by Oscar Wilde
“And if he will not work?”
“Why, they will scourge him in such a manner, that he would be afraid even of a threat of a repetition of the same treatment.”
“That will do. But I think the worthy doctor will split himself with rage and malice, he will be like a caged tiger.”
“But he will be denuded of his teeth and claws,” replied the countess, smiling “therefore he will have leisure to repent of having threatened his employers.”
* * * *
Some weeks passed over, and the Count of Morven contrived to become acquainted with the doctor. They appeared to be utter strangers to each other, though each knew the other; the doctor having disguised himself, he believed the disguise impenetrable and therefore sat at ease.
“Worthy doctor,” said the count to him, one day; “you have, no doubt, in your studies, become acquainted with many of the secrets of science.”
“I have, my lord count; I may say there are few that are not known to Father Aldrovani. I have spent many years in research.”
“Indeed!”
“Yes; the midnight lamp has burned till the glorious sun has reached the horizon, and brings back the day, and yet have I been found beside my books.”
“’Tis well; men like you should well know the value of the purest and most valuable metals the earth produces?”
“I know of but one—that is gold!”
“’Tis what I mean.”
“But ’tis hard to procure from the bowels of the earth—from the heart of these mountains by which we are surrounded.”
“Yes, that is true. But know you not the owners of this castle and territory possess these mines and work them?”
“I believe they do; but I thought they had discontinued working them some years.”
“Oh, no! that was given out to deceive the government, who claimed so much out of its products.”
“Oh! ah! aye, I see now.”
“And ever since they have been working it privately, and storing bars of gold up in the vaults of this—”
“Here, in this castle?”
“Yes; beneath this very tower—it being the least frequented—the strongest, and perfectly inaccessible from all sides, save the castle—it was placed there for the safest deposit.”
“I see; and there is much gold deposited in the vaults?”
“I believe there is an immense quantity in the vaults.”
“And what is your motive for telling me of this hoard of the precious metal?”
“Why, doctor, I thought that you or I could use a few bars; and that, if we acted in concert, we might be able to take away, at various times, and secrete, in some place or other, enough to make us rich men for all our lives.”
“I should like to see this gold before I said anything about it,” replied the doctor, thoughtfully.
“As you please; do you find a lamp that will not go out by the sudden draughts of air, or have the means of relighting it, and I will accompany you.”
“When?”
“This very night, good doctor, when you shall see such a golden harvest you never yet hoped for, or even believed in.”
“Tonight be it, then,” replied the doctor. “I will have a lamp that will answer our purpose, and some other matters.”
“Do, good doctor,” and the count left the philosopher’s cell.
* * * *
“The plan takes,” said the count to the countess, “give me the keys, and the worthy man will be in safety before daylight.”
“Is he not suspicious?”
“Not at all.”
* * * *
That night, about an hour before midnight—the Count Morven stole towards the philosopher’s room. He tapped at the door.
“Enter,” said the philosopher.
The count entered, and saw the philosopher seated, and by him a lamp of peculiar construction, and incased in gauze wire, and a cloak.
“Are you ready?” inquired the count.
“Quite,” he replied.
“Is that your lamp?”
“It is.”
“Follow me, then, and hold the lamp tolerably high, as the way is strange, and the steps steep.”
“Lead on.”
“You have made up your mind, I dare say, as to what share of the undertaking you will accept of with me.”
“And what if I will not?” said the philosopher, coolly.
“It falls to the ground, and I return the keys to their place.”
“I dare say I shall not refuse, if you have not deceived me as to the quantity and purity of the metal they have stored up.”
“I am no judge of these metals, doctor. I am no assayest; but I believe you will find what I have to show you will far exceed your expectations on that head.”
“’Tis well: proceed.”
They had now got to the first vault, in which stood the first door, and, with some difficulty, they opened the vault door.
“It has not been opened for some time,” said the philosopher.
“I dare say not, they seldom used to go here, from what I can learn, though it is kept a great secret.”
“And we can keep it so, likewise.”
“True.”
They now entered the vault, and came to the second door, which opened into a kind of flight of steps, cut out of the solid rock, and then along a passage cut out of the mountain, of some kind of stone, but not so hard as the rock itself.
“You see,” said the count, “what care has been taken to isolate the place, and detach it from the castle, so that it should not be dependent upon the possessor of the castle. This is the last door but one, and now prepare yourself for a surprise, doctor, this will be an extraordinary one.”
So saying, the count opened the door, and stepped on one side, when the doctor approached the place, and was immediately thrust forward by the count and he rolled down some steps into the mine, and was immediately seized by some of the miners, who had been stationed there for that purpose, and carried to a distant part of the mine, there to work for the remainder of his life.
The count, seeing all secure, refastened the doors, and returned to the castle. A few weeks after this the body of a youth, mangled and disfigured, was brought to the castle, which the countess said was her son’s body.
