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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42096 ***

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THE KING OF THE MOUNTAINS

by

EDMUND ABOUT.

Translated from the French by Mrs. C. A. Kingsbury.







Chicago and New York:
Rand, McNally & Company.
MDCCCXCVII.

Copyright, 1897, by Rand, McNally & Co.




THE KING OF THE MOUNTAINS.




I.

HERMANN SCHULTZ.


On the 3d of July, about six o'clock in the morning, I was watering my
flowers. A young man entered the garden. He was blonde, beardless; he
wore a German cap and sported gold spectacles. A long, loose woolen
coat, or paletot, drooped in a melancholy way around his form, like a
sail around a mast in a calm. He wore no gloves; his tan leather shoes
had such large soles, that the foot was surrounded by a narrow flange.
In the breast-pocket of his paletot, a huge porcelain pipe bulged
half-way out. I did not stop to ask myself whether this young man was a
student in the German Universities; I put down my watering-pot, and
saluted him with: "Guten Morgen!"

"Monsieur," he said to me in French, but with a deplorable accent, "my
name is Hermann Schultz; I have come to pass some months in Greece, and
I have carried your book with me everywhere."

This praise penetrated my heart with sweet joy; the stranger's voice
seemed more melodious than Mozart's music, and I directed toward his
gold glasses a swift look of gratitude. You would scarcely believe, dear
reader, how much we love those who have taken the trouble to decipher
our jargon. As for me, if I have ever sighed to be rich, it is in order
to assure an income to all those who have read my works.

I took him by the hand, this excellent young man. I seated him beside me
on the garden-bench. He told me that he was a botanist, that he had a
commission from the "Jardin des Plantes" in Hamburg. In order to
complete his herbarium he was studying the country, the animals, and the
people. His naive descriptions, his terse but just decisions, recalled
to me, a little, the simple old Herodotus. He expressed himself
awkwardly, but with a candor which inspired confidence; he emphasized
his words with the tone of a man entirely convinced. He questioned me,
if not of every one in Athens, at least of all the principal personages
in my book. In the course of the conversation, he made some statements
on general subjects, which seemed to me far more reasonable than any
which I had advanced. At the end of an hour we had become good friends.

I do not know which of us first spoke of brigandage. People who travel
in Italy talk of paintings; those who visit England talk of
manufactures; each country has its specialty.

"My dear sir," I asked of my guest, "have you met any brigands? Is it
true, as is reported, that there are still bandits in Greece?"

"It is only too true," he gravely replied. "I was for fifteen days in
the hands of the terrible Hadgi-Stavros, nicknamed The King of the
Mountains. I speak then from experience. If you have leisure, and a long
story will not weary you, I am ready to give you the details of my
adventure. You may make of it what you please; a romance, a novel, or
perhaps an additional chapter in the little book in which you have
written so many curious facts."

"You are very good," I replied, "and I am at your disposal. Let us go to
my study. It is cooler there than in the garden and yet we can enjoy the
odor of the sweet-peas and mignonette."

He followed me, humming to himself in Greek, a popular song:

    "A robber with black eyes descends to the plains;
    His gun is heard at each step;
    He says to the vultures: 'Do not leave me,
    I will serve to you the Pasha of Athens.'"

He seated himself on a divan, with his legs crossed under him like the
Arabian story-tellers, took off his loose paletot, lighted his pipe and
began his tale. I seated myself at my desk and took stenographic notes
as he dictated.

I have always been without much distrust, especially with those who have
complimented me. Sometimes the amiable stranger told me such surprising
things that I asked myself many times if he was not mocking me. But his
manner was so simple, his blue eyes so limpid, that my suspicions faded
away on the instant.

He talked steadily, until half after noon. He stopped two or three times
only long enough to relight his pipe.

He smoked with regular puffs like the smoke stack of a steam-engine.
Each time I raised my eyes, I beheld him, calm, smiling, in the midst of
a thick cloud of smoke, like Jupiter in the 5th act of Amphitryon.

We were interrupted by a servant with the announcement that breakfast
was served. Hermann seated himself opposite me, and my trifling
suspicions vanished before his appetite. I said to myself that a good
digestion rarely accompanies a bad conscience. The young German was too
good an eater to be an untruthful narrator, and his voracity restored my
faith in his veracity. Struck with this idea, I confessed, while
offering him some strawberries, that I had, for an instant, doubted him.
He replied with an angelic smile.

I passed the entire day with my new friend, and I found that the time
did not drag. At five o'clock, he knocked the ashes from his pipe, put
on his outer coat, and shaking my hand, said: "Adieu." I replied: "Au
revoir."

"No," he said, shaking his head; "I leave to-night at seven o'clock, and
I dare not hope ever to see you again."

"Leave your address. I have not yet renounced the pleasure of traveling,
and I may, sometime, pass through Hamburg."

"Unfortunately, I do not know where I shall pitch my tent. Germany is
large; I may not remain a citizen of Hamburg."

"But if I publish your story, at least I ought to send you a copy."

"Do not take that trouble. As soon as the book is published, it will
appear in Leipzig and I will read it. Adieu!"

After his departure, I re-read attentively what I had written. I found
some remarkable details, but nothing which contradicts what I had seen
and heard during my stay in Greece.

At the moment of finishing the manuscript, a scruple restrained me: What
if some errors had crept into Hermann's statements? In my quality of
editor was I not responsible? To publish the story of "The King of the
Mountains," was it not to expose myself to editorial comments and
criticisms?

In my perplexity, I thought of making a copy of the original. I sent the
first to M. Pseftis. I begged him to point out, candidly, all the
errors, and I promised to print his reply at the end of the volume.

I re-read the copy which I had retained. I changed no word in it. If I
made myself the corrector of the young German's statements, I would
become his collaborator. So I discreetly withdrew. It is Hermann who
speaks to you.




II.

PHOTINI.


You divine, from the appearance of my clothes, that I have not ten
thousand francs with me. My father is an inn-keeper whom the railroads
have ruined. In prosperous times he eats bread, in bad years potatoes.
Add to this, that there are six children, all with good appetites. The
day on which I received my commission from the Jardin des Plantes, there
was a festival given in the family. My departure would not only increase
the portion of each of my brothers, but I was to have two hundred and
fifty francs per month and the expenses for my journey. It was a
fortune. From that moment they ceased to call me Doctor. They dubbed me
beef-merchant, so that I should appear rich! My brothers prophesied that
I would be elected Professor by the University, on my return from
Athens. My father hoped that I would return married. In his position of
inn-keeper, he had assisted in some very romantic adventures. He cited,
at least three times a week, the marriage of the Princess Ypsoff and
Lieutenant Reynauld. The Princess occupied the finest apartments, with
her two maids and her Courier, and she gave twenty florins a day. The
French Lieutenant was in No. 17, way up under the eaves, and he paid a
florin and a half, food included; however, after a month's sojourn at
the hotel, he departed in a carriage with the Russian lady.

