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From The King of the Mountains, by Edmond About, Translated from the French; with a Critical Introduction by Andrew Lang; a Frontispiece and Numerous Other Portraits with Descriptive Notes by Octave Uzanne; The French Classical Romances Complete in Twenty Crown Octavo Volumes, Editor-in-Chief Edmond Gosse, LL.D; New York : P. F. Collier & Son; 1902; pp. 196-243.
CHAPTER VI
THE ESCAPE
WHILE we were saying good-bye, the whole place was suddenly permeated by a strong smell of garlic that nearly suffocated us. It was due to the arrival on the scene of the Albanian maid-servant, who came to implore the ladies to remember her — generously. The woman had proved far more useless than useful, and during the last two days her services had actually been dispensed with. Mrs. Simons, however, was sorry not to be able to do anything for her, and begged me to tell the King the manner in which her money had been stolen from her.
Hadji seemed neither surprised nor shocked. He simply shrugged his shoulders and mumbled — that Pericles — had education — spoiled by living in towns! I ought to have expected it. Then he added aloud :
“Beg these ladies not to trouble themselves any more about the matter. I gave them a servant, 197 and it’s my business to pay her. Tell them that if they want a little money to return to Athens, my purse is at their service. Although there is no danger, they shall be escorted to the foot of the mountain. The carabineers are less to be feared than is generally supposed. The ladies will find at Castia, breakfast, horses, and a guide. Everything has been arranged, everything paid. Do you think, as a sign that there is no ill-will between us, they would do me the honour to shake hands with me?”
Mrs. Simons exhibited some reluctance to perform this act of civility, but Mary-Ann extended her hand frankly to the old Palikar, saying rather maliciously as she did so : “You are too good, sir, for, at the present moment, we are the Klephts, and you the victim.”
The King answered quietly : “I return you my most sincere thanks, young lady, for your politeness.”
Mary-Ann’s pretty hand was bleached by the sun like a piece of rose-coloured satin that has remained too long in the shop-window, but I was none the less gratified by pressing it to my lips. Afterward I also kissed the mother’s wrinkled paw. “Courage!” cried the old dame as she departed. Mary-Ann remained silent, but beamed 198 upon me a smile that would have electrified an army.
When the last man of the escort had disappeared, Hadji took me aside.
“Well! It seems that you haven’t been clever?”
“No doubt; but I’m not the only one in the same boat.”
“Your ransom is not paid. Will it be so? I can’t help thinking it, because you and the Englishwomen appear to be on the best of terms.”
“Don’t be alarmed; in three days I shall be far from here.”
“So much the better. I want money badly. The losses of last Monday will weigh heavily on my budget, and I must also replace men and material.”
“It’s cool of you to complain, considering that by one stroke of luck you’ve made four thousand pounds!”
“No; not four thousand — three thousand six hundred; the monk has already got his tithe. And of this sum, which you think so considerable, not more than eight hundred pounds will fall to my share. Our expenses are heavy : we have many obligations. And what would it be, if, as has already been mooted, the shareholders decided 199 to found a hospital for invalids? To give pensions to the brigands’ widows and orphans would be the last straw! Fever and musket-balls cost us thirty men, year in, year out — so you see where that would lead us! We scarcely could make two ends meet; in fact, my dear young friend, I should have to encroach upon my savings.”
“Have you ever been a loser?”
“Only once. I had just received two thousand pounds. One of my secretaries, who has since been hanged, took himself off to Thessaly with the money. I had to replace the deficit, being held responsible for it by the Company. As my share would have been two hundred and eighty pounds, I lost seventeen hundred and twenty pounds. But the rascal paid dear for his trick. I punished him in the Persian fashion.
“Before being hanged, his teeth were drawn, one by one, and then hammered into his skull. This was simply to make an example of him, you see. I’m not hard to deal with, but don’t like being humbugged.”
I chuckled inwardly at the thought that the Palikar, “who wasn’t hard to deal with,” would lose £3600 of Mrs. Simons’s ransom, and that he would get this pleasant bit of news when my 200 skull and my teeth would be beyond his reach. He passed his arm familiarly into mine.
“How will you pass your time until you leave us? You’ll miss the ladies terribly. Would you like to cast an eye over the Athenian papers? The monk has brought us a bundle of them. As for me I never open one, knowing exactly what the articles are worth, since I pay for them. Here are the Official Gazette, the Dawn, Palikar, and the Caricature, a sort of Athenian Punch. No doubt they say a lot about us. The poor subscribers, I pity them! Now I’ll leave you, and if you find anything worth repeating, you’ll tell me.”
The Dawn, written in French, and chiefly to blind Europe, had devoted a long article to contradicting the last news about the brigands.
It ridiculed, smartly enough, the foolish travellers who saw a robber in every ragged peasant, an armed band in every dust-cloud, and who go on their knees and implore mercy of the first bush that catches their clothes. This truthful organ boasted of the security of the roads, praised the disinterestedness of the natives, and spoke of the calm and repose to be found in the mountains.
The Palikar, inspired by some of Hadji’s friends, contained an eloquent biography of its hero. It told how this Theseus of our time, the 201 only man of the century who never had been beaten had attempted a strong reconnaissance in the direction of the Scironian rocks.
“Betrayed by the lack of energy of his troops, he had, it seemed, retired with little loss; but, overwhelmed by a sense of profound disgust for a profession that had so sadly degenerated, he had decided to retire form it; even to leave Greece, and enjoy in Europe a gloriously-acquired fortune, which would allow him to retire en Prince.
“So now,” added the Palikar, “bankers and merchants, Greeks, travellers, or foreigners, have nothing more to fear. Plains and mountains may be roamed with impunity. Like Charles V, the Mountain King has chosen to abdicate at the apogee of his glory.”
I read in the Official Gazette : “Sunday, 3rd of the current month, at 5 p. m., the military chest which was being forwarded to Argos, and contained £800, was attacked by the band of Hadji Stavros, known as the King of the Mountains. The brigands, three or four hundred strong, threw themselves upon the escort with incredible fury. But the two first companies of the 2nd and 4th of the Line, commanded by the brave Major Nicolaïdis, made an heroic defence. The savage aggressors 202 were repelled at the bayonet’s point, and numbers remained on the battle-field. It is reported that Hadji Stavros is severely wounded — our losses are insignificant.
