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+Project Gutenberg's The Seven Wives Of Bluebeard, by Anatole France
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Seven Wives Of Bluebeard
+       1920
+
+Author: Anatole France
+
+Editor: James Lewis May And Bernard Miall
+
+Translator: D. B. Stewart
+
+Release Date: May 9, 2008 [EBook #25411]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEVEN WIVES OF BLUEBEARD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SEVEN WIVES OF BLUEBEARD & OTHER MARVELLOUS TALES
+
+By Anatole France
+
+Edited By James Lewis May And Bernard Miall
+
+Translated by D. B. Stewart
+
+John Lane Company MCMXX
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SEVEN WIVES OF BLUEBEARD
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE strangest, the most varied, the most erroneous opinions have
+been expressed with regard to the famous individual commonly known as
+Bluebeard. None, perhaps, was less tenable than that which made of
+this gentleman a personification of the Sun. For this is what a certain
+school of comparative mythology set itself to do, some forty years ago.
+It informed the world that the seven wives of Bluebeard were the Dawns,
+and that his two brothers-in-law were the morning and the evening
+Twilight, identifying them with the Dioscuri, who delivered Helena when
+she was rapt away by Theseus. We must remind those readers who may
+feel tempted to believe this that in 1817 a learned librarian of Agen,
+Jean-Baptiste Peres, demonstrated, in a highly plausible manner, that
+Napoleon had never existed, and that the story of this supposed great
+captain was nothing but a solar myth. Despite the most ingenious
+diversions of the wits, we cannot possibly doubt that Bluebeard and
+Napoleon did both actually exist.
+
+An hypothesis no better founded is that which Consists in identifying
+Bluebeard with the Marshal de Rais, who was strangled by the arm of
+the Law above the bridges of Nantes on 26th of October, 1440. Without
+inquiring, with M. Salomon Reinach, whether the Marshal committed the
+crimes for which he was condemned, or whether his wealth, coveted by a
+greedy prince, did not in some degree contribute to his undoing, there
+is nothing in his life that resembles what we find in Bluebeard's;
+this alone is enough to prevent our confusing them or merging the two
+individuals into one.
+
+Charles Perrault, who, about 1660, had the merit of composing the first
+biography of this _seigneur_, justly remarkable for having married seven
+wives, made him an accomplished villain, and the most perfect model of
+cruelty that ever trod the earth. But it is permissible to doubt, if
+not his sincerity, at least the correctness of his information. He may,
+perhaps, have been prejudiced against his hero. He would not have been
+the first example of a poet or historian who liked to darken the colours
+of his pictures. If we have what seems a flattering portrait of Titus,
+it would seem, on the other hand, that Tacitus has painted Tiberius much
+blacker than the reality. Macbeth, whom legend and Shakespeare accuse
+of crimes, was in reality a just and a wise king. He never treacherously
+murdered the old king, Duncan. Duncan, while yet young, was defeated in
+a great battle, and was found dead on the morrow at a spot called the
+Armourer's Shop. He had slain several of the kinsfolk of Gruchno, the
+wife of Macbeth. The latter made Scotland prosperous; he encouraged
+trade, and was regarded as the defender of the middle classes, the true
+King of the townsmen. The nobles of the clans never forgave him for
+defeating Duncan, nor for protecting the artisans. They destroyed him,
+and dishonoured his memory. Once he was dead the good King Macbeth was
+known only by the statements of his enemies. The genius of Shakespeare
+imposed these lies upon the human consciousness. I had long suspected
+that Bluebeard was the victim of a similar fatality. All the
+circumstances of his life, as I found them related, were far from
+satisfying my mind, and from gratifying that craving for logic and
+lucidity by which I am incessantly consumed. On reflection, I perceived
+that they involved insurmountable difficulties. There was so great a
+desire to make me believe in the man's cruelty that it could not fail to
+make me doubt it.
+
+These presentiments did not mislead me. My intuitions, which had their
+origin in a certain knowledge of human nature, were soon to be changed
+into certainty, based upon irrefutable proofs.
+
+In the house of a stone-cutter in St. Jean-des-Bois, I found several
+papers relating to Bluebeard; amongst others his defence, and an
+anonymous complaint against his murderers, which was not proceeded with,
+for what reasons I know not. These papers confirmed me in the belief
+that he was good and unfortunate, and that his memory has been
+overwhelmed by unworthy slanders. From that time forth, I regarded it
+as my duty to write his true history, without permitting myself any
+illusion as to the success of such an undertaking. I am well aware that
+this attempt at rehabilitation is destined to fall into silence and
+oblivion. How can the cold, naked Truth fight against the glittering
+enchantments of Falsehood?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+SOMEWHERE about 1650 there lived on his estate, between Compiegne and
+Pierrefonds, a wealthy noble, by name Bernard de Montragoux, whose
+ancestors had held the most important posts in the kingdom. But he dwelt
+far from the Court, in that peaceful obscurity which then veiled
+all save that on which the king bestowed his glance. His castle of
+Guillettes abounded in valuable furniture, gold and silver ware,
+tapestry and embroideries, which he kept in coffers; not that he hid
+his treasures for fear of damaging them by use; he was, on the contrary,
+generous and magnificent. But in those days, in the country, the nobles
+willingly led a very simple life, feeding their people at their own
+table, and dancing on Sundays with the girls of the village.