My poor father, with the partiality of a father, thought that I was
handsomer and more elegant than Lieutenant Reynauld; he did not doubt
but that, sooner or later, I would meet a princess who would enrich us
all. If I did not find her at a table d'hote, I would see her in a
railway carriage. If the powers which control the railroads were not
propitious, there was still left the steamships. The evening of my
departure, we drank a bottle of old Rhine wine, and by chance the last
was poured into my glass. The good man wept with joy: it was a sure
sign, and nothing could prevent me from marrying within a year. I
respected his superstitions, and I refrained from saying that princesses
rarely travel third class. As for lodgings, my humble luggage would not
permit me to choose any but modest inns, and royal families do not,
usually, lodge in them. The fact is, that I landed in Greece without an
adventure of any kind.

The army occupying the city made everything very dear in Athens. The
Hotel d'Angleterre, the Hotel Orient, the Hotel des Etrangers were
inaccessible. The Chancellor of the Prussian Legation, to whom I had
brought a letter of introduction, was kind enough to assist me in
finding a lodging. He took me to a pastry-cook's, at the corner of the
Rue d'Hèrmes and the Place du Palais. I found there, board and lodging
for a hundred francs a month. Christodule was an old Palikar, decorated
with the Iron Cross, in memory of the War of Independence. He was a
Lieutenant in the Phalanx, he wore the National costume, the red bonnet
with blue tassel, the silver-colored vest, the white skirt, and the
fancy leggins, when he sold ices and cakes. His wife, Maroula, was
enormous, like all Greek women who have passed fifty. Her husband had
purchased her during the war, when women sold for high prices. She was
born in the Isle of Hydra, but she dressed in the Athenian fashion:
upper garment or jacket of black velvet, skirt of a bright color, a silk
handkerchief tied over her head. Neither Christodule nor his wife knew a
word of German; but their son Dimitri, who was a servant hired by the
day, and who dressed like a Frenchman, understood and spoke a little of
each patois of Europe. Upon the whole, I had really no need of an
interpreter. Without having received the gift of tongues, I am a fairly
good linguist, and I murder Greek as readily as English, Italian or
French.

My hosts were worthy people; they gave me a little white-washed room,
with a table of white wood, two straw-bottomed chairs, a good but thin
mattress, and some cotton quilts. A wooden bed is a superfluity which
the Greeks easily deny themselves, and we lived a la Grecque. I
breakfasted on a cup of arrow-root; I dined on a plate of meat with many
olives, and dry fish; I supped on vegetables, honey and cakes. Preserves
were not rare in the house, and occasionally I evoked memories of home
by dining on a leg of lamb and preserves. It is useless to tell you that
I had my pipe, and that the tobacco in Athens is better than yours. That
which contributed to my feeling perfectly at home in Christodule's
house, was a light wine of Santorin, which he bought, I know not where.
I am not a judge of wines, and the education of my palate has,
unfortunately, been neglected, but I believe, however, that this wine is
worthy of a place on a king's table: it is of a fine topaz color,
sparkling as the smile of a child. I see it now, in its large bulging
carafe, on the shining linen cloth. It lighted the table and we were
able to sup without any other illumination. I never drank much of it,
because it was heady; and yet, at the end of a meal, I have recited some
of Anacreon's verses and I have discovered remains of beauty in the
moon-shaped face of the gross Maroula.

I ate with Christodule and his family. There were four regular boarders
and one table boarder. The first floor was divided into four rooms, the
best of which was occupied by a French Archaeologist, M. Hippolyte
Mérinay. If all Frenchmen resemble this one, you would be a sorry lot.
He was very small; his age, as far as one could tell, anywhere between
eighteen and forty-five, very red-haired, very mild, very loquacious,
and never loosening his moist and warm hands, when he had once fastened
them on a person, until he had exhausted himself talking. His two
dominant passions were archaeology and philanthropy: he was a member of
many literary societies and of many benevolent associations. Although he
was an advocate of charity, and his parents had left him a fine income,
I do not remember ever to have seen him give a sou to a beggar. As for
his knowledge of archaeology, I believe that it was of more account than
his love for humanity. He had received a prize from some provincial
College, for a treatise on the value of paper in the time of Orpheus.
Encouraged by these first successes, he had come to Greece to gather
material for a more important work: it was nothing less than to
determine the quantity of oil consumed in Demosthenes' lamp while he
wrote the second Philippic.

My two other neighbors were not so wise, and ancient things disturbed
them not at all. Giacomo Fondi was a poor Maltese employed at, I know
not what consulate; he earned a hundred and fifty francs a month sealing
letters. I imagine that any other employment would have pleased him
better. Nature, who has peopled the Island of Malta in order that the
Orient should never lack porters, had given to poor Fondi the shoulders,
arms and hands of a Milo of Crotona: he was born to handle a club, and
not to melt sealing-wax with which to seal letters. He used, however,
two or three sticks every day: man is not the master of his destiny! The
islander out of his sphere, was in his element only at meal-time; he
helped Maroula to place the table, and you will understand, without
being told, that he always carried it at arms-length. He ate like the
hero of the Iliad, and I shall never forget the cracking of his huge
jaws, the dilation of his nostrils, the flash of his eyes, the whiteness
of his thirty-two teeth, formidable mill-stones of which he was the
mill. I ought to confess that I remember little of his conversation; one
easily found the limit of his intelligence, but one never found the
bounds of his appetite. Christodule had never made anything during the
four years he had boarded him, although the Maltese had paid ten francs
a month extra. The insatiable islander ate every day, after dinner, an
enormous plateful of nuts, which he cracked between his first finger and
thumb. Christodule, old soldier, but practical man, followed this
exercise with a mixture of admiration and fear; he trembled for his
dessert, yet he was proud to see, at his table, so huge a nut-cracker.
The face of Giacomo Fondi would not have been out of place in one of the
jumping-jack boxes, which so amuse children. It was whiter than a
negro's; but it was a question of shade only. His thick locks descended
to his eyebrows like a cap. In strange contrast, this Caliban had a very
small foot, a slender ankle, a fine-shaped leg and as perfect as one
finds in a statue; but these were details which one scarcely noticed.
For whoever had seen him eat, his person began at the edge of the table;
the rest of the body counted for nothing.

I can speak only from memory of William Lobster. He was a cherub of
twenty years, blonde, rosy and chubby, but a cherub of the United States
of America. The firm of Lobster and Sons, New York, had sent him to the
Orient to study the subject of exportation. He worked during the day in
the house of Philips Brothers; in the evening, he read Emerson; in the
early morning or at sunrise he went to Socrates' school to practice
pistol-shooting.