“At the same hour, and at ten leagues distance, the royal troops had a brilliant success. Towards the summit of Ozas, at some few miles from Castia, the second company of the first battalion of carabineers defeated the band of Hadji Stavros. There also, according to the report of Captain Pericles, the King of the Mountains was wounded. Unfortunately, our victory has been dearly paid. The brigands, sheltered by rocks and bushes, killed or seriously wounded ten carabineers. A young and most promising officer, M. Spiro, pupil of the school of Euelpides, met with a glorious death on the battle-field. While we deplore these misfortunes, it is consoling to think that the majesty of the law has been vindicated.”
The Caricature contained a wretched lithograph, in which I recognised portraits of Pericles and of Hadji Stavros. The two were here represented hugging each other tenderly, and underneath appeared this inscription :
“SEE HOW THEY FIGHT!”
203It seems,” said I, “that I am not the only confidant. At this rate Pericles’ secret will soon be that of Pulcinello.”
I folded up the papers, and, still waiting for the King’s return, meditated on the position in which I found myself. Certainly there was something in owing my liberty entirely to myself, and it was better to get out of prison by some deed of courage, than owe liberty to a school-boy’s trick. Any day now I might become a hero of romance, and the admiration of half the women in Europe. Mary-Ann would adore me if I returned safe after so daring and perilous an escape. Yet might I come to condign grief during this frightful descent. If I broke an arm or a leg, would Mary-Ann care for a mutilated hero?
Besides, I might make up my mind to be watched day and night. My plan, however ingenious it might be, was only feasible after my jailer’s death. Now, to kill a man is no small affair — even for a doctor. It seemed nothing when one is talking about it to the woman one adores. But, since Mary-Ann’s departure I had considerably cooled down. I did not think it so easy to procure a murderous weapon, or to use it when found. After all, I’m naturally humane, and killing 204 a man is no trifling matter, even to a surgeon. What say you, my dear sir?
Besides, it began to dawn upon me that my future mother-in-law had treated the affair with considerable levity. What would it have cost her to send the £600 for my ransom, even if in the end she repaid herself by deducting the amount from Mary-Ann’s dowry? The sum would be little or nothing to me on my wedding-day. It seemed enormous, pursued as I was by the necessity of cutting another man’s throat, and of climbing down some hundred yards of the flat surface of a precipice — without a ladder.
I finished by cursing Mrs. Simons cordially, as most men do their mothers-in-law — sooner or later. And as I was in a thoroughly bad temper, John Harris, who was abandoning me to my fate, also came in for his share of my maledictions.
I said to myself, that had he been in my place, and I in his, I would not have left him eight whole days without news. Lobster I could understand — he was so young. Giacomo, an intelligent Hercules, and Mérinay, a double-dyed egotist. One forgives egotists for being treacherous, because one has not been accustomed to rely upon them. But Harris, who had exposed his life to 205 save an old negress at Boston! Surely a German Professor is worth a negress?
Hadji Stavros interrupted my unpleasant meditations by offering me a means of escape much more simple and less dangerous than the one I contemplated, since it only required good legs, and on that score I had no reason to envy any one. I fell in with the King just as I was indulging in a prodigious yawn.
“You’re bored?” he began. “It’s because you read too much; I never could read without yawning. But why don’t you employ better the time that remains to you? You came here in search of rare plants, yet your case is as empty as it was a week ago. Would you like to go for a stroll in the company of two guards? I’m too good-natured to refuse you this favour. Each of us must pursue his trade in this world. Mine is to make money : yours to gather plants. When you return to Hamburg you’ll be able to say : ‘Here are plants collected in the kingdom of Hadji Stavros!’ If you find a remarkably fine one, hitherto unknown, give it my name — call it the Mountain King!”
“By heaven!” thought I, “if I were a league away from here, between two brigands, it wouldn’t be difficult to give them the slip. Danger would 206 lend me wings, that’s certain. The best runner is the one who has the greatest interest to effect his escape. Why is the hare the swiftest of the animals? Because he’s the most often pursued.”
I accepted the King’s offer, and at once two guards were told off to follow me. Their orders were simple enough : “The Milord is worth £600. If you lose him you’ll have to pay or lose your heads.”
My acolytes were not selected from among the invalids. They were neither wounded, bruised, nor damaged in any way. Evidently they were not easily tied, and there was no fear of their shoes hurting them, for they wore wide moccasins that left the heel bare.
On looking them over I perceived with regret that they were each armed with two long pistols. Still I did not lose courage; the whistle of a passing shot was becoming a familiar sound to me. I threw my knapsack over my shoulders and we started.
“Amuse yourself well,” cried Hadji. “Adieu, sir!”
I echoed : “Not adieu — au revoir! ”
I selected, for obvious reasons, the road that led to Athens. My friends made no comment, and allowed me to go where I pleased. These 207 brigands, much better bred than Pericles’ carabineers, left me passable freedom. I did not feel at each step I made their elbows sticking into my side. They even assisted me to gather herbs. As for me, I appeared much absorbed in my work, and rooted up right and left tufts of harmless sod. Then I pretended to choose some particular kind from the mass, and to put it carefully into my herbal, taking care not to overload myself, for I had already a sufficient weight to carry.
I had noticed that a few pounds overweight might make a jockey lose his race. Meanwhile my eyes seemed fixed on the ground, but they were really elsewhere. Perchance I may have passed by many a plant, the discovery of which would have made the fortune of a naturalist.
I’m nearly sure that I passed by a root of the Borgana variabilis, weighing perhaps half-a-pound. I didn’t even look at it.
I saw only two things — Athens, in the distance, and the brigands by my side. I watched them closely in the hope that their attention might be diverted. But whether they were close to me, or ten paces off, whether they were picking their salad or observing the flight of the vultures it all was the same — at least one pair of eyes followed my every movement.