+
+On certain occasions, however, they gave splendid entertainments, which
+contrasted with the dullness of everyday life. So it was necessary
+that they should hold a good deal of handsome furniture and beautiful
+tapestries in reserve. This was the case with Monsieur de Montragoux.
+
+His castle, built in the Gothic period, had all its rudeness. From
+without it looked wild and gloomy enough, with the stumps of its
+great towers, which had been thrown down at the time of the monarchy's
+troubles, in the reign of the late King Louis. Within it offered a much
+pleasanter prospect. The rooms were decorated in the Italian taste,
+as was the great gallery on the ground floor, loaded with embossed
+decorations in high relief, pictures and gilding.
+
+At one end of this gallery there was a closet usually known as "the
+little cabinet." This is the only name by which Charles Perrault refers
+to it. It is as well to note that it was also called the "Cabinet of the
+Unfortunate Princesses," because a Florentine painter had portrayed on
+the walls the tragic stories of Dirce, daughter of the Sun, bound by the
+sons of Antiope to the horns of a bull, Niobe weeping on Mount Sipylus
+for her children, pierced by the divine arrows, and Procris inviting
+to her bosom the javelin of Cephalus. These figures had a look of life
+about them, and the porphyry tiles with which the floor was covered
+seemed dyed in the blood of these unhappy women. One of the doors of the
+Cabinet gave upon the moat, which had no water in it.
+
+The stables formed a sumptuous building, situated at some distance from
+the castle. They contained stalls for sixty horses, and coach-houses
+for twelve gilded coaches. But what made Guillettes so bewitching a
+residence were the woods and canals surrounding it, in which one could
+devote oneself to the pleasures of angling and the chase.
+
+Many of the dwellers in that country-side knew Monsieur de Montragoux
+only by the name of Bluebeard, for this was the only name that the
+common people gave him. And in truth his beard was blue, but it was blue
+only because it was black, and it was because it was so black that it
+was blue. Monsieur de Montragoux must not be imagined as having the
+monstrous aspect of the threefold Typhon whom one sees in Athens,
+laughing in his triple indigo-blue beard. We shall get much nearer the
+reality by comparing the _seigneur_ of Guillettes to those actors or
+priests whose freshly shaven cheeks have a bluish gloss.
+
+Monsieur de Montragouz did not wear a pointed beard like his grandfather
+at the Court of King Henry II; nor did he wear it like a fan, as did
+his great-grandfather who was killed at the battle of Marignan. Like
+Monsieur de Turenne, he had only a slight moustache, and a chin-tuft;
+his cheeks had a bluish look; but whatever may have been said of him,
+this good gentleman was by no means disfigured thereby, nor did he
+inspire any fear on that account. He only looked the more virile, and
+if it made him look a little fierce, it had not the effect of making
+the women dislike him. Bernard de Montragoux was a very fine man, tall,
+broad across the shoulders, moderately stout, and well favoured; albeit
+of a rustic habit, smacking of the woods rather than of drawing-rooms
+and assemblies. Still, it is true that he did not please the ladies
+as much as he should have pleased them, built as he was, and wealthy.
+Shyness was the reason; shyness, not his beard. Women exercised an
+invincible attraction for him, and at the same time inspired him with an
+insuperable fear. He feared them as much as he loved them. This was the
+origin and initial cause of all his misfortunes. Seeing a lady for the
+first time, he would have died rather than speak to her, and however
+much attracted he may have been, he stood before her in gloomy silence.
+His feelings revealed themselves only through his eyes, which he
+rolled in a terrible manner. This timidity exposed him to every kind
+of misfortune, and, above all, it prevented his forming a becoming
+connection with modest and reserved women; and betrayed him,
+defenceless, to the attempts of the most impudent and audacious. This
+was his life's misfortune.
+
+Left an orphan from his early youth, and having rejected, owing to this
+sort of bashfulness and fear, which he was unable to overcome, the very
+advantageous and honourable alliances which had presented themselves, he
+married a Mademoiselle Colette Passage, who had recently settled down in
+that part of the country, after amassing a little money by making a bear
+dance through the towns and villages of the kingdom. He loved her with
+all his soul. And to do her justice, there was something pleasing about
+her, though she was what she was a fine woman with an ample bosom, and a
+complexion that was still sufficiently fresh, although a little sunburnt
+by the open air. Great were her joy and surprise on first becoming
+a lady of quality. Her heart, which was not bad, was touched by the
+kindness of a husband in such a high position, and with such a stout,
+powerful body, who was to her the most obedient of servants and devoted
+of lovers. But after a few months she grew weary because she could no
+longer go to and fro on the face of the earth. In the midst of wealth,
+overwhelmed with love and care, she could find no greater pleasure than
+that of going to see the companion of her wandering life, in the cellar
+where he languished with a chain round his neck and a ring through his
+nose, and kissing him on the eyes and weeping. Seeing her full of care,
+Monsieur de Montragouz himself became careworn, and this only added to
+his companion's melancholy. The consideration and forethought which
+he lavished on her turned the poor woman's head. One morning, when he
+awoke, Monsieur de Montragoux found Colette no longer at his side. In
+vain he searched for her throughout the castle.