The most interesting person in our little colony was without doubt, John
Harris, the maternal uncle of the little Lobster. The first time that I
dined with this strange man, I was greatly taken with the American. He
was born at Vandalia, Illinois. Breathing the invigorating air of the
new world from his birth, his every movement was joyous. I do not know
whether the Harris family was rich or poor; whether the son went to
College, or whether he educated himself. What was certain was, that at
twenty-eight he relied on himself alone; was astonished at nothing;
believed nothing impossible; never flinched; was amenable to reason;
hoped for the best; attempted everything; triumphed in everything! If he
fell, he immediately jumped up; if he stammered, he began all over
again; he gave himself no rest; never lost courage, and went right
ahead. He was well-educated, had been teacher, lawyer, journalist,
miner, farmer, clerk. He had read everything, seen everything, tried
everything, and had traveled over more than half of the globe. When I
made his acquaintance he was commanding a Dispatch-boat, carrying sixty
men and four cannons. He wrote of the Orient in the Boston Review; he
transacted business with an indigo house in Calcutta, and yet he found
time to come, four or five times a week, to dine with his nephew,
Lobster, and with us.

A single instance, of a thousand, will serve to show his character.
Early in the fifties he was in business in Philadelphia. His nephew, who
was then seventeen, made him a visit. He found him near Washington
Square, standing with his hands in his pockets, before a burning
building. William touched him on the shoulder; he turned.

"Ah: Good-morning, Bill, thou hast arrived inopportunely, my boy. There
is a fire which ruins me; I have forty thousand dollars in that house;
we will not save a match."

"What will you do?" asked the astonished boy.

"What will I do? It is eleven o'clock, I am hungry, I have a little
money in my pocket; I am going to take you to breakfast."

Harris was one of the most slender and most elegant men I have ever
seen. He had a manly air, a fine forehead, a clear and proud eye.

Americans are never deformed nor mean-looking, and do you know why?
Because they are not bound in the swaddling-clothes of a narrow
civilization. Their minds and their bodies develop at will; their
schoolroom is the open air; their master, exercise; their nurse,
liberty.

I never cared especially for M. Mérinay; I looked at Giacomo Fondi with
the indifferent curiosity with which one gazes at foreign animals; the
little Lobster inspired me with luke-warm interest; but I conceived a
warm affection for Harris. His frank face, his simple manners, his
sternness which was not without sweetness, his hasty yet chivalrous
temper, the oddities of his humor, the enthusiasm of his sentiments,
appealed to me more strongly as I was neither enthusiastic nor hasty. We
admire in others what we lack ourselves. Giacomo wore white clothes
because he was black; I adore Americans because I am a German. As for
the Greeks, I knew little of them even after four months' sojourn in
their country. Nothing is easier than living in Athens without coming in
contact with the natives. I did not go to a café; I did not read the
Pandore, nor the Minerve; nor any other paper of the country; I did not
go to the theater, because I have a sensitive ear and a false note hurts
me more cruelly than a blow; I lived with my hosts, my herbarium, and
with John Harris. I could have presented myself at the Palace, thanks to
my diplomatic pass-port and my official title. I had sent my card to the
Master and Mistress of Ceremonies, and I could count upon an invitation
to the first Court Ball. I kept in reserve for this occasion, a
beautiful red coat, embroidered with silver, which my Aunt Rosenthaler
had given to me the night before my departure. It was her husband's
uniform; he was an assistant in a Scientific Institute, and prepared the
specimens. My good aunt, a woman of great sense, knew that a uniform was
well received in all countries, above all if it was red. My elder
brother had remarked that I was larger than my uncle, as the sleeves
were too short; but Papa quickly replied, that only the silver
embroidery would catch the eye, and that princesses would not examine
the uniform closely.

Unfortunately, the Court was not dancing that season. The winter
pleasures were the flowering of almond, peach, and lemon trees. There
was a vague report of a ball to be given the 15th of May; it made a stir
in the city, as a few semi-official journals took it up; but there was
nothing positively known about it.

My studies kept pace with my pleasures, slowly. I knew, by heart, the
Botanical Gardens of Athens; they were neither very beautiful nor very
full; it was a subject soon mastered. The Royal Gardens offered far
more to study: an intelligent Frenchman had collected for it all the
riches of the vegetable kingdom, from the palms of the West Indies to
the saxifrage of the North. I passed whole days there studying M.
Barraud's collections. The garden is public only at certain hours; but I
spoke Greek to the guards, and for love of the Greek, they permitted me
to enter. M. Barraud did not seem to weary of my company; he took me
everywhere for the pleasure of discussing Botany and speaking French. In
his absence, I hunted up the head gardener and questioned him in German:
it is well to be polyglot.

I searched for plants every day in the surrounding country, but never as
far from the city as I should like to have gone; there were many
brigands around Athens. I am not a coward, the following story will
prove it to you, but I love my life. It is a present which I received
from my parents; I wish to preserve it as long as possible, in
remembrance of my father and mother. In the month of April, 1856, it was
dangerous to go far from the city: it was even imprudent to live
outside. I did not venture upon the slopes of Lycabettus without
thinking of poor Mme. Daraud who was robbed in broad daylight. The hills
of Daphne recalled to me the capture of two French officers. Upon the
road to Piraeus, I thought, involuntarily, of the band of brigands who
traveled in six carriages as if on a pleasure tour, and who shot at
passers by from the coach doors. The road to Pentelicus recalled the
stopping of the Duchess de Plaisance, or the recent story of Harris and
Lobster's adventure. They were returning from an excursion, on two
Persian horses belonging to Harris, when they fell into an ambuscade.
Two brigands, weapons in hand, stopped them in the middle of a bridge.
They glanced all around and saw at their feet, in a ravine, a dozen
rascals, armed to the teeth, who were guarding fifty or sixty prisoners.
All who had passed that way since sunrise had been despoiled, then
bound, so that no one could escape to give the alarm. Harris and his
nephew were unarmed. Harris said to the young man in English: "Give up
your money; it will not pay to be killed for twenty dollars." The
brigands took the money, without letting go the bridles; they then
showed the Americans the ravine and signed to them to descend. Harris
now lost patience; it was repugnant to him to be bound; he was not the
kind of wood of which one makes fagots. He looked at the little Lobster,
and at the same instant, two fist blows like two chain-shots, struck the
heads of the two brigands. William's adversary fell over on his back, at
the same time, discharging his pistol; Harris' brigand, struck more
forcibly, toppled over the cliff and fell among his comrades. Harris and
Lobster were by this time quite a distance away, jamming the spurs into
their horses. The band rose as one man and discharged their weapons. The
horses were killed, the young men disengaged themselves, took to their
heels, and when they reached the city, warned the police, who started in
pursuit of the brigands the second morning after.

