister or cabinet officer.

92. facilis descensus Averni: a misquotation from Vergil's "Aeneid," Book VI, line 126. It should
be "facilis descensus[Pg 219] Averno," easy is the descent to Avernus. Catalani: Angelica
Catalani (1779-1849). An Italian singer. monstrum horrendum: (Latin) a horrible monster, the
epithet applied to the one-eyed giant, Polyphemus, in Vergil's "Aeneid," Book III, line 658. Un
dessein, etc.: (French). A design so fatal, if it is not worthy of Atrée, it is worthy of Thyeste.
Crébillon's "Atrée": Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon (1674-1762). A French tragic poet. His play,
"Atrée et Thyeste," bears the date 1707.[Pg 220]

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Nathaniel Hawthorne, or Hathorne, as it was spelled before he changed it, was born in Salem,
Massachusetts, July 4, 1804. His family, settled in New England since 1630, had played its part in
the activities of the land in various capacities, including the persecution of so-called witches. His
father, a sea-captain, died on a voyage when the lad was four years old. The excessive mourning
then in vogue made the widow practically seclude herself in her room, throwing a consequent
gloom over the household and affecting the boy's spirits. From this depressing atmosphere he
found relief in an early developed taste for reading. In 1818 the family moved to a lonely part of
Maine, where in roaming the lonely woods he gained a liking for solitude as well as for nature. He
returned to Salem in 1819 to prepare for Bowdoin College, which he entered in 1821. After an
undistinguished course he went back to his native town, whither his mother had also returned.

In Salem he remained for twelve years, a recluse in a family of recluses, devoting himself to
reading and writing. In 1828 his first book, "Fanshawe," was published at his own expense. Its
failure caused him to destroy all the copies he could find. Some of the stories which he wrote
during this period were published in the annuals, then fashionable, and in The New England
Magazine, but without making much impression.

This hermit-like existence was healthily broken in 1836 by his becoming the editor of an obscure
magazine, though it was hack work and lasted but a short time. The anonymity to which he had

115
stubbornly clung was also dispelled by one friend, and the publication of his "Twice-Told Tales"
was arranged for by another, his classmate, Horatio Bridge. These two facts made him known and
mark the beginning of the disappearance of his solitary depression, which was ended by his
engagement to Sophia Peabody.

In January, 1839, he became a weigher and gauger in the Boston Custom House, a position which
he lost in April, 1841, owing to a change in the political administration. Then for a few months he
was a member of the Brook Farm Community, a group of reformers who[Pg 221] tried to
combine agriculture and education. In the Custom House and at Brook Farm he worked so hard as
to have little energy for literature, publishing only some children's books. On July 9, 1842,
occurred his marriage.

For the next three years Hawthorne resided in Concord at the Old Manse. In this retired town,
where such eminent people as Emerson and Thoreau were to be met, he lived a very happy, quiet
life, given to musing and observation. But he had lost a considerable sum of money in the Brook
Farm experiment, the failure of The Democratic Review prevented payment for his contributions,
and he began to feel the pinch of poverty. At this juncture his college mates, Bridge and Pierce,
came to the rescue, and on March 23, 1846, he was appointed surveyor of the port of Salem, that
spot in which the Hawthorne family was so firmly rooted, whither he had previously returned
with his wife and daughter, Una, born in Concord in 1844.

Though happy for a short time at getting into the stir of actual life, the routine and sordidness soon
palled and he began to fret in the harness. This mood kept him from composition till he forced
from himself, in 1848, the last of his short stories, including "The Great Stone Face" and "Ethan
Brand." Despite the effort, the stories rank well. In 1849 he was dismissed from office by a
change of political administration, not because of inefficiency. He took this dismissal hard
because some of his townspeople had been opposed to him. Again he was in money difficulties
from which he was released by a donation from his loyal friends. The leisure thus made possible
was devoted to the production of his greatest work, a novel, "The Scarlet Letter," which is a study
in the darker side of Puritanism. Its publication in April, 1850, brought him fame. In the same
year he moved to the Berkshire Hills.

