Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson (Illustrated) (397 page)

He was scarcely gone when I observed another and a much younger man approaching hastily from the opposite side of the square.  Considering the season of the year and the genial mildness of the night, he was somewhat closely muffled up; and as he came, for all his hurry, he kept looking nervously behind him.  Arrived before my door, he halted and set one foot upon the step, as though about to enter; then, with a sudden change, he turned and began to hurry away; halted a second time, as if in painful indecision; and lastly, with a violent gesture, wheeled about, returned straight to the door, and rapped upon the knocker.  He was almost immediately admitted by the first arrival.

My curiosity was now broad awake.  I made myself as small as I could in the very densest of the shadow, and waited for the sequel.  Nor had I long to wait.  From the same side of the square a second young man made his appearance, walking slowly and softly, and like the first, muffled to the nose.  Before the house he paused, looked all about him with a swift and comprehensive glance; and seeing the square lie empty in the moon and lamplight, leaned far across the area railings and appeared to listen to what was passing in the house.  From the dining-room there came the report of a champagne cork, and following upon that, the sound of rich and manly laughter.  The listener took heart of grace, produced a key, unlocked the area gate, shut it noiselessly behind him, and descended the stair.  Just when his head had reached the level of the pavement, he turned half round and once more raked the square with a suspicious eyeshot.  The mufflings had fallen lower round his neck; the moon shone full upon him; and I was startled to observe the pallor and passionate agitation of his face.

I could remain no longer passive.  Persuaded that something deadly was afoot, I crossed the roadway and drew near the area railings.  There was no one below; the man must therefore have entered the house, with what purpose I dreaded to imagine.  I have at no part of my career lacked courage; and now, finding the area gate was merely laid to, I pushed it gently open and descended the stairs.  The kitchen door of the house, like the area gate, was closed but not fastened.  It flashed upon me that the criminal was thus preparing his escape; and the thought, as it confirmed the worst of my suspicions, lent me new resolve.  I entered the house; and being now quite reckless of my life, I shut and locked the door.

From the dining-room above I could hear the pleasant tones of a voice in easy conversation.  On the ground floor all was not only profoundly silent, but the darkness seemed to weigh upon my eyes.  Here, then, I stood for some time, having thrust myself uncalled into the utmost peril, and being destitute of any power to help or interfere.  Nor will I deny that fear had begun already to assail me, when I became aware, all at once and as though by some immediate but silent incandescence, of a certain glimmering of light upon the passage floor.  Towards this I groped my way with infinite precaution; and having come at length as far as the angle of the corridor, beheld the door of the butler’s pantry standing just ajar and a narrow thread of brightness falling from the chink.  Creeping still closer, I put my eye to the aperture.  The man sat within upon a chair, listening, I could see, with the most rapt attention.  On a table before him he had laid a watch, a pair of steel revolvers, and a bull’s-eye lantern.  For one second many contradictory theories and projects whirled together in my head; the next, I had slammed the door and turned the key upon the malefactor.  Surprised at my own decision, I stood and panted, leaning on the wall.  From within the pantry not a sound was to be heard; the man, whatever he was, had accepted his fate without a struggle, and now, as I hugged myself to fancy, sat frozen with terror and looking for the worst to follow.  I promised myself that he should not be disappointed; and the better to complete my task, I turned to ascend the stairs.

The situation, as I groped my way to the first floor, appealed to me suddenly by my strong sense of humour.  Here was I, the owner of the house, burglariously present in its walls; and there, in the dining-room, were two gentlemen, unknown to me, seated complacently at supper, and only saved by my promptitude from some surprising or deadly interruption.  It were strange if I could not manage to extract the matter of amusement from so unusual a situation.

Behind this dining-room, there is a small apartment intended for a library.  It was to this that I cautiously groped my way; and you will see how fortune had exactly served me.  The weather, I have said, was sultry; in order to ventilate the dining-room and yet preserve the uninhabited appearance of the mansion to the front, the window of the library had been widely opened, and the door of communication between the two apartments left ajar.  To this interval I now applied my eye.

Wax tapers, set in silver candlesticks, shed their chastened brightness on the damask of the tablecloth and the remains of a cold collation of the rarest delicacy.  The two gentlemen had finished supper, and were now trifling with cigars and maraschino; while in a silver spirit lamp, coffee of the most captivating fragrance was preparing in the fashion of the East.  The elder of the two, he who had first arrived, was placed directly facing me; the other was set on his left hand.  Both, like the man in the butler’s pantry, seemed to be intently listening; and on the face of the second I thought I could perceive the marks of fear.  Oddly enough, however, when they came to speak, the parts were found to be reversed.