Our excellent Christodule learned with grief of the death of the two
horses; but he found not a word of blame for the killers. "What would
you have?" he asked with charming simplicity, "it is their business."
All Greeks are, more or less, of our host's opinion. It is not that the
brigands spare their countrymen and reserve their harshness for
strangers, but a Greek, robbed by his brother, says to himself with a
certain resignation, that the money is all in the family. The populace
sees itself plundered by the brigands, as a woman of the people who is
beaten by her husband, admires him because he strikes hard. Native
moralists complained of the excesses committed in the country, as a
father deplores his son's pranks. He groans loudly, but secretly admires
him; he would be ashamed if he was like his neighbor's son who never had
to be spoken to.

It was a fact, that at the time of my arrival, the hero of Athens was
the scourge of Attica. In the salons and in the cafés, in the
barber-shops where the common people congregated, at the pharmacies
where the bourgeoise were to be found, in the muddy streets of the
bazars, in the dusty square of Belle-Gréce, at the theater, at the
Sunday concerts, and upon the road to Patissia, one heard only of the
great Hadgi-Stavros; one swore only by Hadgi-Stavros; Hadgi-Stavros the
invincible, Hadgi-Stavros the terror of the police, Hadgi-Stavros, "The
King of the Mountains!" They almost composed (God pardon me) a litany on
Hadgi-Stavros.

One Sunday, a little while after his adventure, John Harris dined with
us; I started Christodule upon the subject of Hadgi-Stavros. Our host
had often visited him, years before, during the War of Independence,
when brigandage was less discussed than now.

He emptied his glass of Sautorin, stroked his gray mustache, and began a
long recital, interspersed with many sighs. He informed us that Stavros
was the son of a bishop or priest of the Greek Church, in the island of
Tino. He was born God knew in what year; Greeks of early times knew not
their ages, because registries of the civil state are an invention of
the decadence. His father, who destined him for the Church, taught him
to read. When about twenty years of age, he made a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, and added to his name the title, Hadgi; which means, pilgrim.
Hadgi-Stavros, returning to his own country, was taken prisoner by a
pirate. The conqueror found him amenable to reason and made a sailor of
him. Thus he began to make war on Turkish ships, and, generally, on
those which had not mounted guns. At the end of several years, he tired
of working for others, and determined to push out for himself. He
possessed neither boat, nor money to buy one; necessity compelled him to
practice piracy on land. The rising of the Greeks against Turkey
permitted him to fish in troubled waters. He never could tell exactly
whether he was a brigand or an insurgent; whether he commanded a band of
thieves or insurrectionists. His hatred of the Turks did not blind him
to the degree that he could pass a Greek village without seeing it and
sacking it. All money was good to him, whether it came from friend or
foe, from a simple theft or a glorious pillage. Such wise impartiality
rapidly increased his fortune. The shepherds hastened to place
themselves under his banner, when they learned that good pay might be
expected; his reputation brought him an army. The leaders of the
insurrection knew of his exploits, but not of his thrift: in those
times, one saw only the bright side of everything. Lord Byron dedicated
an ode to him; poets and orators in Paris compared him to Epaminondas,
and even to poor Aristides. Some sent him embroidered clothes from the
Faubourg Saint-Germain; others sent subsidies. He received money from
France, from England and from Russia; I will not swear that he never
received any from Turkey: he was a true Palikar! At the end of the war,
he was besieged, with other chiefs, in the Acropolis at Athens. He slept
in the propyleum, between Margaritis and Lygandas, and each had his
treasure hid in the blanket which covered him. One summer night, the
roof fell so cleverly that it killed every one but Hadgi-Stavros, who
was smoking his pipe in the open air. He secured his companions' money
and every one thought that he well deserved it. But a misfortune which
he had not foreseen checked his successful career: peace was declared.
Hadgi-Stavros retired to the country with his spoils, and became a
spectator of strange occurrences. The powers which had freed Greece
attempted to found a kingdom. Some offensive words came buzzing around
the hairy ears of the old robber; he heard rumors of government--of
armies--of public order. He laughed when told that his possessions were
included in one sub-prefecture. But when an employée from the Treasury
presented himself to collect the yearly taxes, he became serious. He
threw the man out of the door, not without having relieved him of all he
had brought with him. Justice sought to punish him; he took to the
mountains. It was as well, for he was tired of his house. He felt, to a
certain extent, that he owned a roof, but on condition that he slept
above it.

His former companions-in-arms had scattered all over the kingdom. The
State had given them lands; they cultivated them reluctantly and ate
sparingly of the bitter bread of labor. When they learned that their
chief was at variance with the law, they sold their farms and hastened
to join him. As for the brigand, he rented his lands: he had the
qualifications of an administrator.

Peace and idleness had made him ill and unhappy. The mountain air
restored his cheerfulness and health, so that in 1840 he thought of
marriage. He was, assuredly, past fifty, but men of his temper have
nothing to do with old age; death, even, looks at them twice before it
attacks them. He married an heiress with a magnificent dowry, from one
of the best families in Laconia, and thus became allied to the highest
personages of the kingdom. His wife followed him everywhere. After
giving birth to a daughter, she took a fever and died. He brought up the
child himself, with all the care and tenderness of a mother. When the
brigands saw him dancing the babe on his knees, they exclaimed with
admiration.

Paternal love gave a new impetus to his mind. In order to amass a royal
dowry for his daughter, he studied the money question, about which he
had previously held very primitive views. Instead of hoarding up his
treasures in strong boxes, he put them out at interest. He learned all
the ins and outs of speculation; he followed closely the stock-market at
home and abroad. It is asserted that, struck with the advantages of the
French joint-stock company, he even thought of placing brigandage on the
market. He made many journeys to Europe, in the company of a Greek from
Marseilles who served as interpreter. During his stay in England, he
assisted at an election in, I know not what rotten borough of Yorkshire;
this beautiful spectacle inspired him with profound reflections on
constitutional government and its profits. He returned to Greece
determined to exploit his theories and gain an income for himself. He
burned a goodly number of villages in the service of the opposition; he
destroyed a few others in the interests of the conservative party. When
it was considered desirable to overthrow a ministry, it was only
necessary to apply to him; he proved, conclusively, that the police were
very corrupt and that safety could only be obtained by changing the
Cabinet. But in revenge, he gave some rude lessons to the enemies of
order in punishing them in whatever way they had sinned. His political
talents made him so well known, that all parties held him in high
esteem. His counsels, his election methods, were nearly always followed
so well that, contrary to the principle of the government
representative, who wished one deputy to express the wishes of many men;
he was represented, he alone, by about thirty deputies. An intelligent
Minister, the celebrated Rhalettis, suggested that a man who meddles so
officiously in government affairs, might possibly, sometime, derange the
machine. He undertook to bind his hands with golden cord. He made an
arrangement to meet him at Carvati; between Hymettus and Pentelicus, in
the country-house of a Foreign Consul. Hadgi-Stavros came, without
escort and without arms. The minister and the brigand, who were old
acquaintances, breakfasted together like two old friends. At the end of
the meal, Rhalettis offered to him full amnesty for himself and his
followers, a brevet of General of Division, title of Senator, and ten
thousand hectares of forests. The Palikar hesitated some time, and at
last said: "I should, perhaps, have accepted at twenty, but to-day, I am
too old. I do not wish, at my age, to change my manner of living. Dusty
Athens does not please me, I should go to sleep in the Senate-chamber,
and if you should give me soldiers to command, I might discharge my
pistols into their uniforms from force of habit. Return then, to your
own affairs, and leave me to attend to mine."