+
+The door of the Cabinet of the Unfortunate Princesses was open. It was
+through this door that she had gone to reach the open country with her
+bear. The sorrow of Bluebeard was painful to behold. In spite of the
+innumerable messengers sent forth in search of her, no news was ever
+received of Colette Passage.
+
+Monsieur de Montragoux was still mourning her when he happened to dance,
+at the fair of Guillettes, with Jeanne de La Cloche, daughter of the
+Police Lieutenant of Compiegne, who inspired him with love. He asked her
+in marriage, and obtained her forthwith. She loved wine, and drank it
+to excess. So much did this taste increase that after a few months she
+looked like a leather bottle with a round red face atop of it. The worst
+of it was that this leather bottle would run mad, incessantly rolling
+about the reception-rooms and the staircases, crying, swearing, and
+hiccoughing; vomiting wine and insults at everything that got in her
+way. Monsieur de Montragoux was dazed with disgust and horror. But he
+quite suddenly recovered his courage, and set himself, with as much
+firmness as patience, to cure his wife of so disgusting a vice, Prayers,
+remonstrances, supplications, and threats: he employed every possible
+means. All was useless. He forbade her wine from his cellar: she got it
+from outside, and was more abominably drunk than ever.
+
+To deprive her of her taste for a beverage that she loved too well, he
+put valerian in the bottles. She thought he was trying to poison her,
+sprang upon him, and drove three inches of kitchen knife into his belly.
+He expected to die of it, but he did not abandon his habitual kindness.
+
+"She is more to be pitied than blamed," he said.
+
+One day, when he had forgotten to close the door of the Cabinet of the
+Unfortunate Princesses, Jeanne de La Cloche entered by it, quite out of
+her mind, as usual, and seeing the figures on the walls in postures
+of affliction, ready to give up the ghost, she mistook them for living
+women, and fled terror-stricken into the country, screaming murder.
+Hearing Bluebeard calling her and running after her, she threw herself,
+mad with terror, into a pond, and was there drowned. It is difficult to
+believe, yet certain, that her husband, so compassionate was his soul,
+was much afflicted by her death.
+
+Six weeks after the accident he quietly married Gigonne, the daughter of
+his steward, Traignel. She wore wooden shoes, and smelt of onions. She
+was a fine-looking girl enough, except that she squinted with one eye,
+and limped with one foot. As soon as she was married, this goose-girl,
+bitten by foolish ambition, dreamed of nothing but further greatness
+and splendour. She was not satisfied that her brocade dresses were rich
+enough, her pearl necklaces beautiful enough, her rubies big enough, her
+coaches sufficiently gilded, her lakes, woods, and lands sufficiently
+vast. Bluebeard, who had never had any leaning toward ambition, trembled
+at the haughty humour of his spouse. Unaware, in his straightforward
+simplicity, whether the mistake lay in thinking magnificently like his
+wife, or modestly as he himself did, he accused himself of a mediocrity
+of mind which was thwarting the noble desires of his consort, and, full
+of uncertainty, he would sometimes exhort her to taste with moderation
+the good things of this world, while at others he roused himself to
+pursue fortune along the verge of precipitous heights. He was prudent,
+but conjugal affection bore him beyond the reach of prudence. Gigonne
+thought of nothing but cutting a figure in the world, being received at
+Court, and becoming the King's mistress. Unable to gain her point, she
+pined away with vexation, contracting a jaundice, of which she died.
+Bluebeard, full of lamentation, built her a magnificent tomb.
+
+This worthy _seigneur_ overwhelmed by constant domestic adversity, would
+not perhaps have chosen another wife: but he was himself chosen for a
+husband by Mademoiselle Blanche de Gibeaumex, the daughter of a cavalry
+officer, who had but one ear; he used to relate that he had lost the
+other in the King's service. She was full of intelligence, which she
+employed in deceiving her husband. She betrayed him with every man of
+quality in the neighbourhood. She was so dexterous that she deceived him
+in his own castle, almost under his very eyes, without his perceiving
+it. Poor Bluebeard assuredly suspected something, but he could not say
+what. Unfortunately for her, while she gave her whole mind to tricking
+her husband, she was not sufficiently careful in deceiving her lovers;
+by which I mean that she betrayed them, one for another. One day she was
+surprised in the Cabinet of the Unfortunate Princesses, in the company
+of a gentleman whom she loved, by a gentleman whom she had loved, and
+the latter, in a transport of jealousy, ran her through with his sword.
+A few hours later the unfortunate lady was there found dead by one of
+the castle servants, and the fear inspired by the room increased.
+
+Poor Bluebeard, learning at one blow of his ample dishonour, and
+the tragic death of his wife, did not console himself for the latter
+misfortune by any consideration of the former. He had loved Blanche de
+Gibeaumez with a strange ardour, more dearly than he had loved Jeanne de
+La Cloche, Gigonne Traignel, or even Colette Passage. On learning that
+she had consistently betrayed him, and that now she would never betray
+him again, he experienced a grief and a mental perturbation which, far
+from being appeased, daily increased in violence. So intolerable were
+his sufferings that he contracted a malady which caused his life to be
+despaired of.