The year and a half in the hills was thoroughly happy. He had the incentive of success, the
tranquillity of mind due to sufficient means, physical comfort, and a loving household now
enlarged by the birth of a second daughter, Rose. During this time he wrote and published (1851)
his novel, "The House of the Seven Gables," the study of an inherited curse, made pleasing as a
story by means of its realistic portrayal of ordinary life. He also put many of the stories of
classical mythology into a form understandable by chil[Pg 222]dren, publishing the results in "A
Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys" (1852) and "Tanglewood Tales for Girls and Boys" (1853). In
1852 appeared "The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales," containing hitherto uncollected
contributions to various magazines.

Believing the Berkshire air rather enervating, Hawthorne moved in November, 1851, to a
temporary residence in West Newton, where he wrote "The Blithedale Romance," which was
published in 1852. This novel, founded on his Brook Farm experience, is a study of the failure of
the typical reformer. In June, 1852, the family moved to a place of their own, called "The
Wayside" in Concord. Here the ideal family life continued. In the summer he brought out "The
Life of Franklin Pierce," the biography of his old college mate, who was shortly after elected to
the presidency of the United States, and made Hawthorne United States Consul at Liverpool in
1853.

116
The holding of office was never a congenial occupation to Hawthorne, though he was a good
official. It always became irksome and dried up his creative power. The consulship was no
exception, and when he resigned in 1857 he felt much relief. By this time he had obtained a
competence which afforded him the gratification of paying back the money once raised for him by
his friends. When in England he had seen much of the country; now he determined to see more of
Europe. The family travelled through France to Italy, which they greatly enjoyed, staying there till
1859. For some months they had occupied the old villa of Montauto, where Hawthorne composed
most of "The Marble Faun." The illness of Una compelling them to seek a different climate, they
returned to England, where he finished the book, which was published the next year. "The Marble
Faun" is "an analytical study of evil"; but despite the subject, the artistic effects and the
interpretation of Italy lend it charm.

In 1860 the family returned to Concord. Hawthorne's health had been failing for some time, and
now he became incapable of sustained work. However, in 1863 was published "Our Old Home,"
the theme of which is well expressed by the sub-title "A Series of English Sketches," which had
been composed previously. He continued to do some work, and even promised a new novel to
the[Pg 223] press, but he came to realize that he would never finish it. In 1864 he went on a
carriage trip with his old friend Pierce, during which he peacefully died in his sleep.

REFERENCES

Biography
Woodberry: Nathaniel Hawthorne.
James: Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Criticism
Hutton: Literary Essays.
Stephen: Hours in a Library.

NOTES ON "HOWE'S MASQUERADE"

This story was first published in The Democratic Review for May, 1838, and was republished in
1842 in an enlarged edition of "Twice-Told Tales." It exemplifies the work in which Hawthorne
was the pioneer—that of building a story about a situation. The idea of this particular one is found
in the following entry in "American Note-Books": "A phantom of the old royal governors, or
some such showy shadowy pageant, on the night of the evacuation of Boston by the British."
Hawthorne was accustomed to jot down in his note-books hints for stories which often can be
traced in his developed writings.

In "Howe's Masquerade" can be clearly seen the fact that he had not mastered the method of
writing the short-story as we have it to-day. There is too much introduction and too much
conclusion. He takes too long to get the story into motion, and he spoils the effect by tacking to
the end a moral. These mistakes or crudities Poe did not make; however, each writer contributed
to the development of the short-story some element of value, as has been pointed out in the
Introduction.

This story is one of "The Legends of the Province House," stories joined together by the scheme
of having an old inhabitant tell them to some visitor. Such machinery with its prologues and end-
links, more or less elaborate, has been often used, as is seen in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" and
in Longfellow's "Tales of a Wayside Inn." The taste for this method has largely passed,[Pg 224]
though it has been recently revived by Alfred Noyes in "The Tales of the Mermaid Tavern."

117
Page 93. Washington Street: the scene is laid in Boston. Old Province House: the term Province
House is used somewhat in the same sense as State House. The building was erected when
Massachusetts was a province and served as the headquarters and dwelling of the royal governor.
Hawthorne represents it as having descended to the condition of an inn or inferior hotel, the most
important part of which was the bar for the sale of liquor.