208At last I decided to give them something serious to do. We were in a narrow path, leading clearly towards Athens. I saw at my left a beautiful bunch of broom that Providence had evidently placed at the top of a rock on purpose to be of use to me. I pretended ardently to wish to possess myself of this treasure. Five or six times I vainly tried to climb the steep bank above which it grew, but each time I was unsuccessful. So persevering, however, were my efforts, that one of my guards took pity upon me and offered to allow me, the better to reach the coveted plant, to get on his back. I accepted his offer, but on mounting his shoulders I purposely kicked him with by hob-nailed boots so cruelly, as if by accident, that he howled with pain and let me fall.
His comrade, who was deeply interested in the success of the enterprise, said to him : “Wait an instant. I’ve no iron nails in my shoes, and I’ll go up instead of Milord.”
No sooner said than done. He got up, seized the plant, shook and uprooted it, but in less time than it takes me to tell you, I was already off. Their amazement gave me ten seconds to the good.
They, however, lost no time in mutual recriminations, and I soon heard them in hot pursuit. 209 The road happened to be a fairly good one, without stones — the curse of most Greek roads. We scampered down a steep descent. I ran furiously, my arms close to my body, without looking where I placed my feet. The rocks and bushes seemed to be rushing in a contrary direction to myself. I was young, active, a light weight; in short, I had wings. But those measured steps behind me seemed to be constantly gaining on me. Suddenly they stopped, and I heard nothing. A small cloud of dust rose ten steps in front of me. Presently a white spot appeared on a neighbouring rock, and at the same time I heard two detonations. The brigands had fired their pistols, but, thank God, had missed me; nevertheless, I still continued running.
The pursuit began again; panting voices cried “Stop! stop!” but naturally I turned a deaf ear to their friendly entreaties. I was no longer in the path, and I ran on without knowing whither. A ditch came in my way, wide as a brook, but I never thought of measuring the distance. I jumped — was saved — when suddenly my braces broke, and all was lost!
You smile! But I should like to see you run without braces, holding up your trousers in your hands by the waistband. Five minutes later the 210 brigands caught me up. They immediately handcuffed and fettered me, and drove me with blows back to the camp.
The King received me as he would a bankrupt who had gone off with £600. “Sir,” said he, “I had a very different opinion of you. I fancied I could read character, and yours has deceived me. Never could I have believed that you would wrong us, especially after the manner in which I have treated you. Do not be surprised if in future I take severe measures to secure your valued person. You have forced me to do so. You will be kept in your room until further orders. One of my officers will remain in your tent. This is only a precaution. If such a thing occurs again, you must expect to be punished. Vasili, I entrust this gentleman to your care.” And after pronouncing this sentence upon me, his Majesty bowed with his usual politeness.
I will not descant upon the three days I passed in Vasili’s society. It was a dose of boredom that I would not wish to share with my worst enemy. He, however, did not dislike me, but had, on the contrary, a certain sympathy for me. I believe that if he had taken me prisoner he would have let me go without a ransom.
My face had pleased him from the first; it recalled 211 to him that of a brother he had lost — who had gone the way of most brigands. But his demonstrations of friendship were, nevertheless, more odious. He could not wait for the sun to rise to wish me good-morning; when the night came he overwhelmed me with good wishes. He would wake me out of my sleep to ask if I was warm enough. At table, he waited upon me like a servant; at dessert, he told me tales or begged me to relate some to him. And his big coarse paw was always waiting to seize my hand and shake it.
I opposed an obstinate resistance to all his friendly advances. Besides my repugnance to include among my friends this vulgar Herod, I did not dare to press the hand of a man I intended, if occasion presented, to slay.
While repelling his advances, despising his civilities, and declining his attentions, I carefully watched for an opportunity to escape; but his friendship proved far more vigilant than my hatred, and defeated my purpose at every turn. When I leaned over the cascade to engrave in my memory each spot of ground, Vasili said with fraternal solicitude : “Take care! If you have the misfortune to fall down there, I should reproach myself all my life!”
When at night I tried to get up unknown to 212 him, he would forthwith jump out of his bed to ask me if I needed anything. Never was there a more wide-awake rascal. He revolved round and round me like a squirrel in its cage.
What made me more wretched than anything else was his confidence in me. One day I expressed a desire to examine his arms. He immediately handed me his dagger. It was of Damascus steel, but made at Toula. I drew it out of the sheath, tried the point with my finger, and turned it towards his breast, choosing the place between the fourth and fifth ribs. “Don’t press,” said he, “or you’d kill me.” Certainly by pressing a little he would have got what he deserved, but a something I can’t explain or describe, held back my hand. It’s a pity that honest men find it so difficult to do away with rogues!
I replaced the dagger in its sheath. Then he offered me his pistol, but I refused to take it, and told him my curiosity was quite gratified. He cocked it, showed me the priming, and putting the muzzle to his forehead, said : “There! If it went off, you would no longer have a guard!”
That was precisely what I wanted; but the opportunity was too good, and the traitor paralyzed me. If I had killed him at that moment I should not have lost sight of his dying glances. 213 It was far better to make my attempt upon him in the darkness of the night. Unfortunately, instead of concealing his arms, he laid them between his own bed and mine.
At length I discovered a new means of flight without awakening, and, above all, without killing him. I had remarked, on Ascension Day, that Vasili was fond of wine, and that it soon went to his head. So I invited him to dine with me. This proof of friendship nearly turned his head, and the wine did the rest. Hadji, who had not honoured me with a visit since I had fallen in his esteem, nevertheless treated me royally, and my table was better served than his own. I might have had a skin of wine and a tun of rhaki had I wished. Vasili, once admitted to share these good things, began the repast with touching humility. He remained at least three feet away from the table, like a peasant in the presence of his lord.
Little by little the wine gave him confidence. At eight in the evening, he told me, from his own standpoint, what sort of man he was. At nine, he related the more or less scandalous episodes of his younger days, and a series of exploits that would have made a judge’s hair stand on end. At ten, he turned philanthropist — his heart melted under 214 the influence of the rhaki, like Cleopatra’s pearl in the vinegar. He vowed that he had taken to the trade of brigand out of sheer love of humanity, and that he only wished to make a large fortune in order to found hospitals with his savings, and then retire to a monastery on Mount Athos.