‘I assure you,’ said the elder gentleman, ‘I not only heard the slamming of a door, but the sound of very guarded footsteps.’

‘Your highness was certainly deceived,’ replied the other.  ‘I am endowed with the acutest hearing, and I can swear that not a mouse has rustled.’  Yet the pallor and contraction of his features were in total discord with the tenor of his words.

His highness (whom, of course, I readily divined to be Prince Florizel) looked at his companion for the least fraction of a second; and though nothing shook the easy quiet of his attitude, I could see that he was far from being duped.  ‘It is well,’ said he; ‘let us dismiss the topic.  And now, sir, that I have very freely explained the sentiments by which I am directed, let me ask you, according to your promise, to imitate my frankness.’

‘I have heard you,’ replied the other, ‘with great interest.’

‘With singular patience,’ said the prince politely.

‘Ay, your highness, and with unlooked-for sympathy,’ returned the young man.  ‘I know not how to tell the change that has befallen me.  You have, I must suppose, a charm, to which even your enemies are subject.’  He looked at the clock on the mantelpiece and visibly blanched.  ‘So late!’ he cried.  ‘Your highness — God knows I am now speaking from the heart — before it be too late, leave this house!’

The prince glanced once more at his companion, and then very deliberately shook the ash from his cigar.  ‘That is a strange remark,’ said he; ‘and
á propos de bottes
, I never continue a cigar when once the ash is fallen; the spell breaks, the soul of the flavour flies away, and there remains but the dead body of tobacco; and I make it a rule to throw away that husk and choose another.’  He suited the action to the words.

‘Do not trifle with my appeal,’ resumed the young man, in tones that trembled with emotion.  ‘It is made at the price of my honour and to the peril of my life.  Go — go now! lose not a moment; and if you have any kindness for a young man, miserably deceived indeed, but not devoid of better sentiments, look not behind you as you leave.’

‘Sir,’ said the prince, ‘I am here upon your honour; assure you upon mine that I shall continue to rely upon that safeguard.  The coffee is ready; I must again trouble you, I fear.’  And with a courteous movement of the hand, he seemed to invite his companion to pour out the coffee.

The unhappy young man rose from his seat.  ‘I appeal to you,’ he cried, ‘by every holy sentiment, in mercy to me, if not in pity to yourself, begone before it is too late.’

‘Sir,’ replied the prince, ‘I am not readily accessible to fear; and if there is one defect to which I must plead guilty, it is that of a curious disposition.  You go the wrong way about to make me leave this house, in which I play the part of your entertainer; and, suffer me to add, young man, if any peril threaten us, it was of your contriving, not of mine.’

‘Alas, you do not know to what you condemn me,’ cried the other.  ‘But I at least will have no hand in it.’  With these words he carried his hand to his pocket, hastily swallowed the contents of a phial, and, with the very act, reeled back and fell across his chair upon the floor.  The prince left his place and came and stood above him, where he lay convulsed upon the carpet.  ‘Poor moth!’ I heard his highness murmur.  ‘Alas, poor moth! must we again inquire which is the more fatal — weakness or wickedness?  And can a sympathy with ideas, surely not ignoble in themselves, conduct a man to this dishonourable death?’

By this time I had pushed the door open and walked into the room.  ‘Your highness,’ said I, ‘this is no time for moralising; with a little promptness we may save this creature’s life; and as for the other, he need cause you no concern, for I have him safely under lock and key.’

The prince had turned about upon my entrance, and regarded me certainly with no alarm, but with a profundity of wonder which almost robbed me of my self-possession.  ‘My dear madam,’ he cried at last, ‘and who the devil are you?’

I was already on the floor beside the dying man.  I had, of course, no idea with what drug he had attempted his life, and I was forced to try him with a variety of antidotes.  Here were both oil and vinegar, for the prince had done the young man the honour of compounding for him one of his celebrated salads; and of each of these I administered from a quarter to half a pint, with no apparent efficacy.  I next plied him with the hot coffee, of which there may have been near upon a quart.

‘Have you no milk?’ I inquired.

‘I fear, madam, that milk has been omitted,’ returned the prince.

‘Salt, then,’ said I; ‘salt is a revulsive.  Pass the salt.’

‘And possibly the mustard?’ asked his highness, as he offered me the contents of the various salt-cellars poured together on a plate.

‘Ah,’ cried I, ‘the thought is excellent!  Mix me about half a pint of mustard, drinkably dilute.’