+
+The physicians, having employed various medicines without effect,
+advised him that the only remedy proper to his complaint was to take a
+young wife. He then thought of his young cousin, Angele de La Garandine,
+whom he believed would be willingly bestowed upon him, as she had no
+property. What encouraged him to take her to wife was the fact that she
+was reputed to be simple and ignorant of the world. Having been deceived
+by a woman of intelligence, he felt more comfortable with a fool. He
+married Mademoiselle de La Garandine, and quickly perceived the falsity
+of his calculations. Angele was kind, Angele was good, and Angele loved
+him; she had not, in herself, any leanings toward evil, but the least
+astute person could quickly lead her astray at any moment. It was enough
+to tell her: "Do this for fear of bogies; comes in here or the were-wolf
+will eat you;" or "Shut your eyes, and take this drop of medicine," and
+the innocent girl would straightway do so, at the will of the rascals
+who wanted of her that which it was very natural to want of her, for
+she was pretty. Monsieur de Montragouz, injured and betrayed by this
+innocent girl, as much as and more than he had been by Blanche de
+Gibeaumex, had the additional pain of knowing it, for Angele was too
+candid to conceal anything from him. She used to tell him: "Sir, some
+one told me this; some one did that to me; some one took so and so away
+from me; I saw that; I felt so and so." And by her ingenuousness she
+caused her lord to suffer torments beyond imagination. He endured them
+like a Stoic. Still he finally had to tell the simple creature that she
+was a goose, and to box her ears. This, for him, was the beginning of
+a reputation for cruelty, which was not fated to be diminished. A
+mendicant monk, who was passing Gulllettes while Monsieur de Montragouz
+was out shooting woodcock, found Madame Angele sewing a doll's
+petticoat. This worthy friar, discovering that she was as foolish as she
+was beautiful, took her away on his donkey, having persuaded her that
+the Angel Gabriel was waiting in a wood, to give her a pair of pearl
+garters. It is believed that she must have been eaten by a wolf, for she
+was never seen again.
+
+After such a disastrous experience, how was it that Bluebeard could make
+up his mind to contract yet another union? It would be impossible to
+understand it, were we not well aware of the power which a fine pair of
+eyes exerts over a generous heart.
+
+The honest gentleman met, at a neighbouring chateau which he was in
+the habit of frequenting, a young orphan of quality, by name Alix de
+Pontalcin, who, having been robbed of all her property by a greedy
+trustee, thought only of entering a convent. Officious friends
+intervened to alter her determination and persuade her to accept the
+hand of Monsieur de Montragoux. Her beauty was perfect. Bluebeard, who
+was promising himself the enjoyment of an infinite happiness in her
+arms, was once more deluded in his hopes, and this time experienced a
+disappointment, which, owing to his disposition, was bound to make an
+even greater impression upon him than all the afflictions which he
+had suffered in his previous marriages. Alix de Pontalcin obstinately
+refused to give actuality to the union to which she had nevertheless
+consented.
+
+In vain did Monsieur de Montragoux press her to become his wife; she
+resisted prayers, tears, and objurgations, she refused her husband's
+lightest caresses, and rushed off to shut herself into the Cabinet of
+the Unfortunate Princesses, where she remained, alone and intractable,
+for whole nights at a time.
+
+The cause of a resistance so contrary to laws both human and divine was
+never known; it was attributed to Monsieur de Montragoux's blue beard,
+but our previous remarks on the subject of his beard render such a
+supposition far from probable. In any case, it is a difficult subject
+to discuss. The unhappy husband underwent the cruellest sufferings. In
+order to forget them, he hunted with desperation, exhausting horses,
+hounds, and huntsmen. But when he returned home, foundered and
+overtired, the mere sight of Mademoiselle de Pontalcin was enough to
+revive his energies and his torments. Finally, unable to endure the
+situation any longer, he applied to Rome for the annulment of a marriage
+which was nothing better than a trap; and in consideration of a handsome
+present to the Holy Father he obtained it in accordance with canon law.
+If Monsieur de Montragoux discarded Mademoiselle de Pontalcin with
+all the marks of respect due to a woman, and without breaking his cane
+across her back, it was because he had a valiant soul, a great heart,
+and was master of himself as well as of Guillettes. But he swore that,
+for the future, no female should enter his apartments. Happy had he been
+if he had held to his oath to the end!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+SOME years had elapsed since Monsieur de Montragoux had rid himself
+of his sixth wife, and only a confused recollection remained in the
+country-side of the domestic calamities which had fallen upon this
+worthy _seigneur's_ house. Nobody knew what had become of his wives,
+and hair-raising tales were told in the village at night; some believed
+them, others did not. About this time, a widow, past the prime of life,
+Dame Sidonie de Lespoisse, came to settle with her children in the manor
+of La Motte-Giron, about two leagues, as the crow flies, from the castle
+of Guillettes. Whence she came, or who her husband had been, not a soul
+knew. Some believed, because they had heard it said, that he had held
+certain posts in Savoy or Spain; others said that he had died in the
+Indies; many had the idea that the widow was possessed of immense
+estates, while others doubted it strongly. However, she lived in a
+notable style, and invited all the nobility of the country-side to La
+Motte-Giron. She had two daughters, of whom the elder, Anne, on the
+verge of becoming an old maid, was a very astute person: Jeanne, the
+younger, ripe for marriage, concealed a precocious knowledge of the
+world under an appearance of simplicity. The Dame de Lespoisse had also
+two sons, of twenty and twenty-two years of age; very fine well-made
+young fellows, of whom one was a Dragoon, and the other a Musketeer. I
+may add, having seen his commission, that he was a Black Musketeer.