He promised not to forget me in his prayers, and I took advantage of his state to pour him out an enormous cup of rhaki. I might have given him burning pitch — he was too far gone to refuse anything I offered. Soon he became speechless; his head wagged from side to side like the pendulum of a clock. Presently he fell to the ground in as sound a slumber as the sphinxes at the foot of the Pyramids, which even your cannon failed to disturb.
I had not an instant to lose : the minutes were worth their weight in gold to me. I threw his pistol into the ravine, and was on the point of sending his dagger after it, when I reflected that it might prove useful. It was then eleven o’clock, I put out the two heaps of resinous wood that had afforded us light during the evening, lest they might attract Hadji’s attention. The weather was fine : no moon, but a profusion of stars — just the sort of night I wished for. I cut the sod in long strips, and without difficulty. At the end of an 215 hour my materials were ready. As I was conveying them to the spring my foot knocked against Vasili.
He tried to rise, and mechanically asked me if I wanted anything. I deposited my bundle, and sat down by him, suggesting another cup to my health.
“Yes,” said he; “I’m thirsty.”
For the last time I filled the copper cup to the brim. He drank half, spilled the rest, and trying to rise, fell on his face with his arms stretched out before him, and remained motionless. I ran to my dyke, and, all novice as I was, in less than three-quarters of an hour the stream was firmly barred. It was now a quarter to one.
The deep silence that succeeded the prattling of the cascade alarmed me. I reflected that the King no doubt at his age slept lightly, and that this unusual silence might awake him. In the midst of my anguish there flashed across my mind the scene in the Barber of Seville, in which Bartolo awakes when he no longer hears the piano. I slid along the trees to the steps, and looked towards Hadji’s quarters. The King was calmly sleeping by the side of his chiboukji (pipe-bearer). Then I crept to within twenty steps of his pine, listened attentively, and all was still. So I returned to my 216 dyke, walking in ice-cold water up to my ankles, and leaned over the precipice.
The flank of the mountain seemed to shimmer, thanks to the water that remained in the cavities. I paid great attention to these, so as to avoid putting my feet in them. I returned to the tent, took my herbal, which hung upon the bed, and slung it over my shoulders. Passing by the spot where we had dined, I gathered the remains of the food yet unsoaked by the water, and placed these provisions carefully in my knapsack for the morrow. The dyke still held, and I trusted my road had been dried by the wind. It was nearly two o’clock.
I should have liked to have taken Vasili’s dagger, but it was under water, and I spent no time in searching for it. I took off my shoes, tied them together, and then to the straps of my herbal. At last, after having foreseen everything, thrown a last look on my engineering work, thought of my dear home, and sent a kiss in the direction of Athens and Mary-Ann, I put one leg over the parapet, seized hold of a tree that hung over the abyss, and recommended myself to God’s care.
It was a hard task, much more so than I had supposed. The half-dry rock felt to the touch 217 clammy as a serpent’s skin. I had ill calculated the distances, and the resting-places were far fewer than I had supposed. Twice I went wrong, by bearing too much to the left. It was a terrible difficulty to regain the right path. Hope frequently abandoned me, but my will remained firm. Once, I lost my footing, having mistaken a shadow for a projection, and I must have fallen fifteen or twenty feet, clinging with my hands and body as much as possible to the rock, but without finding anything to catch hold of. The root of a fig-tree caught in the sleeve of my coat : you can see the mark of it still.
A little further a bird hidden in a hole flew out so suddenly between my legs, that the fright almost made me fall backward. I used my hands and feet, but especially the former. My arms were strained, each muscle seemed to stand out like a cord; my nails were so painful that the pain numbed my fingers. Perhaps I should have had more strength had I been able to measure the distance yet before me. But when I tired to turn round, I became to giddy that I almost lost consciousness. To keep up my courage, I exhorted myself, and spoke as loud as I could. My teeth chattered.
“Yet one more step for my father’s sake, for 228 Mary-Ann’s, and above — above all, for the confusion of that rascal Hadji Stavros!”
At last I placed my feet on a wider platform. It seemed to me that the soil had changed colour. I bent my knees, sat down and timidly turned my head. The stream was only ten feet distant; I had reached the red rocks. A flat surface pierced with little holes, in which the water was still standing, allowed me to take breath and repose myself for a few moments. I drew out my watch — it was only half-past two — and it appeared to me as if I had been three hours reaching thus far. I pinched my arms and legs to see if they were all right. No harm had been done, barring a few bruises and scratches.
My coat hadn’t come off so well. I looked up, not as yet to thank heaven, but to see whether anything was moving about the place I had left. I heard nothing but some drops of water filtering through the dyke. All then was going well — all was safe in my rear. I knew the way to Athens : good-bye then to the King of the Mountains!
I was just going to leap to the bottom of the ravine, when a white shape rose before me, and I heard the most horrible bark that ever awoke the echoes. Alas! my dear sir, I had not taken into account Hadji’s confounded dogs! These enemies 219 of man roamed the camp at all hours of the night, and one of them had got scent of me. It is impossible to describe the fury and exasperation I felt at this encounter. I would rather have been face to face with a wolf, a tiger, or a white bear, beasts that might have devoured, but never would have betrayed me. Wild animals hunt game for themselves; how different was the object of this ferocious brute, who was going to devour me noisily for the benefit of old Hadji Stavros? I abused him, called him by every vile name I could think of, but his voice overpowered mine. Then I changed my tactics, and tried the effect of soft words, speaking to him in Greek, the tongue of his fathers : he had but one answer for all my cajoleries, and that answer re-echoed from rock to rock.