94. lady of Pownall: the wife of Thomas Pownall, a royal governor of Massachusetts Bay
Colony. Bernard: Sir Thomas Bernard, another royal governor.

98. Steeled knights of the Conquest: persons dressed as cavalrymen in steel armor of 1066,
when William the Conqueror became King of England. party-colored Merry Andrew: an old
term for a clown dressed in garments having several colors. Falstaff: an important character in
several of Shakespeare's plays. He is always represented as fat and ridiculous. Don Quixote: the
chief character of the celebrated Spanish satire "Don Quixote" (1605) by Cervantes. Don Quixote
is a simple-minded man, whose head has been turned by reading the extravagant romances of
chivalry then current, in which knights ride forth to redress wrongs. He feels himself called to
such a mission and, armed with various ridiculous makeshifts and accompanied by a humorous
squire, Sancho Panza, whose sayings have achieved an immortality nearly equal to his master's
doings, he sallies out upon a course of adventures, which caused the world to laugh the dying
remnants of false chivalry into its grave. Colonel Joliffe: an imaginary character. whig
principles: the people belonging to the patriotic party in the colonies were called Whigs.

99. Rev. Mather Byles: an actual person (1706-1788). He was imprisoned in 1777 as a Tory; that
is, as an adherent of the king. wig and band: Protestant clergymen of that day wore wigs and a
strip of linen, called a band, placed about the neck with the ends hanging down in front.

102. regicide judges: in the first part of the seventeenth century the people of England became
dissatisfied with their king, Charles I,[Pg 225] because of his illegal acts. They revolted, captured
the king, put him on trial, and executed him, January 30, 1649. The judges are called regicide,
because they tried and condemned a king. The royal party spoke of him as a martyr to the cause.

110. When the truth-telling accents, etc.: Hawthorne has tried in this last paragraph to
emphasize the contrast between the rather sordid real and the imaginary. He is entirely too
successful, because he spoils the effect of the story—something for which Poe strove with such
singleness of purpose as to permit of no such ending.

NOTES TO "THE BIRTHMARK"

This story was first published in the March, 1843, number of The Pioneer, a magazine edited by
James Russell Lowell, and was republished in "Mosses from an Old Manse" in 1846. It belongs to
the "moral philosophic" group of Hawthorne's writings (see Introduction).

Page 112. natural philosophy: an old term for physics. spiritual affinity: in chemistry certain
elements show a tendency to combine with others, so an attraction of one human spirit for
another, leading generally to marriage, is often called a spiritual affinity.

114. Eve of Powers: Hiram Powers (1805-1873). An American sculptor whose statue of Eve is
one of his noted works.

118. Pygmalion: in Greek mythology a sculptor who made such a beautiful statue of a woman
that he fell in love with it, whereupon in answer to his prayer the goddess Aphrodite gave it life.

118
121. optical phenomena: sights which cheat the eye into believing them real.

122. corrosive acid: a powerful chemical which eats away substance. dynasty of the alchemists:
the succession of the early investigators of chemistry who spent most of their energy in seeking
what was called the "universal solvent" which would turn every substance into gold. These men
were sometimes legitimate investigators, but often cheats who made money out of foolish people.
At one time they became so numerous in London that laws[Pg 226] were passed against them, but
it took Jonson's play "The Alchemist" to laugh away their hold.

123. elixir vitæ: (Arabic, el iksir, plus Latin, vitæ) literally, the philosopher's stone of life.
Another fad of the alchemists.

125. Albertus Magnus: "Albert the Great" (1193-1280), a member of the Dominican order of
monks. Cornelius Agrippa: (1486-1535) a student of magic. Paracelsus: Philippus Aureolus
Paracelsus (1493-1541), a physician and alchemist. friar who created the prophetic Brazen
Head: the legendary "Famous History of Friar Bacon" records the construction of such a thing.
Transactions of the Royal Society: the volumes containing the discussions of the Royal Society
and also the papers read before it. This association was founded about 1660 for the advancement
of science.[Pg 227]

BRET HARTE

Francis Bret Harte, or as he later called himself Bret Harte, was born in Albany, New York,
August 25, 1836. He came of mixed English, Dutch, and Hebrew stock. The family led a
wandering life, full of privations, till the death of the father, a schoolmaster, in 1845. In 1853 the
widow moved to California, where she married Colonel Andrew Williams. Thither the son
followed her in 1854.