+When on foot, this was not apparent, for the Black Musketeers were
+distinguished from the Grey not by the colour of their uniform, but by
+the hides of their horses. All alike wore blue surcoats laced with gold.
+As for the Dragoons, they were to be recognized by a kind of fur bonnet,
+of which the tail fell gallantly over the ear. The Dragoons had the
+reputation of being scamps, a scapegrace crowd, witness the song:
+
+     "Mama, here the dragoons come,
+     Let us haste away."
+
+But you might have searched in vain through His Majesty's two regiments
+of Dragoons for a bigger rake, a more accomplished sponger, or a viler
+rogue than Cosme de Lespoisset. Compared with him, his brother was
+an honest lad. Drunkard and gambler, Pierre de Lespoisse pleased the
+ladies, and won at cards; these were the only ways of gaining a living
+known to him.
+
+Their mother, Dame de Lespoisse, was making a splash at Motte-Giron only
+in order to catch gulls. As a matter of fact, she had not a penny, and
+owed for everything, even to her false teeth. Her clothes and furniture,
+her coach, her horses, and her servants had all been lent by Parisian
+moneylenders, who threatened to withdraw them all if she did not
+presently marry one of her daughters to some rich nobleman, and the
+respectable Sidonie was expecting to find herself at any moment naked
+in an empty house. In a hurry to find a son-in-law, she had at once
+cast her eye upon Monsieur de Montragoux, whom she summed up as being
+simple-minded, easy to deceive, extremely mild, and quick to fall in
+love under his rude and bashful exterior. Her two daughters entered
+into her plans, and every time they met him, riddled poor Bluebeard with
+glances which pierced him to the depths of his heart. He soon fell
+a victim to the potent charms of the two Demoiselles de Lespoisse.
+Forgetting his oath, he thought of nothing but marrying one of them,
+finding them equally beautiful. After some delay, caused less by
+hesitation than timidity, he went to Motte-Giron in great state, and
+made his petition to the Dame de Lespoisse, leaving to her the choice
+of which daughter she would give him. Madame Sidonie obligingly replied
+that she held him in high esteem, and that she authorized him to pay his
+court to whichever of the ladies he should prefer.
+
+"Learn to please, monsieur," she said. "I shall be the first to applaud
+your success."
+
+In order to make their better acquaintance, Bluebeard invited Anne and
+Jeanne de Lespoisse, with their mother, brothers, and a multitude of
+ladies and gentlemen to pass a fortnight at the castle of Guillettes.
+There was a succession of walking, hunting, and fishing parties, dances
+and festivities, dinners and entertainments of every sort. A young
+_seigneur_, the Chevalier de Merlus, whom the ladies Lespoisse had
+brought with them, organized the beats. Bluebeard had the best packs of
+hounds and the largest turnout in the countryside. The ladies rivalled
+the ardour of the gentlemen in hunting the deer. They did not always
+hunt the animal down, but the hunters and their ladies wandered away in
+couples, found one another, and again wandered off into the woods. For
+choice, the Chevalier de la Merlus would lose himself with Jeanne de
+Lespoisse, and both would return to the castle at night, full of their
+adventures, and pleased with their day's sport.
+
+After a few days' observation, the good _seigneur_ of Montragoux felt
+a decided preference for Jeanne, the younger sister, rather than
+the elder, as she was fresher, which is not saying that she was less
+experienced. He allowed his preference to appear; there was no reason
+why he should conceal it, for it was a befitting preference; moreover,
+he was a plain dealer. He paid court to the young lady as best he could,
+speaking little, for want of practice; but he gazed at her, rolling his
+rolling eyes, and emitting from the depths of his bowels sighs which
+might have overthrown an oak tree. Sometimes he would burst out
+laughing, whereupon the crockery trembled, and the windows rattled.
+Alone of all the party, he failed to remark the assiduous attentions of
+the Chevalier de la Merlus to Madame de Lespoisse's younger daughter,
+or if he did remark them he saw no harm in them. His experience of women
+was not sufficient to make him suspicious, and he trusted when he loved.
+My grandmother used to say that in life experience is worthless, and
+that one remains the same as when one begins. I believe she was right,
+and the true story that I am now unfolding is not of a nature to prove
+her wrong.
+
+Bluebeard displayed an unusual magnificence in these festivities.
+When night arrived the lawns before the castle were lit by a thousand
+torches, and tables served by men-servants and maids dressed as fauns
+and dryads groaned under all the tastiest things which the country-side
+and the forest produced. Musicians provided a continual succession of
+beautiful symphonies. Towards the end of the meal the schoolmaster and
+schoolmistress, followed by the boys and girls of the village, appeared
+before the guests, and read a complimentary address to the _seigneur_
+of Montragoux and his friends. An astrologer in a pointed cap approached
+the ladies, and foretold their future love-affairs from the lines of
+their hands, Bluebeard ordered drink to be given for all his vassals,
+and he himself distributed bread and meat to the poor families.