Rhalettis would not own that he was beaten. He tried to enlighten the
brigand as to the infamy of his life. Hadgi-Stavros laughed and said
with amiability:

"My friend, the day when we shall write down our sins, which will have
the longest list?"

"You think, then, that you will cheat destiny; you will die, some day or
other, a violent death."

"Gracious Lord;" (Allah Kerin;) he replied in Turkish. "Neither you nor
I have read the stars. But I have at least one advantage: my enemies
wear a uniform and I recognize them afar off. You cannot say as much for
yours. Adieu, brother."

Six months afterward, the Minister was assassinated by political
enemies; the brigand still lived.

Our host did not relate to us all the exploits of his hero: the day was
not long enough. He contented himself by relating the most remarkable
ones. I do not believe that in any other country the rivals of
Hadgi-Stavros had ever done anything more artistic than the capture of
the Niebuhr. It was a steamer of the German-Lloyd which the Palikar had
robbed on land, at eleven o'clock in the morning. The Niebuhr came from
Constantinople; it unloaded its cargo and passengers at Calamaki, east
of the Isthmus of Corinth. Four vans and two omnibusses took the
passengers and merchandise to the other side of the Isthmus, to the
little port of Loutraki, where another ship awaited them. It waited a
long time. Hadgi-Stavros, in broad daylight, in plain view of all the
world, in a flat and open country, relieved them of their merchandise,
their luggage, their money and the ammunition of the soldiers who
escorted the company.

"That day's work brought two hundred and fifty thousand francs;" said
Christodule to us in a tone of envy.

"Much was said of Hadgi-Stavros' cruelties. His friend Christodule
proved to us that he did not do wrong for pleasure. He was a sober man,
who never became intoxicated, not even of blood. If it happened that he
warmed, a little too much, a rich peasant's feet, it was that he might
learn where the miser hid his écus. In general, he treated with
kindness the prisoners for whom he hoped to receive a ransom. In the
summer of '54, he descended one evening, with his band, to M. Voidi's
house; he was a rich merchant from the Isle of Euboea. He found the
family assembled, also an old judge of the Tribunal of Chalcis was
present, taking a hand at cards with the master of the house.
Hadgi-Stavros offered to play the magistrate for his liberty; he lost,
and accepted with good grace. He carried off M. Voidi, his daughter and
son; he left the wife that she might busy herself procuring the ransom.
The day of the attack, the merchant had the gout, the daughter was ill
of a fever, and the son was pale and puffy. They returned two months
afterward, cured by exercise, the open air, and good entertainment. The
whole family recovered health for a sum of fifty thousand francs: was it
paying too high a price?"

"I confess," added Christodule, "that our friend was without pity for
poor payers. When a ransom was not paid on the appointed day, he
promptly killed his prisoners; it was his way of protesting notes.
However great may be my admiration for him, however warm the friendship
between our two families, I have never pardoned him the murder of
Mistra's two little daughters. They were twins of fourteen, pretty as
two marble statues, both betrothed to two young men of the Leondari
family. They resembled each other so exactly, that one thought one saw
double and began to rub one's eyes. One morning, they went to sell
cocoons; they carried between them a large basket, and they skimmed
lightly over the road like two doves attached to the same car.
Hadgi-Stavros took them to the mountain and wrote a letter to their
mother, that he would return them for ten thousand francs, payable the
end of the month. The mother was a well-to-do-widow, owner of fine
mulberry groves, but poor in ready money, as we all are. She mortgaged
her property, which is never easy to do, even at twenty per cent
interest. It took her six weeks to gather up the sum required. When at
last, she had the money, she loaded it on her mule and departed on foot
for the brigand's camp. But on entering the large valley of the Taygète
at the point where one finds seven fountains under a plane-tree, the
mule absolutely refused to stir. Then the mother saw at the border of
the path, her little girls. Their throats had been cut and their pretty
heads were almost dissevered. She took the two poor creatures, put them,
herself, upon the mule's back and carried them back to Mistra. She never
wept; she became deranged, and died. I know that Hadgi-Stavros regretted
what he had done; he believed that the widow was richer than she
pretended, and that she did not wish to pay. He killed the two girls as
an example. It is certain that, from that time, his outstanding debts
were promptly paid and that no one dared to make him wait."

"Vile beast!" cried Giacomo, bringing his fist down with a force which
made the house tremble as from an earthquake. "If ever he falls under my
hand, I will serve him with a ransom of ten thousand blows of the fist,
which will enable him to withdraw himself from public life."

"I," said the little Lobster with his quiet smile, "I will only ask to
meet him at fifty paces from my revolver. And you, Uncle John?"

Harris whistled between his teeth a little American air, sharp as a
stiletto point.

"Can I believe my ears?" added the good M. Mérinay in his flute-like
voice. "Is it possible that such horrors are committed in a country like
ours? I am convinced that the Society for the Moralization of
Malefactors has not yet been organized in this kingdom; but while
waiting for that, have you not police?"

"Certainly," replied Christodule, "fifty officers, 152 sergeants, and
1250 policemen, of whom 152 are mounted. It is the finest band of men in
the kingdom after that belonging to Hadgi-Stavros."

"What astonishes me," I said in my turn, "is, that the old rascal's
daughter allows him to do such things."

"She does not live with him."

"Well and good: Where is she?"

"At a boarding-school."

"In Athens?"

"You ask too much; I have known nothing of her for some time. Whoever
marries her will receive a fine dowry with her."

"Yes," said Harris. "One can say as well that Calcraft's daughter is a
good match."

"Who is Calcraft?"

"The Headsman of London."

At these words, Dimitri, Christodule's son, reddened to the roots of his
hair. "Pardon, Monsieur," he said to John Harris, "there is a great
difference between a headsman and a brigand. The business of a headsman
is infamous; the profession of a brigand is honored. The government is
obliged to guard the headsman of Athens in the fort Palamede or he would
be assassinated; while no one wishes evil to Hadgi-Stavros, and the most
respectable people in the kingdom would be proud to shake hands with
him."