As tutor, express messenger, printer, drug clerk, miner, and editor he spent the three years till
1857, when he settled in San Francisco, where he became a printer in the office of The Golden
Era. Soon he began to contribute articles to the paper, and was promoted to the editorial room. In
1862 he married Miss Anna Griswold, and in 1864 he was appointed secretary of the California
mint. He continued writing, and in the same year was engaged on a weekly, The Californian. In
1867 the first collection of his poems was published under the title of "The Lost Galleon and
Other Tales." When The Overland Monthly was founded in the next year Bret Harte became its
first editor. To its second number he contributed "Luck of Roaring Camp." Though received with
much question in California, it met a most enthusiastic reception in the East, the columns of The
Atlantic Monthly being thrown open to him. This success he followed six months later by another,
"The Outcasts of Poker Flat." His next great success was the poem "Plain Language from Truthful
James," which was in the September, 1870, number of the magazine. It made him famous though
he attached little importance to it. In this year he was made Professor of Recent Literature in the
University of California.

Debt, friction with the new owner of The Overland, and a growing lack of sympathy with the late
settlers, caused Bret Harte to leave California in 1871. He came East and devoted himself entirely
to writing, his work being published for one year altogether in The Atlantic Monthly. But his ever
recurring financial difficulties becoming acute, he did some lecturing in addition. In 1876
appeared his only novel, "Gabriel Conroy," which was not a success. His money difficulties
continuing, his friends came to the rescue[Pg 228] and secured his appointment as United States
Consul at Crefeld, Germany. Leaving his wife, whom he never saw again, he sailed in 1878. At
this post he continued for two years, his life being varied by a lecture tour in England. In 1880 he
was transferred to the more lucrative consulship at Glasgow.

119
In Glasgow he remained for five years, writing, meeting some eminent writers, and visiting
different parts of the country. In 1885, a new President having taken office, he was superseded in
his consulship. He then settled in London, devoting himself to writing with only an occasional trip
away, once as far as Switzerland. In 1901 he died.

REFERENCES

Biography
Merwin: The Life of Bret Harte.
Pemberton: Life of Bret Harte.

Criticism
Woodberry: America in Literature.

NOTES TO "THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT"

This story was first published in The Overland Monthly of San Francisco in 1869.

Page 134. Poker Flat: an actual place in Sierra County, California. The name is typical of a large
class of western geographic names bestowed by rough uneducated men when the West was new.
moral atmosphere: these western mining towns in 1850 in a region which had just become a part
of the United States as a result of the War with Mexico, were largely unorganized and without
regularly constituted government. The bad element did as it pleased until the better people got
tired. Then a "vigilance committee" would be organized, which would either drive out the
undesirables, as in this story, or would execute the entire lot.

135. sluice robber: one way of separating gold from the gravel and sand in which it is found is to
put the mixture into a slanting trough, called a sluice, through which water is run. As these sluices
were sometimes of considerable length, it was not a difficult matter for a man to rob one.[Pg 229]

136. Parthian: the Parthians inhabited a part of ancient Persia. It was their custom when
retreating to continue to shoot arrows at their enemy.

142. Covenanter: one of that body of Scotchmen who had bound themselves by a solemn
covenant or agreement in the seventeenth century to uphold the Presbyterian faith. This act
required force of character, since it was in defiance of King Charles I, and this force was shown in
the vigor of their hymns.

144. Iliad: the ancient Greek epic poem, ascribed to Homer, which tells the story of the war of the
Greeks against Troy. Alexander Pope (1688-1744), an English poet, who rather freely translated
the poem.