+
+At ten o'clock, for fear of the evening dew, the company retired to
+the apartments, lit by a multitude of candles, and there tables were
+prepared for every sort of game: lansquenet, billiards, reversi,
+bagatelle, pigeon-holes, turnstile, porch, beast, hoca, brelan,
+draughts, backgammon, dice, basset, and calbas. Bluebeard was uniformly
+unfortunate in these various games, at which he lost large sums every
+night. He could console himself for his continuous run of bad luck by
+watching the three Lespoisse ladies win a great deal of money. Jeanne,
+the younger, who often backed the game of the Chevalier de la Merlus,
+heaped up mountains of gold. Madame de Lespoisse's two sons also did
+very well at reversi and basset; their luck was invariably best at the
+more hazardous games. The play went on until late into the night. No
+one slept during these marvellous festivities, and as the earliest
+biographer of Bluebeard has said: "They spent the whole night in playing
+tricks on one another." These hours were the most delightful of
+the whole twenty-four; for then, under cover of jesting, and taking
+advantage of the darkness, those who felt drawn toward one another would
+hide together in the depths of some alcove. The Chevelier de la Merlus
+would disguise himself at one time as a devil, at another as a ghost or
+a were-wolf in order to frighten the sleepers, but he always ended by
+slipping into the room of Mademoiselle Jeanne de Lespoisse. The good
+_seigneur_ of Montragoux was not overlooked in these games. The two sons
+of Madame de Lespoisse put irritant powder in his bed, and burnt in his
+room substances which emitted a disgusting smell. Or they would arrange
+a jug of water over his door so that the worthy _seigneur_ could not
+open the door without the whole of the water being upset upon his
+head. In short, they played on him all sorts of practical jokes, to the
+diversion of the whole company, and Bluebeard bore them with his natural
+good humour.
+
+He made his request, to which Madame de Lespoisse acceded, although, as
+she said, it wrung her heart to think of giving her girls in marriage.
+
+The marriage was celebrated at Motte-Giron with extraordinary
+magnificence. The Demoiselle Jeanne, amazingly beautiful, was dressed
+entirely in _point de France_, her head covered with a thousand
+ringlets. Her sister Anne wore a dress of green velvet, embroidered
+with gold. Their mother's dress was of golden tissue, trimmed with black
+chenille, with a _parure_ of pearls and diamonds. Monsieur de Montragoux
+wore all his great diamonds on a suit of black velvet; he made a very
+fine appearance; his expression of timidity and innocence contrasting
+strongly with his blue chin and his massive build. The bride's brothers
+were of course handsomely arrayed, but the Chevalier de la Merlus, in
+a suit of rose velvet trimmed with pearls, shone with unparalleled
+splendour.
+
+Immediately after the ceremony, the Jews who had hired out to the
+bride's family and her lover all these fine clothes and rich jewels
+resumed possession of them and posted back to Paris with them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+FOR a month Monsieur de Montragoux was the happiest of men. He adored
+his wife, and regarded her as an angel of purity. She was something
+quite different, but far shrewder men than poor Bluebeard might have
+been deceived as he was, for she was a person of great cunning and
+astuteness, and allowed herself submissively to be ruled by her
+mother, who was the cleverest jade in the whole kingdom of France. She
+established herself at Guillettes with her eldest daughter Anne, her
+two sons, Pierre and Cosme, and the Chevalier de la Merlus, who kept
+as close to Madame de Montragoux as if he had been her shadow. Her good
+husband was a little annoyed at this; he would have liked to keep his
+wife always to himself, but he did not take exception to the affection
+which she felt for this young gentleman, as she had told him that he was
+her foster-brother.
+
+Charles Perrault relates that a month after having contracted this
+union, Bluebeard was compelled to make a journey of six weeks' duration
+on some important business. He does not seem to be aware of the reasons
+for this journey, and it has been suspected that it was an artifice,
+which the jealous husband resorted to, according to custom, in order to
+surprise his wife. The truth is quite otherwise. Monsieur de Montragouz
+went to Le Perche to receive the heritage of his cousin of Outarde, who
+had been killed gloriously by a cannon-ball at the battle of the Dunes,
+while casting dice upon a drum.
+
+Before leaving, Monsieur de Montragoux begged his wife to indulge in
+every possible distraction during his absence.
+
+"Invite all your friends, madame," he said, "go riding with them, amuse
+yourselves, and have a pleasant time."
+
+He handed over to her all the keys of the house, thus indicating that
+in his absence she was the sole and sovereign mistress of all the
+_seigneurie_ of Guillettes.
+
+"This," he said, "is the key of the two great wardrobes; this of the
+gold and silver not in daily use; this of the strong-boxes which contain
+my gold and silver; this of the caskets where my jewels are kept; and
+this is a pass-key into all the rooms. As for this little key, it is
+that of the Cabinet, at the end of the Gallery, on the ground floor;
+open everything, and go where you will."
+
+Charles Perrault claims that Monsieur de Montragoux added:
+
+"But as for the little Cabinet, I forbid you to enter that; and I forbid
+you so expressly that if you do enter it, I cannot say to what lengths
+my anger will not go."