The count had immediately secured the real heir, and thrust him into the mines, there to pass a life of labour and hopeless misery.
* * * *
There was a high feast held. The castle gates were thrown open, and everybody who came were entertained without question.
This was on the occasion of the count’s and countess’s marriage. It seemed many months after the death of her son, whom she affected to mourn for a long time.
However, the marriage took place, and in all magnificence and splendour. The countess again appeared arrayed in splendour and beauty: she was proud and haughty, and the count was imperious.
In the mean time, the young Count de Hugo de Verole was confined in the mines, and the doctor with him.
By a strange coincidence, the doctor and the young count became companions, and the former, meditating projects of revenge, educated the young count as well as he was able for several years in the mines, and cherished in the young man a spirit of revenge. They finally escaped together, and proceeded to Leyden, where the doctor had friends, and where he placed his pupil at the university, and thus made him a most efficient means of revenge, because the education of the count gave him a means of appreciating the splendour and rank he had been deprived of. He, therefore, determined to remain at Leyden until he was of age, and then apply to his father’s friends, and then to his sovereign, to dispossess and punish them both for their double crime.
The count and countess lived on in a state of regal splendour. The immense revenue of his territory,
and the treasure the late count had amassed, as well as the revenue that the mines brought in, would have supported a much larger expenditure than even their tastes disposed them to enjoy.
They had heard nothing of the escape of the doctor and the young count. Indeed, those who knew of it held their peace and said nothing about it, for they feared the consequences of their negligence. The first intimation they received was at the hands of a state messenger, summoning them to deliver up the castle revenues and treasure of the late count.
This was astounding to them, and they refused to do so, but were soon after seized upon by a regiment of cuirassiers sent to take them, and they were accused of the crime of murder at the instance of the doctor.
They were arraigned and found guilty, and, as they were of the patrician order, their execution was delayed, and they were committed to exile. This was done out of favour to the young count, who did not wish to have his family name tainted by a public execution, or their being confined like convicts.
The count and countess quitted Hungary, and settled in Italy, where they lived upon the remains of the Count of Morven’s property, shorn of all their splendour but enough to keep them from being compelled to do any menial office.
The young count took possession of his patrimony and his treasure at last, such as was left by his mother and her paramour.
The doctor continued to hide his crime from the young count, and the perpetrators denying all knowledge of it, he escaped; but he returned to his native place, Leyden, with a reward for his services from the young count.
Flora rose from her perusal of the manuscript, which here ended, and even as she did so, she heard a footstep approaching her chamber door.
CHAPTER XX.
THE DREADFUL MISTAKE.—THE TERRIFIC INTERVIEW IN THE CHAMBER.—THE ATTACK OF THE VAMPIRE.
The footstep which Flora, upon the close of the tale she had been reading, heard approaching her apartment, came rapidly along the corridor.
“It is Henry, returned to conduct me to an interview with Charles’s uncle,” she said. “I wonder, now, what manner of man he is. He should in some respects resemble Charles; and if he do so, I shall bestow upon him some affection for that alone.”
Tap—tap came upon the chamber door. Flora was not at all alarmed now, as she had been when Henry brought her the manuscript. From some strange action of the nervous system, she felt quite confident, and resolved to brave everything. But then she felt quite sure that it was Henry, and before the knocking had taken her by surprise.
“Come in,” she said, in a cheerful voice. “Come in.”
The door opened with wonderful swiftness—a figure stepped into the room, and then closed it as rapidly, and stood against it. Flora tried to scream, but her tongue refused its office; a confused whirl of sensations passed through her brain—she trembled, and an icy coldness came over her. It was Sir Francis Varney, the vampire!
He had drawn up his tall, gaunt frame to its full height, and crossed his arms upon his breast; there was a hideous smile upon his sallow countenance, and his voice was deep and sepulchral, as he said—
“Flora Bannerworth, hear that which I have to say, and hear it calmly. You need have nothing to fear. Make an alarm—scream, or shout for help, and, by the hell beneath us, you are lost!”
There was a death-like, cold, passionless manner about the utterance of these words, as if they were spoken mechanically, and came from no human lips.
Flora heard them, and yet scarcely comprehended them; she stepped slowly back till she reached a chair, and there she held for support. The only part of the address of Varney that thoroughly reached her ears, was that if she gave any alarm some dreadful consequences were to ensue. But it was not on account of these words that she really gave no alarm; it was because she was utterly unable to do so.
“Answer me,” said Varney. “Promise that you will hear that which I have to say. In so promising you commit yourself to no evil, and you shall hear that which shall give you much peace.”
It was in vain she tried to speak; her lips moved, but she uttered no sound.
“You are terrified,” said Varney, “and yet I know not why. I do not come to do you harm, although harm have you done me. Girl, I come to rescue you from a thraldom of the soul under which you now labour.”