A new idea struck me, and I became silent; he did the same. I lay down in a pool of water; he stretched himself growling at the foot of the rock. I pretended to sleep; he appeared to do the same. Then I glided insensibly towards the brook; he rose with a bound, and I had but just time to return to my place. My hat remained in his possession. A moment later, and it was reduced to a pulp. Poor hat! Putting myself in its place, I could not help pitying it. If it had been possible 220 to get rid of the beast at the cost of some bites, all would have been well; but that kind of monster is not satisfied with biting — it devours.
I reflected that the animal was hungry, and if I could find enough to satisfy him, he would probably bite, but not eat me up. Provisions there were in my herbal, and I sacrificed them, only regretting that I had not a hundred times more. I threw him the half of my bread; he swallowed it at a gulp. I looked pitifully at the little there was still to offer, when I perceived at the bottom of the box a white paper packet which afforded me an idea. It was a small quantity of arsenic meant for my zoological preparation. I used it to stuff birds, but there was nothing to prevent me from giving some to the dog. The brute, whose appetite was excited, evidently desired nothing better than to continue his repast. “Just wait,” said I spitefully, “and you’ll have a dish of my making!” The packet contained a good dose of the shining powder. I put a few grains into some clear water, and the rest into my pocket. Mixing carefully the animal’s portion, I waited until the acid was well dissolved, then dipped a piece of bread into the solution, which sucked it up like a sponge. The dog swallowed it with avidity. Nothing could now save him.
221But why had I not strychnine or some instantaneous poison with me, instead of arsenic? It was more than three o’clock, and arsenic takes an unconscionably long time before producing an effect. Towards the half-hour, the dog began to howl violently. That did me no good : barking, howling, cries of rage or anguish would all ascend to the ears of Hadji Stavros and his gang. Soon the animal foamed at the mouth, and writhed in horrible convulsions. I hoped that overcome by pain he would let me pass. But my first attempt to do so rendered him furious. He showed me his blood-stained jaws as if to reproach me, and to say that he would not die unavenged.
I threw him my handkerchief, which was soon torn to pieces like the hat. And now day began to break, and I felt that I had committed a useless act of cruelty, for in an hour’s time the brigands would be on my track. Then I lifted my head towards the cursed place I had hoped to have left forever, and to which the watchfulness of a dog would drive me back, when at that moment a formidable cataract falling on my head dashed me to the ground, face downward.
Big pieces of earth, stones, and fragments of rock came upon me, together with a torrent of water. The dyke had given way, and the whole 222 lake was emptying itself on my devoted head. I was seized with violent trembling. Each wave that passed over me chilled me more and more, and my blood began to get as cold as ice. I looked at the dog; it was still at the foot of the rock fighting against the current, with its jaws wide open, and its eyes glaring it me. It was time to finish with it. I untied my box, took the straps, and with them beat it to death. The torrent caught the body, rolled it over once or twice, and then carried it out of my sight.
I jumped into the water, which came up to my waist. Clinging to the stones, I managed to get out of the current, arrive on the other side, and cried : “Hurrah for Mary-Ann!”
At that instant four brigands, who seemed to rise out of the earth, took me by the collar, saying : “Murderer! Come along, all. We’ve caught him. The King will be highly pleased, and Vasili will be avenged.”
It seems that, without knowing it, I had drowned my poor friend Vasili.
Up to that time, my dear sir, I never had killed a man. Vasili was my first. Since then I’ve sent many to their account, unwillingly, but only in self-defence. Nevertheless, I have felt remorse only for Vasili, although his end was the 223 result of a very innocent act of imprudence. You know the true meaning of a first step! No assassin discovered by the police, and taken back to the scene of his crime, ever lowered his head more humbly than I did on that march.
I dared not raise my eyes to those of the men who had taken me. I had not the strength to bear their reproachful glances. Then I foresaw yet a still more terrible ordeal, that of appearing before my judge, and being confronted with my victim. How was I to brave the King’s reproachful looks after what I had done? How endure seeing, without dying of shame, the inanimate corpse of the unfortunate Vasili? More than once my knees bent under me, and I should have fallen had not repeated kicks forced me to go on.
I crossed the deserted camp, and the King’s cabinet, now occupied by the wounded, and went, or rather tumbled, down the steps to my tent. The water had run off, leaving large stains of mud on the rocks and trees. There was the pool where I had cut away the sod. The brigands, the King, and the monk stood in a circle round a gray muddy object, that chilled me with horror : it was Vasili! Heaven preserve you, my dear sir, from ever beholding a corpse of your own making!
The water and mud had formed a hideous sort 224 of plaster over the body. Have you ever seen a big fly after it has been some three or four days in a spider’s web? The worthy spider, unable to get rid of its prey, covers it with a delicate tissue, which eventually converts it into a sort of ball made of gray threads, which change it into a shapeless mass. Just such a shapeless gray mass had poor Vasili become in a few hours after he had supped with me. I found his body ten steps from the place where I had last wished him good-bye. I am not sure whether they had moved him here, or if he had rolled to this spot in the convulsions of his last agony, yet I think his death must have been an easy one. Drunk as I had left him, he must have succumbed rapidly to congestion of the brain.
My appearance was greeted by a very unreassuring murmur. Hadji, pale, and with knitted brows, came straight to me, seized me by the wrist, and so violently that he nearly put my arm out of joint. Then he threw me so roughly into the middle of the circle, that it was only by a quick backward movement I prevented myself from placing my foot on Vasili’s body.
“Look!” cried he, in a voice of thunder, “look what you’ve done, rejoice over your work, satisfy your eyes by gazing on the victim of your 225 crime! Wretched man, where will you stop? Who would have said on the day you came here that I was receiving a murderer?”
I uttered some excuses, and tried to prove that I was only guilty of imprudence. I frankly confessed to having made my guard drunk, so as to escape without opposition, but defended myself from the accusation of murder. “Was it my fault if the rising of the water had drowned the man an hour after I had fled?” The best proof that I had not meant to hurt him, lay in the fact that I had not stabbed him when he lay there helpless, although his arms were in my hands. They might look at his body, and assure themselves that there was no trace of a wound.