Harris opened his mouth to reply, when the shop bell rung. It was the
servant who had entered with a young girl of fifteen or sixteen, dressed
like the latest fashion-plate in the Journal des Modes. Dimitri said, as
he rose from his chair: "It is Photini!"

"Messieurs," said the pastry-cook, "talk of something else, if you
please. Histories of brigands are not for young girls to hear."

Christodule presented Photini to us as the daughter of one of his
companions-in-arms, Colonel Jean, commanding at Nauplie. She called
herself then, Photini; daughter of Jean, according to the custom of the
country, where there were, properly speaking, no family names.

The young maid was ugly, as were nine-tenths of the Athenian girls. She
had pretty teeth and beautiful hair, but that was all. Her thick-set
body did not look well in a Parisian corset. Her feet, which were large,
thick, and ill-shaped, were made for wearing Turkish slippers, and not
to be compressed into the shoes of the fashionable boot-maker, Meyer.
She was as dull-looking as if an imprudent nurse had committed the fault
of sitting down on her face, when an infant. Fashion is not becoming to
all women; it made the poor Photini almost ridiculous. Her flounced
dress, extended over a huge crinoline, accentuated the clumsiness of her
body and the awkwardness of her movements. Jewels from the Palais Royal
with which she was decked seemed like exclamation points, destined to
point out the imperfections of her body. You would have said that she
was a stout and coarse servant-girl, masquerading in her mistress'
clothes.

We were not astonished to see the daughter of a simple Colonel so
extravagantly and gorgeously arrayed, come to pass Sunday at a
pastry-cook's. We knew enough of the country to fully realize that dress
was the incurable evil of Greek society. Country girls pierced silver
pieces, strung them together and wore them upon the head on gala days.
They carried their dowries on their heads. The city girls spent their
money in the shops and carried their dowries on their backs.

Photini was in a boarding-school at Hétairie. It is, as you know, a
school established on the model of the Legion of Honor, but regulated by
rules broader and more tolerant. Usually, only daughters of soldiers
were taught there, sometimes, also, brigands' heiresses.

Colonel Jean's daughter knew a little French and a little English; but
her timidity did not permit of her shining in conversation. I learned
later, that her family counted upon us to perfect her in these foreign
tongues. Her father, having learned that Christodule boarded honorable
and educated Europeans, had begged the pastry-cook to allow her to pass
her Sundays with his family, and he would see that he was recompensed.
This bargain pleased Christodule, and above all, his son, Dimitri. The
young man, working in a servant's place, devoured her with his eyes,
while the heiress never perceived it.

We had made arrangements to go, all together, to a concert. It is a fine
spectacle when the Athenians give themselves up to Sunday pleasures. The
entire population, in gala dress, turns out into the dusty fields, to
hear waltzes and quadrilles played by a regiment band. The poor go on
foot, the rich in carriages, the fashionable men on horseback. The Court
would not have stayed away for an empire. After the last quadrille, each
returned to his home, clothes covered with dust, but with happy hearts,
and said: "We have been very well amused."

It was certain that Photini counted on showing herself at the concert,
and her admirer, Dimitri, was not ashamed to appear with her; for he
wore a new redingote which he had just bought at the Belle-Jardiniére.
Unfortunately, it rained so steadily, that it kept us at home. To kill
time, Maroula offered to let us play for bonbons; it is a favorite
amusement among the middle classes. She took a glass jar from the shop,
and gave to each one a handful of native bonbons, cloves, anise seed,
pepper, and chicory. Then, the cards were dealt, and the first who
collected nine of the same color, received three sugar plums from each
of his adversaries. The Maltese, Giacomo, showed by his eagerness, that
the winning was not a matter of indifference to him. Chance favored him;
he made a fortune, and we saw him gulp down six or eight handfuls of
bonbons which he had won from the rest of us.

I took little interest in the game, and concentrated my attention upon
the curious phenomenon taking place on my left. While the glances which
the young Athenian, Dimitri, cast upon Photini, were met with perfect
indifference, Harris, who did not even look at her, seemed to produce a
wonderful impression upon her, even to almost magnetize her. He held his
cards with a nonchalant air, yawning, from time to time, with American
freedom, or whistling Yankee Doodle, without respect for the company. I
believe that Christodule's story had made a great impression on him, and
that his thoughts were roving over the mountains in pursuit of
Hadgi-Stavros. In any case, whatever his thoughts were, they were not of
love. Perhaps the young girl was not thinking of it either, for Greek
women nearly always have in their hearts a substratum of indifference.
She looked at my friend John, as a lark looks at a mirror. She did not
know him; she knew nothing of him, neither his name, his country, nor
his fortune. She had not heard him speak, and even if she had heard him,
she certainly was not competent to judge of his ability. She saw that he
was very handsome, and that was enough. Formerly, Greeks adored beauty;
it was the only one of their duties which had never had any atheists.
The Greeks of to-day, despite the decadence, know how to distinguish an
Apollo from a baboon. One finds in M. Fauriel's collection, a little
song which may be translated thus:

"Young man, do you wish to know; young girls, would you like to learn,
how love enters into our hearts? It enters by the eyes; from the eyes it
descends to the heart, and in the heart it takes root!"

Decidedly, Photini knew the song; for she opened her eyes wide, so that
love could enter without trouble.

The rain did not cease to fall, nor Dimitri to ogle the young girl, nor
the young girl to gaze, wide-eyed, at Harris, nor Giacomo to eat
bonbons, nor M. Mérinay to relate to the little Lobster, who did not
listen, a chapter from Ancient History. At eight o'clock, Maroula laid
the cloth for supper. Photini had Dimitri on her left, I sat at her
right. She talked but little and ate nothing. At dessert, when the
servant spoke of taking her home, she made a great effort and said to me
in a low tone:

"Is M. Harris married?"

I took a wicked pleasure in embarrassing her a little, so I replied:

"Yes, Mademoiselle; he married the widow of the Doges of Venice."

"Is it possible; how old is she?"

"She is as old as the world, and as everlasting."

"Do not mock me; I am a poor, foolish girl, and I do not understand your
European pleasantries."

"In other words, Mademoiselle, he is wedded to the sea; it is he who
commands the American boat, 'The Fancy,' stationed here."

She thanked me with such a flash of radiant joy passing over her face,
that her ugliness was eclipsed, and I thought she looked absolutely
pretty.




III.

MARY-ANN.