There was a pause of some moments’ duration, and then, faintly, Flora managed to say—
“Help! help! Oh, help me, Heaven!”
Varney made a gesture of impatience, as he said—
“Heaven works no special matters now. Flora Bannerworth, if you have as much intellect as your nobility and beauty would warrant the world in supposing, you will listen to me.”
“I—I hear,” said Flora, as she still, dragging the chair with her, increased the distance between them.
“’Tis well. You are now more composed.”
She fixed her eyes upon the face of Varney with a shudder. There could be no mistake. It was the same which, with the strange, glassy looking eyes, had glared upon her on that awful night of the storm when she was visited by the vampire. And Varney returned that gaze unflinchingly There was a hideous and strange contortion of his face now as he said—
“You are beautiful. The most cunning statuary might well model some rare work of art from those rounded limbs, that were surely made to bewitch the gazer. Your skin rivals the driven snow—what a face of loveliness, and what a form of enchantment.”
She did not speak, but a thought came across her mind, which at once crimsoned her cheek—she knew she had fainted on the first visit of the vampire, and now he, with a hideous reverence, praised beauties which he might have cast his demoniac eyes over at such a time.
“You understand me,” he said. “Well, let that pass. I am something allied to humanity yet.”
“Speak your errand,” gasped Flora, “or come what may, I scream for help to those who will not be slow to render it.”
“I know it.”
“You know I will scream?”
“No; you will hear me. I know they would not be slow to tender help to you, but you will not call for it; I will present to you no necessity.”
“Say on—say on.”
“You perceive I do not attempt to approach you; my errand is one of peace.”
“Peace from you! Horrible being, if you be really what even now my appalled imagination shrinks from naming you, would not even to you absolute annihilation be a blessing?”
“Peace, peace. I came not here to talk on such a subject. I must be brief, Flora Bannerworth, for time presses. I do not hate you. Wherefore should I? You are young, and you are beautiful, and you bear a name which should command, and does command, some portion of my best regard.”
“There is a portrait,” said Flora, “in this house.”
“No more—no more. I know what you would say.”
“It is yours.”
“The house, and all within, I covet,” he said, uneasily. “Let that suffice. I have quarrelled with your brother—I have quarrelled with one who just now fancies he loves you.”
“Charles Holland loves me truly.”
“It does not suit me now to dispute that point with you. I have the means of knowing more of the secrets of the human heart than common men. I tell you, Flora Bannerworth, that he who talks to you of love, loves you not but with the fleeting fancy of a boy; and there is one who hides deep in his heart a world of passion, one who has never spoken to you of love, and yet who loves you with a love as far surpassing the evanescent fancy of this boy Holland, as does the mighty ocean the most placid lake that ever basked in idleness beneath a summer’s sun.”
There was a wonderful fascination in the manner now of Varney. His voice sounded like music itself. His words flowed from his tongue, each gently and properly accented, with all the charm of eloquence.
Despite her trembling horro
r of that man—despite her fearful opinion, which might be said to amount to a conviction of what he really was, Flora felt an irresistible wish to hear him speak on. Ay, despite too, the ungrateful theme to her heart which he had now chosen as the subject of his discourse, she felt her fear of him gradually dissipating, and now when he made a pause, she said—
“You are much mistaken. On the constancy and truth of Charles Holland, I would stake my life.”
“No doubt, no doubt.”
“Have you spoken now that which you had to say?”
“No, no. I tell you I covet this place, I would purchase it, but having with your bad-tempered brothers quarrelled, they will hold no further converse with me.”
“And well they may refuse.”
“Be, that as it may, sweet lady, I come to you to be my mediator. In the shadow of the future I can see many events which are to come.”
“Indeed.”
“It is so. Borrowing some wisdom from the past, and some from resources I would not detail to you, I know that if I have inflicted much misery upon you, I can spare you much more. Your brother or your lover will challenge me.”
“Oh, no, no.”
“I say such will happen, and I can kill either. My skill as well as my strength is superhuman.”
“Mercy! mercy!” gasped Flora. “I will spare either or both on a condition.”
“What fearful condition?”
“It is not a fearful one. Your terrors go far before the fact. All I wish, maiden, of you is to induce these imperious brothers of yours to sell or let the Hall to me.”
“Is that all?”
“It is. I ask no more, and, in return, I promise you not only that I will not fight with them, but that you shall never see me again. Rest securely, maiden, you will be undisturbed by me.”
“Oh, God! that were indeed an assurance worth the striving for,” said Flora.
“It is one you may have. But—”
“Oh, I knew—my heart told me there was yet some fearful condition to come.”
“You are wrong again. I only ask of you that you keep this meeting a secret.”
“No, no, no—I cannot.”
“Nay, what so easy?”