147. Derringer: a pistol, so called from the name of the inventor.[Pg 230]

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson, the son of a man of some means, was born in Edinburgh,
November 30, 1850. The Louis form of his second name was merely a caprice in spelling adopted
by the boy, and never altered the pronunciation of the original by his family. An only child,
afflicted with poor health, he was an object of solicitude, notably to his nurse, Alison
Cunningham, to whose loving devotion the world owes an unpayable debt. Stevenson's
appreciation of her faithful ministrations is beautifully voiced in the dedication of his "A Child's
Garden of Verses" (1885). After some schooling, made more or less desultory by ill-health, he
120
attended Edinburgh University. The family profession was lighthouse engineering, and though he
gave it enough attention to receive a medal for a suggested improvement on a lighthouse lamp, his
heart was not in engineering, so he compromised with his father on law. He was called to the
Scottish bar and rode on circuit with the court, but, becoming master of his destiny, he abandoned
law for literature.

Literature was the serious purpose of his life and to it he gave an ardor of industry which is
amazing. He worked at the mastery of its technique for years, till he gained that felicity of
expression which has made his writings classical. His earliest publications were essays, often
inspired by his trips abroad in search of health. On one of these in France in 1876 he met his
future wife, Mrs. Osbourne, an American. Other such trips are recorded in "An Inland Voyage"
(1878) and in "Travels with a Donkey" (1879). In 1879 he came to America, travelling in a rough
way to California, an experience made use of in his book "An Amateur Emigrant." As a
consequence of this trip, he fell desperately ill in San Francisco, where he was nursed by Mrs.
Osbourne, whom he married in 1880. His convalescence in an abandoned mining camp is
recorded in "The Silverado Squatters" (1883). Returning to Scotland, they found the climate
impossible for his weak lungs, consequently they tried various places on the Continent.
Throughout his ill-health he heroically kept at work, publishing from time to time books of
essays[Pg 231] and short-stories, such as "Virginibus Puerisque" (1881) and "New Arabian
Nights" (1882), parts of which had already appeared in magazines, and in 1883 his first popular
success, "Treasure Island."

In 1887 his father died and in the next year he came again to America, sojourning at various
places, among them Saranac Lake, and then voyaging in a sailing vessel, The Casco, in the
Pacific. It was not his ill-health alone that kept him on the move, but an adventurous spirit as well.
Finally the family settled at Apia, Samoa, the climate of which he found remarkably salubrious.
There he could work even physically without the long spells of illness to which he had been
accustomed all his life. He was able to take an intense interest in the unhappy politics of the
islands, endeavoring to alleviate the unfortunate condition of the natives, who passionately
returned his interest. They built for him to his house a road to which they gave the significant
name of "The Road of the Loving Heart," and they celebrated his story-telling gift by the name
"Tusitala," the teller of tales. His efforts for Samoa resulted in a book entitled "A Foot Note to
History" (1893), which showed the troubled condition of the islands. In this place, ruling over a
large retinue of servants like a Scottish chieftain over his clan, he lived for three years, turning out
much work and producing half of that most wonderful novel, "Weir of Hermiston," which bid fair
to be his greatest achievement. Death came suddenly in 1894 from the bursting of a blood vessel
in the brain, thus cheating his lifelong enemy, tuberculosis. Besides "Weir," he left almost
completed another novel, "St. Ives," which was concluded by Quiller-Couch and published in
1898.

On a high peak of Vaea he lies beneath a stone bearing the epitaph written by himself:

"Under the wide and starry sky,

Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill."
[Pg 232]

REFERENCES
121
Biography:
Balfour: Life of Robert Louis Stevenson.
Raleigh: R. L. Stevenson.

Criticism:
Genung: Stevenson's Attitude toward Life.
Phelps: Modern Novelists.

NOTES ON "THE SIRE DE MALÉTROIT'S DOOR"

This story of dramatic interest, which contains, moreover, much psychologic interest, was first
published in Temple Bar, January, 1878, and reprinted in the volume "New Arabian Nights" in
1882.

Page 148. Sire: obsolete French for sir. Burgundy: a section of eastern France bordering on the
river Rhone. The Count of Burgundy by a treaty with the English recognized the claim of the
English king, Henry VI, to the throne of France. Their troops at the time of the story were
endeavoring to establish this claim by force of arms. Joan of Arc figures in this war. safe-
conduct: a passport. As Denis had one, he must have come from the French forces and
consequently was among enemies.