+
+The historian of Bluebeard in placing these words on record, has fallen
+into the error of adopting, without, verification, the version concocted
+after the event by the ladies Lespoisse. Monsieur de Montragoux
+expressed himself very differently. When he handed to his wife the key
+of the little Cabinet, which was none other than the Cabinet of the
+Unfortunate Princesses, to which we have already frequently alluded, he
+expressed the desire that his beloved Jeanne should not enter that part
+of the house which he regarded as fatal to his domestic happiness. It
+was through this room, indeed, that his first wife, and the best of
+all of them, had fled, when she ran away with her bear; here Blanche
+de Gibeaumex had repeatedly betrayed him with various gentlemen; and
+lastly, the porphyry pavement was stained by the blood of a beloved
+criminal. Was not this enough to make Monsieur de Montragoux connect the
+idea of this room with cruel memories and fateful forebodings?
+
+The words which he addressed to Jeanne de Lespoisse convey the desires
+and impressions which were troubling his mind. They were actually as
+follows:
+
+"For you, madame, nothing of mine is hidden, and I should feel that I
+was doing you an injury did I fail to hand over to you all the keys of
+a dwelling which belongs to you. You may therefore enter this little
+cabinet, as you may enter all the other rooms of the house; but if you
+will take my advice you will do nothing of the kind, to oblige me, and
+in consideration of the painful ideas which, for me, are connected
+with this room, and the forebodings of evil which these ideas, despite
+myself, call up into my mind. I should be inconsolable were any
+mischance to befall you, or were I to bring misfortune upon you. You
+will, madame, forgive these fears, which are happily unfounded, as being
+only the outcome of my anxious affection and my watchful love."
+
+With these words the good _seigneur_ embraced his wife and posted off to
+Le Perche.
+
+"The friends and neighbours," says Charles Perrault, "did not wait to be
+asked to visit the young bride; so full were they of impatience to see
+all the wealth of her house. They proceeded at once to inspect all
+the rooms, cabinets, and wardrobes, each of which was richer and more
+beautiful than the last; and there was no end to their envy and their
+praises of their friend's good fortune."
+
+All the historians who have dealt with this subject have added that
+Madame de Montsagoux took no pleasure in the sight of all these
+riches, by reason of her impatience to open the little Cabinet. This
+is perfectly correct, and as Perrault has said: "So urgent was her
+curiosity that, without considering that it was unmannerly to leave her
+guests, she went down to it by a little secret staircase, and in such a
+hurry that two or three times she thought she would break her neck." The
+fact is beyond question. But what no one has told us is that the reason
+why she was so anxious to reach this apartment was that the Chevalier de
+la Merlus was awaiting her there.
+
+Since she had come to make her home in the castle of Guillettes she had
+met this young gentleman in the Cabinet every day, and oftener twice a
+day than once, without wearying of an intercourse so unseemly in a young
+married woman. It is Impossible to hesitate, as to the nature of the
+ties connecting Jeanne with the Chevalier: they were anything but
+respectable, anything but chaste, Alas, had Madame de Montragoux merely
+betrayed her husband's honour, she would no doubt have incurred the
+blame of posterity; but the most austere of moralists might have found
+excuses for her. He might allege, in favour of so young a woman, the
+laxity of the morals of the period; the examples of the city and the
+Court; the too certain effects of a bad training, and the advice of
+an immoral mother, for Madame Sidonie de Lespoisse countenanced her
+daughter's intrigues. The wise might have forgiven her a fault too
+amiable to merit their severity; her errors would have seemed too common
+to be crimes, and the world would simply have considered that she was
+behaving like other people. But Jeanne de Lespoisse, not content with
+betraying her husband's honour, did not hesitate to attempt his life.
+
+It was in the little Cabinet, otherwise known as the Cabinet of the
+Unfortunate Princesses, that Jeanne de Lespoisse, Dame de Montragoux, in
+concert with the Chevalier de la Merlus, plotted the death of a kind and
+faithful husband. She declared later that, on entering the room, she saw
+hanging there the bodies of six murdered women, whose congealed blood
+covered the tiles, and that recognizing in these unhappy women the first
+six wives of Bluebeard, she foresaw the fate which awaited herself.
+She must, in this case, have mistaken the paintings on the walls for
+mutilated corpses, and her hallucinations must be compared with those
+of Lady Macbeth. But it is extremely probable that Jeanne imagined
+this horrible sight in order to relate it afterwards, justifying her
+husband's murderers by slandering their victim.
+
+The death of Monsieur de Montragouz was determined upon. Certain letters
+which lie before me compel the belief that Madame Sidonie Lespoisse had
+her part in the plot. As for her elder daughter, she may be described as
+the soul of the conspiracy. Anne de Lespoisse was the wickedest of the
+whole family. She was a stranger to sensual weakness, remaining chaste
+in the midst of the profligacy of the house; it was not a case of
+refusing pleasures which she thought unworthy of her; the truth was that
+she took pleasure only in cruelty. She engaged her two brothers,
+Cosme and Pierre, in the enterprise by promising them the command of a
+regiment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+IT now rests with us to trace, with the aid of authentic documents,
+and reliable evidence, the most atrocious, treacherous, and cowardly
+domestic crime of which the record has come down to us. The murder
+whose circumstances we are about to relate can only be compared to
+that committed on the night of the 9th March, 1449, on the person of
+Guillaume de Flavy, by his wife Blanche d'Overbreuc, a young and slender
+woman, the bastard d'Orbandas, and the barber Jean Bocquillon.
+
+They stifled Guillaume with a pillow, battered him pitilessly with a
+club, and bled him at the throat like a calf. Blanche d'Overbreuc proved
+that her husband had determined to have her drowned, while Jeanne de
+Lespoisse betrayed a loving husband to a gang of unspeakable scoundrels.