“ At least,” said the King, “acknowledge that your imprudence has been great and selfish; and that, when your life was not threatened, when you were kept here only on account of a miserable sum of money, avarice made you escape. You wished to economize a few pounds, and didn’t think of the poor devil you left behind you to die. Nor of me either, whom you have deprived of an indispensable office. And what moment did you choose to injure us in this way? The one in which misfortune assails us on all sides. The hour of my defeat; of the loss of my best soldiers; when 226 Sophocles is wounded; the Corfiote dying; young Spiro, upon whom I counted, dead; and all my men wearied, discouraged.
“It is at such a time as this that you have the courage to deprive me of Vasili. Have you no human feeling? Wouldn’t it have been a thousand times better to pay your ransom honestly, than to allow it to be said of you that you sacrificed a man’s life for a few paltry hundred pounds?”
“After all,” cried I, “you’ve killed many a one, and for much less.”
He replied with dignity : “It is my profession, and not yours. I am a brigand, and you a doctor. I am a Greek, and you — well, you are German.”
To this I made no answer, feeling, by the throbbings of my heart, that I was distinctly not born a murderer. The King, encouraged by my silence, raised his voice still more loudly, and continued : “Unfortunate man! You do not even know to what race he whose death you have caused belonged. He descended from the heroic brigands of Souli, who for years have sustained long wars for their religion and country against Ali of Tebelen, Pasha of Janina. For four generations his ancestors have been hanged or beheaded : not one has died in his bed.
227“Not six years ago his brother was executed in Epirus for having assassinated a Mussulman. Devotion and courage are hereditary in that family. Vasili never neglected his religious duties. He gave to the church, to the poor. On Easter Sunday, his taper was always the biggest burning before the icon of the Panagia.* He would rather have died than have feasted on the prescribed fasts, and nothing would have induced him to eat meat on days of abstinence. He was saving up his money to retire into a holy community on Mount Athos. Did you know all this?”
I humbly confessed that I did.
“Did you know that he was the most resolute of my companions? I do not wish to detract from the merit of any of those listening to me, but Vasili’s blind devotion, his absolute obedience, and his zeal, were above price.
“No task was beyond his courage, no execution too painful if ordered by me. He would have cut the throat of the entire kingdom if I had told him to do so. For a sign of my little finger, he would have torn out the eyes of his best friend.
“And this is the man you have killed! Poor Vasili! In future, when a village has to be burned, 228 a miser to be put on hot iron, a woman to be cut in pieces, or a child to be skinned alive, to whom shall I confide the task?”
The brigands, electrified by this funeral oration, cried unanimously : “To us! To us!” Some stretched out their arms towards the King, others unsheathed their daggers, while the most zealous pointed their pistols at me.
Hadji restrained their enthusiasm, put himself between me and them, and again began to speak — as the Americans would say — to orate.
“Be consoled, O Vasili, thou shalt not rest unavenged. If I listened only to the voice of my grief, the murderer’s head should be offered as a sacrifice to thy manes. But it is worth six hundred pounds, and this restrains my hand. If, as formerly, thou couldst take part in our councils, then first, thou wouldst advise me to spare him since vengeance would cost too dear. Surely it would not be fair or just in our actual circumstances to throw away six hundred pounds rashly.”
He stopped for a moment and I began to take courage.
“But,” he presently burst out afresh, “I know how to conciliate our interests with justice. I shall punish the guilty man without endangering the capital. His punishment will be the most 229 striking feature of the funeral ceremonies, and from the celestial abode of the Palikars, to which thy soul has flown, thou wilt look down with joy upon an expiation that will cost us nothing.”
This peroration transported the audience. All were charmed — but myself. I puzzled my brain in trying to guess what the King reserved for me. No doubt I was lucky not to be killed outright. But I knew the fertility of imagination possessed by these Hellenic gentlemen of the high-road. Hadji Stavros, without killing me, might inflict some punishment that would maim me for life. The old villain refused to tell me what it would be, and manifested so little pity for me that he actually forced me to be present at the interment of his lieutenant.
The body was undressed, taken to the spring, and thoroughly washed. Vasili’s features were little altered; his lips still wore the drunkard’s meaningless smile, the widely-open eyes had a stupid look. His limbs were yet supple; doubtless you are aware that cadaveric rigidity sets in late in cases of accidental death.
The King’s cafedji and his chibouk-bearer assisted in dressing the corpse for burial. Vasili having no relations, his possessions fell to the King, who bore the cost of the funeral ceremonies. 230 They put on him a fine linen shirt, a cambric kirtle, and a jacket richly embroidered with silver. His damp hair was arranged under a nearly new cap, and they drew red silk gaiters on the stalwart legs, and Russian leather slippers on his feet.
In life Vasili never had been so clean, nor looked so handsome. His lips were tinged with carmine, his face was painted white and red, like that of a young actor on the occasion of his début.
During these operations the orchestra played a certain mournful air you may have often heard in the streets of Athens.
Four brigands began to dig a big hole in the middle of what had been Mrs. Simons’s tent, on the very spot where Mary-Ann used to recline. Two others ran to the stores to bring candles, which were distributed among the mourners. I got one like the rest. The monk began to chant the Service for the Dead. Hadji Stavros sang the responses with a firm voice, which thrilled me. There was a slight wind, and the burning wax from my taper fell on my hand. It was not pleasant, but alas! nothing in comparison to what awaited me. If I could have prolonged the ceremony, I would willingly have continued to bear that pain.
231But it soon came to an end. When the last prayer had been said, the King approached the bier on which the body was laid, and kissed it on the lips. One by one the brigands followed his example. I shivered at the thought of what was coming, and hid myself behind the others; but the King saw me, and cried out : “It is your turn now. Go! — you owe him at least that.”
Was this the punishment with which I had been threatened? A just judge would have been satisfied with less. I can tell you, my dear sir, that it is no child’s play to kiss the lips of a corpse, especially that of a man you have killed. I advanced to the bier, looked long in the face of the late Vasili, whose staring eyes mocked me, and at last bent my head and touched his mouth. A facetious brigand put his hand on the back of my neck, and held me down. My lips were thus glued to those of the dead body. I felt the contact of the icy teeth, and drew back shuddering with horror, a dreadful and nauseous stench of decay and death clinging to me, the mere thought of which sickens me even now.