Whether it was the salt or the mustard, or the mere combination of so many subversive agents, as soon as the last had been poured over his throat, the young sufferer obtained relief.

‘There!’ I exclaimed, with natural triumph, ‘I have saved a life!’

‘And yet, madam,’ returned the prince, ‘your mercy may be cruelty disguised.  Where the honour is lost, it is, at least, superfluous to prolong the life.’

‘If you had led a life as changeable as mine, your highness,’ I replied, ‘you would hold a very different opinion.  For my part, and after whatever extremity of misfortune or disgrace, I should still count to-morrow worth a trial.’

‘You speak as a lady, madam,’ said the prince; ‘and for such you speak the truth.  But to men there is permitted such a field of license, and the good behaviour asked of them is at once so easy and so little, that to fail in that is to fall beyond the reach of pardon.  But will you suffer me to repeat a question, put to you at first, I am afraid, with some defect of courtesy; and to ask you once more, who you are and how I have the honour of your company?’

‘I am the proprietor of the house in which we stand,’ said I.

‘And still I am at fault,’ returned the prince.

But at that moment the timepiece on the mantel-shelf began to strike the hour of twelve; and the young man, raising himself upon one elbow, with an expression of despair and horror that I have never seen excelled, cried lamentably, ‘Midnight! oh, just God!’  We stood frozen to our places, while the tingling hammer of the timepiece measured the remaining strokes; nor had we yet stirred, so tragic had been the tones of the young man, when the various bells of London began in turn to declare the hour.  The timepiece was inaudible beyond the walls of the chamber where we stood; but the second pulsation of Big Ben had scarcely throbbed into the night, before a sharp detonation rang about the house.  The prince sprang for the door by which I had entered; but quick as he was, I yet contrived to intercept him.

‘Are you armed?’ I cried.

‘No, madam,’ replied he.  ‘You remind me appositely; I will take the poker.’

‘The man below,’ said I, ‘has two revolvers.  Would you confront him at such odds?’

He paused, as though staggered in his purpose.

‘And yet, madam,’ said he, ‘we cannot continue to remain in ignorance of what has passed.’

‘No!’ cried I.  ‘And who proposes it?  I am as curious as yourself, but let us rather send for the police; or, if your highness dreads a scandal, for some of your own servants.’

‘Nay, madam,’ he replied, smiling, ‘for so brave a lady, you surprise me.  Would you have me, then, send others where I fear to go myself?’

‘You are perfectly right,’ said I, ‘and I was entirely wrong.  Go, in God’s name, and I will hold the candle!’

Together, therefore, we descended to the lower story, he carrying the poker, I the light; and together we approached and opened the door of the butler’s pantry.  In some sort, I believe, I was prepared for the spectacle that met our eyes; I was prepared, that is, to find the villain dead, but the rude details of such a violent suicide I was unable to endure.  The prince, unshaken by horror as he had remained unshaken by alarm, assisted me with the most respectful gallantry to regain the dining-room.

There we found our patient, still, indeed, deadly pale, but vastly recovered and already seated on a chair.  He held out both his hands with a most pitiful gesture of interrogation.

‘He is dead,’ said the prince.

‘Alas!’ cried the young man, ‘and it should be I!  What do I do, thus lingering on the stage I have disgraced, while he, my sure comrade, blameworthy indeed for much, but yet the soul of fidelity, has judged and slain himself for an involuntary fault?  Ah, sir,’ said he, ‘and you too, madam, without whose cruel help I should be now beyond the reach of my accusing conscience, you behold in me the victim equally of my own faults and virtues.  I was born a hater of injustice; from my most tender years my blood boiled against heaven when I beheld the sick, and against men when I witnessed the sorrows of the poor; the pauper’s crust stuck in my throat when I sat down to eat my dainties, and the cripple child has set me weeping.  What was there in that but what was noble? and yet observe to what a fall these thoughts have led me!  Year after year this passion for the lost besieged me closer.  What hope was there in kings? what hope in these well-feathered classes that now roll in money?  I had observed the course of history; I knew the burgess, our ruler of to-day, to be base, cowardly, and dull; I saw him, in every age, combine to pull down that which was immediately above and to prey upon those that were below; his dulness, I knew, would ultimately bring about his ruin; I knew his days were numbered, and yet how was I to wait? how was I to let the poor child shiver in the rain?  The better days, indeed, were coming, but the child would die before that.  Alas, your highness, in surely no ungenerous impatience I enrolled myself among the enemies of this unjust and doomed society; in surely no unnatural desire to keep the fires of my philanthropy alight, I bound myself by an irrevocable oath.