149. Chateau Landon: an ancient town southeast of Paris.

150. Bourges: a city in the Department of Cher, west of Burgundy.

154. rushes: In those days the floors of rooms were covered with rushes into which people were
accustomed to throw refuse. Cleaning was done by removing the old rushes and putting a fresh
supply in their place.

155. Leonardo: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), a famous Italian painter who did much
portraiture, particularly of women. One of his best-known works is the "Mona Lisa."

156. damoiseau: obsolete French word denoting rank.

163. salle: (French) hall.

164. Charlemagne: the French form of Charles the Great (742-814), a great king of the Franks
and Emperor of the Romans.

169. Hercules: a great personage in Greek mythology, famous[Pg 233] for his strength. Solomon:
king of Israel, 993-953 B.C., noted for his wisdom.

NOTES ON "MARKHEIM"

This psychological study was written in 1884 and published in Unwin's Annual for 1885.

Page 179. "Time was that when the brains were out": a misquotation from Shakespeare's
"Macbeth," Act III, scene iv, lines 78-79. In full this most apposite reference runs:

"The times have been,

That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end; but now they rise again,
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
122
 And push us from our stools: this is more strange
Than such a murder is."

180. Bohemian goblets: drinking glasses of glass made in Bohemia, the most northern portion of
the Empire of Austria-Hungary. Its glassware is famous.

182. Brownrigg: Elizabeth Brownrigg, a notorious English murderess of the eighteenth century.
Pictures of such persons were common at country fairs. Mannings: other murderers, man and
wife. Thurtell: another murderer and his victim.

185. other murderers: compare the agonies of Bill Sykes in "Oliver Twist."

186. Sheraton sideboard: Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) was a well-known English furniture
maker. Jacobean tombs: graves of the times of the English kings named James of the seventeenth
century.

187. a face was thrust into the aperture: This was not a real person but one born of Markheim's
troubled mind. The conversation shows the dual nature of man, containing both good and bad, and
how a man excuses his wickedness. The subject was used again by Stevenson in "Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde."[Pg 234]

RUDYARD KIPLING

Rudyard Kipling is the son of John Lockwood Kipling, successively Professor in the Bombay
School of Art and Curator of the Government Museum at Lahore, India, and of Alice Macdonald,
the daughter of a Wesleyan minister. He was born at Bombay, December 30, 1865. His given
name commemorates the meeting-place of his parents, a small lake in Staffordshire.

In accordance with the custom dictated by the needs of health and of education in the case of
white children born in India, he was taken in 1871 to England, where he stayed with a relative at
Southsea, near Portsmouth. The experiences of such little exiles from the home circle are
feelingly shown in "Baa, Baa, Black-sheep" and in the beginning of "The Light that Failed."
When thirteen he entered The United Services College, Westward Ho, Bideford, North Devon.
Here he stayed from 1878 to 1882, taking part in some at least of the happenings so well narrated
in "Stalky and Co." (1899).

On leaving college in 1882 he went to Lahore, India, where he became sub-editor of The Civil
and Military Gazette. In 1887 he joined the editorial staff of The Allahabad Pioneer. To these
papers he contributed many of the poems and short-stories soon collected in the volumes named
"Departmental Ditties" (1886) and "Plain Tales from the Hills" (1888). All of these writings come
near to actual occurrences, and give a fascinating glimpse of conditions in India. In the same year
of 1888 he published in India six other volumes of tales.

Leaving India in 1889, he returned to Europe via China, Japan, and the United States, sending
back to the two papers travel sketches which have since been collected under the title of "From
Sea to Sea" (1899).