Then the body was placed in the ground. They cast upon it quantities of fresh flowers, a loaf, an apple, and some drops of the wine of Ægina. Surely wine was what he least needed. 232 The grave was soon filled up, more quickly, indeed, than I could have wished.
A brigand observed that two sticks would be wanted to make a cross. Hadji assured him : “You may be sure that Milord’s sticks will not be forgotten!” On hearing this my heart stood still with terror. What sticks? What in heaven’s name had sticks to do with me?
The King made a sign to his chiboukji, who ran to the offices, and brought back two long laurel switches. Hadji Stavros took the funeral litter, and placed it on the grave. One end rested on the freshly-turned-up earth, while the other was raised. Then he said, smiling : “I’m working for you. Take off your shoes, if you please.”
He must have read in my eyes a question full of anguish and alarm, for he continued :
“I’m not a hard man, and have always detested useless severity. That is why is shall punish you in a manner that will dispense with the trouble of watching you in future. For some time, you have been possessed by a regular mania for escaping. But I hope that when you shall have received twenty blows with these sticks on the soles of your feet, you will no longer want a guard, nor care to travel for some time. The punishment is one I am personally acquainted 233 with, for when I was young the Turks inflicted it on me, and I know from experience that it does not kill. You suffer horribly,” the old rascal continued in a pleasant tone, “no doubt, and I warn you that you’ll cry out. But Vasili will hear you in his grave, and will bless us for avenging him.”
On hearing this, my first idea was to make off while my legs were still able to carry me; but I suppose that my will was paralyzed, for I felt that I could not put one foot before the other. Hadji Stavros rose from the ground light as a feather, and in an instant my shoes were taken off, and I was tightly bound.
It is really impossible for me to say on what they placed my feet, nor how at the first blow they prevented me from violently drawing them up to the level of my head. I saw the two sticks revolving, one to the right, the other to the left, shut my eyes, and waited. But not for long — less than a second; yet I had time to invoke a blessing on my father, send a kiss to Mary-Ann, and call down a thousand imprecations on the heads of Mrs. Simons and John Harris.
I did not lose consciousness one instant; as I told you, it is a faculty I do not as yet possess; so nothing was spared me. I felt all the blows, one after the other. The first was so heavy, I thought 234 that all was up with me. It took me on the middle of the sole of the feet, near the little arch that precedes the heel, and supports the full weight of the body. It was not the feet that hurt me that time, but I fancied that the bones of my poor legs would break in pieces. The second touched me lower down, just under the heel. It gave me a violent shock, which shook the spinal column, and had such an effect on the brain that I thought my head would burst open. The third came down on the toes, and produced a sharp, darting sensation, which ran up all the front of my body, until it seemed as if the point of the stick had struck the tip of my nose.
It was at this moment, I suppose, that the blood began to pour. The blows succeeded each other in the same order and places at regular intervals. I had courage enough to bear the first two silently; I cried out at the third, howled at the fourth, and groaned at the following. At the tenth my flesh became numbed, and I was silent.
But the prostration of my physical strength did not diminish the clearness of my perceptions. I would have been incapable of raising my eyelids, yet my sense of hearing was only too acute. I didn’t lose a word of what was said around me. I shall remember that later when I practise medicine. 235 Doctors often condemn a patient at a few steps from his bed without reflecting that the poor devil perhaps can hear every word they utter. I heard a young brigand say to Hadji : “He’s dead! why trouble the men for nothing?” But the Chief replied : “Not a bit of it. I’ve borne sixty blows, and two days afterward I was dancing the Romaïka!”
“How was it managed?”
“I used the salve of an Italian renegade called Luigi-Bey. Where are we? How many blows?”
“Seventeen.”
“Still three more, my sons, and let them be good ones.”
But the stick had done its work, and the last blows fell on a bloody but insensible surface. Pain had almost paralyzed me.
They lifted me off the litter, undid my cords, wrapped my feet in cold-water bandages, and as I was fearfully thirsty, gave me a large glass of wine. Anger returned before my strength. I don’t know whether you are like me, but I think there is nothing so humiliating as corporal punishment. I can’t endure the thought that man, the ruler of the world, can for a moment be mastered by a stick.
To be born in the nineteenth century, subdue steam and electricity, possess a good half of the 236 secrets of nature, know all that science has invented for the good and safety of humanity, know how to cure fever, small-pox, and a host of other diseases, and yet not be able to defend oneself from the degrading contact of a stick! The very idea is maddening. If I had been a soldier, and sentenced to a flogging, most certainly I should have killed some one.
When I saw myself seated on the muddy ground, my feet immovable from pain, my hands dead; when I saw round me the brutes that had beaten me, and those who had seen me beaten, anger, shame, a feeling of outraged dignity, of violated justice, inspired my weak frame with a sense of hatred, revolt, and with a keen desire for revenge. Interest, prudence, my future, were all forgotten, and I gave vent to the torrent of burning indignation that rushed to my lips, and I literally foamed with rage.
I am not an orator, and my solitary studies have not helped to render me eloquent, but indignation, which has sometimes inspired poets, lent me for a short fifteen minutes the savage eloquence of those Calabrian prisoners who with their last breath overwhelmed their Roman conquerors with insult. I told Hadji all that could wound a man’s pride, and hurt his most tender feelings : said that 237 he was not worthy of the name of man, and could only be counted among wild beasts. Like an Eastern, I cursed his wife, his child, all his descendants. In fact, memory fails me to repeat all that I said to him. Words came to me that are found in no dictionary, yet were understood by my hearers, for they made them smart like hounds under the huntsman’s lash. But vainly did I seek in the old Palikar’s face any trace of emotion.
Hadji Stavros didn’t flinch any more than a marble bust under my torrent of invective. He answered all my insults by a look of profound contempt. His stolidity maddened me. For an instant I lost my head, rose quickly to my wounded feet, snatched a pistol from the sash of a brigand, cocked it, and aimed straight at the King. It went off, and calling out, “I am avenged!” I fell backward.