+We will record the facts with all possible restraint. Bluebeard returned
+rather earlier than expected. This it was gave rise to the quite
+mistaken idea that, a prey to the blackest jealousy, he was wishful to
+surprise his wife. Full of joy and confidence, if he thought of giving
+her a surprise it was an agreeable one. His kindness and tenderness, and
+his joyous, peaceable air would have softened the most savage hearts.
+The Chevalier de la Merlus, and the whole execrable brood of Lespoisse
+saw therein nothing but an additional facility for taking his life, and
+possessing themselves of his wealth, still further increased by his new
+inheritance.
+
+His young wife met him with a smiling face, allowing herself to be
+embraced and led to the conjugal chamber, where she did everything to
+please the good man. The following morning she returned him the bunch of
+keys which had been confided to her care. But there was missing that of
+the Cabinet of the Unfortunate Princesses, commonly called the little
+Cabinet. Bluebeard gently demanded its delivery, and after putting him
+off for a time on various pretexts Jeanne returned it to him.
+
+There now arises a question which cannot be solved without leaving
+the limited domain of history to enter the indeterminate regions of
+philosophy.
+
+Charles Perrault specifically states that the key of the little Cabinet
+was a fairy key, that is to say, it was magical, enchanted, endowed with
+properties contrary to the laws of nature, at all events, as we conceive
+them. We have no proof to the contrary. This is a fitting moment to
+recall the precept of my illustrious master, Monsieur du Clos des Lunes,
+a member of the Institute: "When the supernatural makes its appearance,
+it must not be rejected by the historian." I shall therefore content
+myself with recalling as regards this key, the unanimous opinion of all
+the old biographers of Bluebeard; they all affirm that it was a fairy
+key. This is a point of great importance. Moreover, this key is not the
+only object created by human industry which has proved to be endowed
+with marvellous properties. Tradition abounds with examples of enchanted
+swords. Arthur's was a magic sword. And so was that of Joan of Arc, on
+the undeniable authority of Jean Chartier; and the proof afforded by
+that illustrious chronicler is that when the blade was broken the two
+pieces refused to be welded together again despite all the efforts of
+the most competent armourers. Victor Hugo speaks in one of his poems of
+those "magic stairways still obscured below." Many authors even admit
+that there are men-magicians who can turn themselves into wolves. We
+shall not undertake to combat such a firm and constant belief, and we
+shall not pretend to decide whether the key of the little Cabinet was
+or was not enchanted, for our reserve does not imply that we are in any
+uncertainty, and therein resides its merit. But where we find ourselves
+in our proper domain, or to be more precise within our own jurisdiction,
+where we once more become judges of facts, and writers of circumstances,
+is where we read that the key was flecked with blood. The authority of
+the texts does not so far impress us as to compel us to believe this. It
+was not flecked with blood. Blood had flowed in the little cabinet, but
+at a time already remote. Whether the key had been washed or whether it
+had dried, it was impossible that it should be so stained, and what, in
+her agitation, the criminal wife mistook for a blood-stain on the iron,
+was the reflection of the sky still empurpled by the roses of dawn.
+
+Monsieur de Montragoux, on seeing the key, perceived none the less that
+his wife had entered the little cabinet. He noticed that it now appeared
+cleaner and brighter than when he had given it to her, and was of
+opinion that this polish could only come from use.
+
+This produced a painful impression upon him, and he said to his wife,
+with a mournful smile:
+
+"My darling, you have been into the little cabinet. May there result
+no grievous outcome for either of us! From that room emanates a malign
+influence from which I would have protected you. If you, in your turn
+should become subjected to it, I should never get over it. Forgive me;
+when we love we are superstitious."
+
+On these words, although Bluebeard cannot have frightened her, for his
+words and demeanour expressed only love and melancholy, the young lady
+of Montragoux began shrieking at the top of her voice: "Help! Help!
+he's killing me!" This was the signal agreed upon. On hearing it, the
+Chevalier de la Merlus and the two sons of Madame de Lespoisse were to
+have thrown themselves upon Bluebeard and run him through with their
+swords.
+
+But the Chevalier, whom Jeanne had hidden in a cupboard in the room,
+appeared alone. Monsieur de Montragoux, seeing him leap forth sword in
+hand, placed himself on guard. Jeanne fled terror-stricken, and met
+her sister Anne in the gallery. She was not, as has been related, on
+a tower; for all the towers had been thrown down by order of Cardinal
+Richelieu. Anne was striving to put heart into her two brothers, who,
+pale and quaking, dared not risk so great a stake. Jeanne hastily
+implored them: "Quick, quick, brothers, save my lover!" Pierre and Cosme
+then rushed at Bluebeard. They found him, having disarmed the Chevalier
+de la Merlus, holding him down with his knee; they treacherously ran
+their swords through his body from behind, and continued to strike at
+him long after he had breathed his last.
+
+Bluebeard had no heirs. His wife remained mistress of his property. She
+used a part of it to provide a dowry for her sister Anne, another part
+to buy captains' commissions for her two brothers, and the rest to marry
+the Chevalier de la Merlus, who became a very respectable man as soon as
+he was wealthy.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Seven Wives Of Bluebeard, by Anatole France
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