On reaching England he found himself a celebrated man. There he met in 1891 Wolcott Balestier,
an American, to whom he dedicated "Barrack Room Ballads" (1892) in an introductory poem
filled with glowing tribute. In the same year he made further journeys to South Africa, Australia,
and New Zealand.[Pg 235]

123
 He married Caroline Balestier in 1892, the year of publication of "The Naulahka," which had been
written in collaboration with her brother. The travelling continued till they settled in Brattleboro,
Vermont, where their unique house was named appropriately "The Naulahka." The fruit of his
American sojourn was, among other writings, "Captains Courageous" (1897), a story of the
Atlantic fishing banks, full of American atmosphere and characters. In the meantime, in various
periodicals had appeared short-stories and poems, which were quickly put into books. One of the
stories is "A Walking Delegate," which is so wonderfully accurate in the local color of Vermont
as to be worthy of special mention. It forms one of "The Day's Work" group (1898). In it is seen
Kipling's power of observation, which he possesses to such a remarkable degree. To this period
belong those famous collections, "The Jungle Book" (1894) and "The Second Jungle Book"
(1895), containing the beast stories which seem so plausible, and a book of poems, "The Seven
Seas" (1896).

In 1896 the Kiplings returned to England, taking a house at Rottingdean. While England has
remained his permanent home, he has continued to take journeys. During a trip in 1899 he was
seriously ill in New York with pneumonia. While ill, his condition was a constant source of
anxiety to all classes of people. He recovered, but his little daughter Josephine died of the same
disease. One cannot fail to note the intimate touches reminiscent of her in "They," published in
"Traffics and Discoveries" (1904). Another trip, in 1900, was to South Africa, while the Boer War
was in progress. The results are to be found in many poems and stories about the struggle.

In late years honors have come to him. The Nobel Prize of Literature and an honorary degree
from Oxford were both awarded him in 1907. He has taken some part in politics, but he continues
to write, though not so prolifically as before. His more recent books are: "Kim" (1902), a vivid
panorama of India; "Puck of Pook's Hill" (1906), and "Rewards and Fairies" (1910), realistic
reconstructions of English history; "Actions and Reactions" (1909), a series of stories, among
them "An Habitation Enforced," a rare story of the charm of English country life; and "The
Fringes of the Fleet" (1916), relating to the European War.[Pg 236] His son John has had the
misfortune to be captured in the present war.

One book, "The Day's Work," deserves particular mention, as it contains some of his best stories,
such as "The Brushwood Boy," and exhibits especially the three cardinal points of his philosophy
of life—"Work," "Don't whine," and "Don't be afraid."

REFERENCES

Biography
Clemens: A Ken of Kipling.
Knowles: A Kipling Primer.

Criticism
Le Gallienne: Rudyard Kipling, A Criticism.
Falls: Rudyard Kipling, A Critical Study.
Hooker: The Later Work of Rudyard Kipling, North American Review, May, 1911.

NOTES TO "WEE WILLIE WINKIE"

Page 196. Wee Willie Winkie: the name is taken from the Scotch poem of William Miller (1810-
1872). Below is given Whittier's familiar version of the poem:

Wee Willie Winkie Anything but sleep, you rogue!

Runs through the town, Glowering like the moon;
Upstairs and downstairs, Rattling in an iron jug
124
In his nightgown! With an iron spoon;
Tapping at the window, Rumbling, tumbling all about,
Crying at the lock, Crowing like a cock,
"Are the weans in their bed, Screaming like I don't know what,
For it's now ten o'clock?" Waking sleeping folk.
"Hey, Willie Winkie, "Hey, Willie Winkie,
Are you coming then? Can't you keep him still?
The cat's singing purrie Wriggling off a body's knee
To the sleeping hen; Like a very eel;
The dog is lying on the floor Pulling at the cat's ear,
And doesn't even peep; As she drowsy hums;
But here's a wakeful laddie Heigh, Willie Winkie!
That will not fall asleep." See! there he comes!"

Wearied is the mother

[Pg 237]
That has a restless wean,
A wee stumpy bairnie,
Heard whene'er he's seen—
That has a battle aye with sleep
Before he'll close his e'e;
But a kiss from off his rosy lips
Gives strength anew to me.

"An officer, etc.": this quotation refers to the time when the holders of military rank also held
social position. ayah: Anglo-Indian for "nurse." Baba: Oriental title of respect. subaltern: a
commissioned officer of lower rank than captain, i.e. lieutenant. compound: an enclosure, in the
East, for a residence.

197. Commissioner: a civilian official having charge of a department. Station: a military post.
mess: a group of officers who eat together, hence the officers. rank and file: the non-
commissioned officers and privates.