The King himself picked me up. I looked at him with a horror as great as though I had seen him rise out of the infernal regions. He was in no way moved, and smiled quietly like an immortal. And yet, my dear sir, I had touched him. My ball had hit him in the forehead, an inch above the left brow, and it had left a bloody mark. But, either the weapon was badly loaded, the powder worthless, or the ball had but glanced along 238 the bone of the skull — for some reason or another, the wound was but a mere scratch.
The invulnerable monster laid me quietly on the ground, bent over me, pinched my ear, and said : “Why do you attempt the impossible, young man? Haven’t I told you that I am proof against balls? — and you know that I never lie. Have you never heard that Ibrahim tried to get me shot by seven Egyptians, but in vain? I hope you don’t think yourself cleverer than they? But you’re a precious quick hand for a man from the North! So much the worse for you. By God! if my mother, whom you’ve just been abusing, had not given me a solid frame, you’d have made an end of me! Any other in my place would have turned up his toes without a word. But these affairs make me younger, and recall the good old time. At your age I risked my life four times a day, and digested the better for it. So, I bear you no ill-will : quite the contrary.
“But, as all my men are not ball-proof, and you might indulge in some new imprudence, we’ll apply to your hands the same treatment as to your feet. Nothing need prevent us from beginning at once, yet out of consideration to your health, I’ll wait until to-morrow. You see the stick is a useful weapon, which does not kill; and 239 you have proved that a bastinadoed man can do the work of two who never have undergone that treatment. The ceremony of to-morrow will give you occupation. Prisoners don’t know how to pass their time. ’Tis sheer idleness that has made you turn so savage. Besides, be not alarmed; as soon as your ransom comes, I’ll cure your scratches with some of Luigi-Bey’s salve I still have by me. You’ll be all right in a couple of days, and able to dance at the Palace ball without letting your partners know that you have been thrashed.”
I’m no Greek, and insults wound me as much as blows, so I showed the old villain my fist, and cried : “No; you rascal, my ransom never will be paid. I’ve asked no one for money. You’ll only have my head, which will be of no good to you. Take it at once if you like. That will be doing me a service and you too. You’ll spare me two weeks of torture, and of the sickening sight of yourself, besides economizing my food. Do not fail to do it : it’s the only profit you can make out of me.”
He smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “Now, now! softly! All young people are the same : always in extremes. They lose courage at once. If I listened to you, I should regret it in a week, and you too. The Englishwoman will pay, I’m 240 certain. I know women, although I’ve been so long a hermit. What would be said if I killed you to-day, and your ransom came to me to-morrow? It would be known that I had not kept my word, and my future prisoners would let their throats be cut like lambs, without even trying to get their ransom. No; I’ll not spoil the trade like that!”
“Ah! you think that the Englishwomen have paid you? You’re too clever by half; they have paid you as you deserved.”
“You are very good.”
“Their ransom will cost you three thousand six hundred pounds, do you hear? Out of your own pocket.”
“Don’t say such things, else I shall think you were thrashed on the head.”
“I say what is true. Do you remember the name of your prisoners?”
“No; but I’ve written it down.”
“I’ll help your memory : the lady’s name was Mrs. Simons.”
“Well.”
“Partner in the house of Barclay in London.”
“My banker?”
“Precisely.”
241“How do you know the name of my banker?” cried the amazed monarch of the mountains.
“May I first ask you why you dictated your correspondence in my presence?” I replied quietly.
“What does it matter?” the King continued after a pause. “They can’t rob me; they are not Greeks, but English. There are the Courts. I’ll go to law.”
“And be beaten. They have a receipt.”
“That’s true. By what fatality did I give them a receipt?”
“Because I advised you to do so, you old fool!”
“Miserable dog! Infernal schismatic!” raved Hadji. “I am ruined, betrayed, robbed! Three thousand six hundred pounds! I’m responsible. If the Barclays were the Company’s bankers, I should only lose my share. But they have my private capital, and all must go. Are you sure that she is a partner in Barclay’s bank?”
“As sure as that I shall die to-day.”
“No; you won’t die before to-morrow. You’ve not suffered enough. You must suffer to the extent of three thousand six hundred pounds! What torture can I invent? Three thousand six hundred deaths would be too few! What did I do to the traitor who robbed me of less than that? 242 A mere nothing! He howled for a couple of hours or so. But, after all, there might be two firms of the same name?”
“At 31 Cavendish Square?” I asked sneeringly.
“Yes, that is the address,” the King went on furiously. “Idiot, instead of betraying, why did you not war me? I would have asked double : they would have paid; they have the means. I should not have given a receipt — I’ll give no more. No; it’s the last time. ‘Received four thousand pounds from Mrs. Simons.’ What an idiotic phrase! Did I really dictate it? But now I think of it, there was no signature, only my seal; that’s the same thing! — They have twenty letters of mine. Why did you ask for this receipt? What do you expect from these women? Six hundred pounds for your ransom : selfishness always, and everywhere! Why didn’t you confide in me? I’d have let you off for nothing, even paid you. If you are poor, you must know the worth of money.
“Can you imagine to yourself how much that means — three thousand six hundred pounds? What it would look like in a room? How many gold pieces that makes? How much one can make with such a sum? Why it’s a fortune. 243 You’ve robbed me of a fortune! Despoiled my daughter, the only being I love in the world. It is for her I work. But since you know so much, you know that I don’t make half the money in a year. You’ve robbed me of two years of life. It’s just as if I’d gone to sleep all that time!”
I had at last found the vulnerable spot. The old Palikar was touched to the heart. I knew that I was lost, and hoped for no favour. But I felt a bitter joy in troubling the serenity of this man of stone. I watched his convulsive movements of passion as does the shipwrecked mariner the wave that is to engulf him. I was like Pascal’s thinking reed that brutal matter crushes, but which consoles itself in dying by the proud consciousness of its superiority. I said to myself : “I shall perish in the midst of tortures, but I am stronger than my tyrant, and am able to inflict punishment on my executioner.”
FOOTNOTE
* B. Virgin Mary.
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