Le mystère de la chambre jaune. English
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CHAPTER IV. "In the Bosom of Wild Nature"
The Chateau du Glandier is one of the oldest chateaux in the Ile deFrance, where so many building remains of the feudal period are stillstanding. Built originally in the heart of the forest, in the reign ofPhilip le Bel, it now could be seen a few hundred yards from the roadleading from the village of Sainte-Genevieve to Monthery. A mass ofinharmonious structures, it is dominated by a donjon. When the visitorhas mounted the crumbling steps of this ancient donjon, he reaches alittle plateau where, in the seventeenth century, Georges Philibert deSequigny, Lord of the Glandier, Maisons-Neuves and other places, builtthe existing town in an abominably rococo style of architecture.
It was in this place, seemingly belonging entirely to the past, thatProfessor Stangerson and his daughter installed themselves to lay thefoundations for the science of the future. Its solitude, in the depthsof woods, was what, more than all, had pleased them. They would havenone to witness their labours and intrude on their hopes, but the agedstones and grand old oaks. The Glandier--ancient Glandierum--was socalled from the quantity of glands (acorns) which, in all times, hadbeen gathered in that neighbourhood. This land, of present mournfulinterest, had fallen back, owing to the negligence or abandonment ofits owners, into the wild character of primitive nature. The buildingsalone, which were hidden there, had preserved traces of their strangemetamorphoses. Every age had left on them its imprint; a bit ofarchitecture with which was bound up the remembrance of some terribleevent, some bloody adventure. Such was the chateau in which science hadtaken refuge--a place seemingly designed to be the theatre of mysteries,terror, and death.
Having explained so far, I cannot refrain from making one furtherreflection. If I have lingered a little over this description of theGlandier, it is not because I have reached the right moment for creatingthe necessary atmosphere for the unfolding of the tragedy before theeyes of the reader. Indeed, in all this matter, my first care will beto be as simple as is possible. I have no ambition to be an author. Anauthor is always something of a romancer, and God knows, the mystery ofThe Yellow Room is quite full enough of real tragic horror to requireno aid from literary effects. I am, and only desire to be, a faithful"reporter." My duty is to report the event; and I place the event in itsframe--that is all. It is only natural that you should know where thethings happened.
I return to Monsieur Stangerson. When he bought the estate, fifteenyears before the tragedy with which we are engaged occurred, the Chateaudu Glandier had for a long time been unoccupied. Another old chateau inthe neighbourhood, built in the fourteenth century by Jean de Belmont,was also abandoned, so that that part of the country was very littleinhabited. Some small houses on the side of the road leading toCorbeil, an inn, called the "Auberge du Donjon," which offered passinghospitality to waggoners; these were about all to represent civilisationin this out-of-the-way part of the country, but a few leagues from thecapital.
But this deserted condition of the place had been the determining reasonfor the choice made by Monsieur Stangerson and his daughter. MonsieurStangerson was already celebrated. He had returned from America, wherehis works had made a great stir. The book which he had published atPhiladelphia, on the "Dissociation of Matter by Electric Action," hadaroused opposition throughout the whole scientific world. MonsieurStangerson was a Frenchman, but of American origin. Important mattersrelating to a legacy had kept him for several years in the UnitedStates, where he had continued the work begun by him in France, whitherhe had returned in possession of a large fortune. This fortune was agreat boon to him; for, though he might have made millions of dollarsby exploiting two or three of his chemical discoveries relative to newprocesses of dyeing, it was always repugnant to him to use for hisown private gain the wonderful gift of invention he had received fromnature. He considered he owed it to mankind, and all that his geniusbrought into the world went, by this philosophical view of his duty,into the public lap.
If he did not try to conceal his satisfaction at coming into possessionof this fortune, which enabled him to give himself up to his passion forpure science, he had equally to rejoice, it seemed to him, for anothercause. Mademoiselle Stangerson was, at the time when her father returnedfrom America and bought the Glandier estate, twenty years of age. Shewas exceedingly pretty, having at once the Parisian grace of her mother,who had died in giving her birth, and all the splendour, all theriches of the young American blood of her parental grandfather, WilliamStangerson. A citizen of Philadelphia, William Stangerson had beenobliged to become naturalised in obedience to family exigencies at thetime of his marriage with a French lady, she who was to be the motherof the illustrious Stangerson. In that way the professor's Frenchnationality is accounted for.
Twenty years of age, a charming blonde, with blue eyes, milk-whitecomplexion, and radiant with divine health, Mathilde Stangerson was oneof the most beautiful marriageable girls in either the old or the newworld. It was her father's duty, in spite of the inevitable pain whicha separation from her would cause him, to think of her marriage; and hewas fully prepared for it. Nevertheless, he buried himself and his childat the Glandier at the moment when his friends were expecting him tobring her out into society. Some of them expressed their astonishment,and to their questions he answered: "It is my daughter's wish. I canrefuse her nothing. She has chosen the Glandier."
Interrogated in her turn, the young girl replied calmly: "Where couldwe work better than in this solitude?" For Mademoiselle Stangerson hadalready begun to collaborate with her father in his work. It could notat the time be imagined that her passion for science would lead her sofar as to refuse all the suitors who presented themselves to her forover fifteen years. So secluded was the life led by the two, father anddaughter, that they showed themselves only at a few officialreceptions and, at certain times in the year, in two or three friendlydrawing-rooms, where the fame of the professor and the beauty ofMathilde made a sensation. The young girl's extreme reserve did not atfirst discourage suitors; but at the end of a few years, they tired oftheir quest.
One alone persisted with tender tenacity and deserved the name of"eternal fiance," a name he accepted with melancholy resignation; thatwas Monsieur Robert Darzac. Mademoiselle Stangerson was now no longeryoung, and it seemed that, having found no reason for marrying atfive-and-thirty, she would never find one. But such an argumentevidently found no acceptance with Monsieur Robert Darzac. He continuedto pay his court--if the delicate and tender attention with which heceaselessly surrounded this woman of five-and-thirty could be calledcourtship--in face of her declared intention never to marry.
Suddenly, some weeks before the events with which we are occupied, areport--to which nobody attached any importance, so incredible did itsound--was spread about Paris, that Mademoiselle Stangerson had atlast consented to "crown" the inextinguishable flame of Monsieur RobertDarzac! It needed that Monsieur Robert Darzac himself should not denythis matrimonial rumour to give it an appearance of truth, so unlikelydid it seem to be well founded. One day, however, Monsieur Stangerson,as he was leaving the Academy of Science, announced that the marriageof his daughter and Monsieur Robert Darzac would be celebrated in theprivacy of the Chateau du Glandier, as soon as he and his daughter hadput the finishing touches to their report summing up their labours onthe "Dissociation of Matter." The new household would install itself inthe Glandier, and the son-in-law would lend his assistance in the workto which the father and daughter had dedicated their lives.
The scientific world had barely had time to recover from the effectof this news, when it learned of the attempted assassination ofMademoiselle under the extraordinary conditions which we have detailedand which our visit to the chateau was to enable us to ascertain withyet greater precision. I have not hesitated to furnish the readerwith all these retrospective details, known to me through my businessrelations with Monsieur Robert Darzac. On crossing the threshold of TheYellow Room he was as well posted as I was.