The studies of my youth have developed in me one passion, to the
exclusion of all others; the desire to know; or if you like the term
better, call it curiosity. From the day when I embarked for Athens, my
only pleasure was to learn; my only grief, ignorance. I loved science
ardently, and no one, as yet, had disputed her claim in my heart. I must
confess that I had little tenderness and that poetry and Hermann Schultz
rarely entered the same door. I went about the world, as in a vast
museum, magnifying glass in hand. I observed the pleasures and
sufferings of others as emotions worthy of study, but unworthy of envy
or pity. I was no more jealous of a happy household, than of two palm
trees with branches interlaced by the wind; I had just as much
compassion for a heart torn by love, as I had for a geranium ruined by
the frost. When one has practiced vivisection, one is no longer
sensitive to the quivering of the flesh. I would have been a good
spectator at a combat of gladiators. Photini's love for Harris would
have aroused pity in any heart but a naturalist's. The poor creature
"loved at random," to quote a beautiful saying of Henry IV; and it was
evident that she loved hopelessly. She was too timid to display her
affection, and John was too indifferent to divine it. Even if he had
noticed anything, what hope was there that he would feel any interest
in an ugly Greek girl? Photini passed four days with us; the four
Sundays of April. She looked at Harris from morning to night, with
loving but despairing eyes; but she never found the courage to open her
mouth in his presence. Harris whistled tranquilly, Dimitri growled like
a young bull-dog, and I smilingly looked on at this strange malady, from
which my constitution had preserved me.

In the meantime, my father had written me that his affairs were not
going well; that travelers were scarce; that food was dear; that our
neighbors were about to emigrate; and that, if I had found a Russian
princess, I had better marry her without delay. I replied that I had
not, as yet, found one, unless it was the daughter of a poor Greek
Colonel; that she was seriously in love, not with me, but with another;
that I could by paying her a little attention become her confidant, but
that I should never become her husband. Moreover, my health was good and
my herbarium magnificent. My researches, hitherto restricted to the
suburbs of Athens, would now become more extended. Safety was assured,
the brigands had been beaten by the soldiers, and all the journals
announced the dispersion of Hadgi-Stavros' band. A month or two later, I
should be able to set out for Germany, and find a place which would pay
enough to support the whole family.

We had read on Sunday the 28th of April, in the Siècle of Athens, of the
complete defeat of "The King of the Mountains." The official reports
stated that he had twenty men wounded, his camp burned, his band
dispersed, and that the troops had pursued him as far as the marshes
near Marathon. These reports, very agreeable to all strangers, did not
appear to give much pleasure to the Greeks, and especially to our host
and hostess. Christodule, for a lieutenant of troops, showed lack of
enthusiasm, and Colonel Jean's daughter wept when the story of the
brigand's defeat was read. Harris, who had brought in the paper, could
not conceal his joy. As for me, I could roam about the country now, and
I was enchanted. On the morning of the 30th, I set out with my box and
my walking stick. Dimitri had awakened me at four o'clock. He was going
to take orders from an English family, who had been staying for some
days at the Hotel des Etrangers.

I walked down the Rue d'Hèrmes to the Square, Belle-Gréce, and passed
through the Rue d'Eole. Passing before the Place des Canons, I saluted
the small artillery of the kingdom, who slept under a shed, dreaming of
the taking of Constantinople; and with four strides I was in the Rue de
Patissia. The honey-flowers, which bordered either side, had begun to
open their odorous blossoms. The sky, of a deep blue, whitened
imperceptibly between Hymettus and Pentelicus. Before me, on the
horizon, the summit of Parnassus rose like broken turrets; there was the
end of my journey. I descended a path which traversed the grounds of the
Countess Janthe Théotoki, occupied by the French Legation; I passed
through the gardens belonging to Prince Michael Soutzo, and the School
of Plato, which a President of the Areopagus had put up in a lottery
some years before, and I entered the olive groves. The morning thrushes
and their cousins-germain, the black-birds, flew from tree to tree, and
sang joyously above my head. At the end of the wood, I traversed the
immense green fields where Attic horses, short and squat, like those in
the frieze at the Parthenon, consoled themselves for the dry fodder and
the heating food of winter. Flocks of turtle-doves flew away at my
approach, and the tufted larks mounted vertically in the sky like
rockets. Once in a while, an indolent tortoise crawled across the path,
dragging his house. I turned him over on his back and left him to attend
to his own affairs. After two hours' walking, I entered a barren waste.
Cultivation ceased; one saw upon the arid soil tufts of sickly grass,
the Star of Bethlehem, or Daffodils. The sun lifted itself above the
horizon, and I distinctly saw the fir-trees which grew on the side of
Parnassus. The path which I had taken was not a sure guide, but I
directed my steps to a group of scattered houses on the mountain side,
and which was called the village of Castia.

I leaped the Céphise Eleusinien to the great scandal of the little
tortoises who leaped like frogs into the water. A hundred steps further
on, the path was lost in a deep and wide ravine, worn by the storms of
two or three thousand winters. I supposed, reasonably enough, that the
ravine ought to be the right road. I had noticed, in my former
excursions, that the Greeks did not trouble themselves with making roads
where streams were liable to change them. In this country, where man
does not oppose the works of nature, torrents are royal roads; brooks,
are department routes; rivulets, are parish-roads. Tempests are the
road-constructors, and rain is the surveyor of wide and narrow paths. I
entered the ravine and walked between two river banks, which hid the
plain from me. But the path had so many turns, that I should not have
known in which direction I was walking, if I had not kept my back to
Parnassus. The wisest course would have been to climb one bank or the
other and ascertain my bearings; but the sides were perpendicular, I was
weary, I was hungry; and I found the shade refreshing. I seated myself
upon a bowlder of marble, I took from my box a piece of bread, some cold
lamb, and a gourd of wine. I said to myself: "If I am on the right road,
some one will pass and I can find out where I am."

In fact, just as I had finished lunching, and was about to stretch
myself out for the rest which follows the meal of travelers or serpents,
I thought I heard a horse's step. I laid my ear to the ground and heard
two or three horses coming up the ravine. I buckled my box on my back,
and made ready to follow them, in case they were going towards
Parnassus. Five minutes afterward, I saw coming toward me, two ladies
mounted upon livery-horses, and equipped like Englishwomen on a journey.
Behind them was a pedestrian, whom I had no trouble in recognizing; it
was Dimitri.

You who know the world a little, you have noticed that a traveler starts
out without much care for his personal appearance; but if he is about to
meet ladies, though they be as old as the Dove of the Ark, he loses, at
once, his indifference and looks at his dusty and travel-stained
garments with a troubled eye. Before even being able to distinguish the
faces of the two riders, behind their blue veils, I had looked myself
over, and I was sufficiently satisfied. I wore these garments which I
have on, and which are even now presentable, although that was two years
ago. I have never changed the fashion of my hair; a cap, although as
fine and handsome a one as this, would not have protected a traveler
from the sun. I wore, instead, a large gray felt hat, which the dust
could not hurt.

I took it off politely as the ladies passed me. My salutation did not
appear to trouble them much. I held out my hand to Dimitri, and he told
me in a few words, all that I wished to know.