198. Afghan and Egyptian medals: it is customary for medals to be struck off in
commemoration of campaigns and for them to be called after the places in which the campaigns
occurred.

199. Hut jao: native expression equivalent to "go away at once."

200. Bell, Butcha: dogs' names. Butcha = butcher.

201. Old Adam: it is a religious belief that Adam, supposedly the first man, committed sin, the
tendency to which he handed down to all men as his descendants. Hence when one does wrong it
is said that the Old Adam comes out. quarters: house or rooms of an officer.

202. Bad Men: childish name for hostile natives. broke his arrest: an officer under arrest is his
own keeper. Sahib: a term of respect, equivalent to Mister, used by East Indians toward
Europeans.

203. twelve-two: the unit of measurement of the height of a horse is called a hand, which is equal
to four inches. Hence twelve-two means twelve hands and two inches. Waler: a horse from New
South Wales.
125
205. Pushto: sometimes Pushtu, the language of the Afghans.[Pg 238]

206. Sahib Bahadur: Sahib = Mister. Bahadur, title of respect equivalent to "gallant officer."

207. Spoil-five: a game of cards. Color Sergeant: in the British army, he is a non-commissioned
officer who ranks higher and receives better pay than an ordinary sergeant, and, in addition to
discharging the usual duties of a sergeant, attends the colors (the flag) in the field or near
headquarters. Pathans: (pronounced Pay-tán) an Afghan race settled in Hindustan and in eastern
Afghanistan. double: to increase the pace to twice the ordinary; double-quick.

208. cantonment: (in India pronounced can-tóne-ment) part of a town assigned to soldiers.
pulton: native expression equivalent to "troops."

209. pukka: native expression meaning "real," "thorough."

[1] The Philosophy of the Short-Story in Pen and Ink, page 72. (Longmans, Green & Co., 1888.)

[2] Ibid.

[3] Materials of Fiction, page 175. (Doubleday, Page & Co., 1912.)

[4] Materials of Fiction, page 173. (Doubleday, Page & Co., 1912.)

[5] Graham's Magazine, May, 1842.

[6] Vailima Letters, I, page 147.

[7] Krapp's Irving's Tales of a Traveller, etc. Introduction. (Scott, Foresman & Co.)

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wishes the pupil to write. The teacher indicates a question, or series of questions, by number, and
the pupil understands that his review is to answer these questions. There are directions for both
teacher and pupil. On the back cover is a list of books for home reading.

Journeys in Fiction

By Alfred M. Hitchcock, High School, Hartford, Conn. Paper, 42 pages. Price, 10 cents.

Select Essays of Macaulay

Edited by Samuel Thurber. 12mo, cloth, 219 pages. Price, 50 cents.

This selection comprises the essays on Milton, Bunyan, Johnson, Goldsmith, and Madame
D'Arblay, thus giving illustrations both of Macaulay's earlier and of his later style. The subjects of
the essays are such as to bring them into close relation with the study of English Literature.

The notes are intended to help the pupil to help himself. When an allusion is not easily
understood, a note briefly explains it, or at least indicates where an explanation may be found. In
other cases the pupil is expected to rely on his own efforts, and on such assistance as his teacher
may think it wise to give.

Historical Essays of Macaulay

Edited by Samuel Thurber. 12mo, cloth, 399 pages. Price, 60 cents.

This selection includes the essays on Lord Clive, Warren Hastings, and both the essays on the
Earl of Chatham. The text in each case is given entire. A map of India, giving the location of
places named in the essays, is included.

These essays are annotated on the same principle that is followed in the notes to the Select Essays.

Select Essays of Addison

With Macaulay's Essay on Addison. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 12mo, cloth, 340 pages. Price, 60
cents.

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The editor has aimed to bring together such papers from the Spectator, the Tatler, the Guardian,
and the Freeholder as will prove most readable to youth of high school age, and at the same time
give something like an adequate idea of the richness of Addison's vein. The De Coverley Papers
are of course included. There are seventy selections in all. They have to do with the Spectator
Club, the Stage, Manners, Politics, Morals, and Religion. There are selections from Addison's
Stories and his Hymns. The book contains also Macaulay's Essay on Addison.

132