"Am I upon the road to Parnassus?"

"Yes, we are going there."

"I can go with you, then?"

"Why not?"

"Who are these ladies?"

"English! Milord is resting at the hotel."

"What kind of people are they?"

"Peugh! London bankers. The old lady is Mrs. Simons, of the firm of
Barley and Co.; Milord is her brother; the young lady is her daughter."

"Pretty?"

"According to taste; I like Photini's looks better."

"Are you going as far as the fortress?"

"Yes. I am engaged for a week, at ten francs a day and board. I organize
and arrange their trips. I began with this one because I knew that I
should meet you. But what is the matter with them now?"

The elder woman, annoyed because I was detaining her servant, had put
her horse to a trot, in a passage where no one had ever dared to trot
before. The other animal, filled with emulation, began to take the same
gait, and if we had talked a few minutes longer, we would have been
distanced. Dimitri hastened to rejoin the ladies, and I heard Mrs.
Simons say to him, in English:

"Do not go away from us. I am English, and I wish to be well served. I
do not pay you to chat with your friends. Who is this Greek with whom
you are talking?"

"He is a German, Madame."

"Ah!--What is he doing?"

"He is searching for plants."

"He is an apothecary, then?"

"No, Madame! he is a scholar."

"Ah!--Does he know English?"

"Yes, Madame, very well."

"Ah!----"

The three "ahs!" were said in three different tones which I noticed as I
would three notes of music. They indicated by very noticeable shades the
progress which I had made in her esteem. She, however, addressed no word
to me, and I followed them a few feet distant. Dimitri dared not speak
to me; he walked ahead like a prisoner of war. All that he could do was
to cast two or three looks in my direction, which seemed to say: "But
these English are impertinent!" Miss Simons did not turn her head, and I
was unable to decide in what her ugliness differed from Photini's. All
that I could judge was, that the young English girl was large and
marvelously well-formed. Her shoulders were broad, her waist was round,
and supple as a reed. The little that one could see of her neck, made
one think of the swans in the Zoological Gardens.

Her mother turned her head to speak to her, and I hastened forward, in
hope of hearing her voice. Did I not tell you that I was extremely
curious? I came up with them just in time to hear the following
conversation:

"Mary-Ann!"

"Mamma!"

"I am hungry."

"Are you?"

"I am."

"Mamma, I am warm."

"Are you?"

"I am."

You believe that this truly English dialogue made me smile? Not at all,
Monsieur; I was under a spell. Mary-Ann's voice had worked a charm; the
truth is that as I listened, I experienced a delicious agony, and found
my heart beating almost to suffocation. In all my life, I had never
heard anything so young, so fresh, so silvery as that voice. The sound
of a golden shower falling on my father's roof would have, truly,
sounded less sweet to me. I thought to myself: "What a misfortune that
the sweetest songsters among birds are necessarily the ugliest." And I
feared to see her face, and yet I was consumed with eager desire to look
upon it, such a strong empire has curiosity over me.

Dimitri had calculated upon reaching the inn at Calyvia at breakfast
time. It was a house made of planks, loosely put together; but one could
always find there a goat-skin bottle of resin wine; a bottle of rhaki;
that is to say, of anise-seed cordial; some brown bread; eggs; and a
regiment of venerable hens transformed by death into pullets, by virtue
of metempsychosis. Unfortunately, the inn was deserted and the door
closed. At this news, Mrs. Simons had a bitter quarrel with Dimitri, and
as she turned around, I saw a face as sharp as the blade of a Sheffield
knife, with two rows of teeth like a palisade. "I am English," she said,
"and I expect to eat when I am hungry."

"Madame," Dimitri piteously replied, "you can breakfast, in
half-an-hour, in the village of Castia."

I had breakfasted, and I was free to abandon myself to melancholy
reflections upon Mrs. Simons' ugliness, and I murmured under my breath
an aphorism in Fraugman's Latin Grammar: "Qualis mater, talis filia!"

From the inn to the village, the road was particularly detestable. It
was a narrow path, between a perpendicular rock and a precipice, which
made even the chamois dizzy. Mrs. Simons, before starting out on this
dangerous path, where the horses could scarcely find foot-hold, asked if
there was no other way. "I am English," she said, "and I was not made to
roll down precipices." Dimitri began to praise the path; he assured her
that there were others a hundred times worse in the kingdom. "At least,"
said the good lady, "take hold of the bridle. But who will lead my
daughter? Go and lead my daughter's horse. Still, I must not break my
own neck. Can you not lead both horses? This path is, truly, horrible. I
believe that it is good enough for the Greeks, but it was not made for
the English. Is it not so?" she added, turning graciously to me.

I was introduced. Regularly or not, the presentation was made. It
happened under the auspices of a personage well-known in the romances of
the Middle Ages, whom the poets of the XIVth century called, Danger. I
bowed with all the elegance of which I was master, and replied in
English:

"Madame, the path is not as bad as it appears at first sight. Your
horses are sure-footed; I know them, as I have ridden them. You may have
two guides, if you will permit me to lead Mademoiselle, while Dimitri
leads you."

As quickly done as said; without waiting for an answer, I boldly
advanced and took the bridle of Mary-Ann's horse, and as her blue veil
blew back, I saw the most adorable face which has ever enchanted the
sight of a German naturalist.

An eccentric poet, Aurelian Scholl, pretends that every man has in his
heart a mass of eggs, in each one of which is a love. All that is needed
to give life is a glance from a woman's eye. I am too much of a scholar
to be ignorant of the fact that this hypothesis does not rest on sure
foundations, and that it is in formal contradiction to all the revealed
facts of anatomy. I ought to state, however, that Miss Simons' first
glance caused a very acute agitation in the region of my heart I
experienced a sensation entirely unusual, and which bore no trace of
sadness, and it seemed to me that something gave way in the osseous
formation of my breast, below the bone called, sternum. At the same
instant, the blood surged through my veins, and the arteries in my
temples beat with such force that I could count the pulsations.

What eyes she had! I hope, for your peace of mind, that you will never
meet a pair like them. They were not of unusual size, and they did not
draw attention from the rest of her face. They were neither blue nor
black, but of a color especially their own. It was a warm and velvety
brown, which one sees only in Siberian garnets, and in certain garden
flowers. I could show you a certain scabieuse, and a variety of
holly-hock, nearly black, which resembles the marvelous shade of her
eyes. If you have ever visited a forge at midnight, you have, doubtless,
remarked the strange color which gleams from a red-hot steel plate, as
it changes to a reddish brown; that too, was like her eyes. As for the
charm in them, any comparison is useless. Charm is a gift with which few
individuals are endowed. Mary-Ann's eyes possessed something naive and
spiritual; a frank vivacity; sparkling with youth and health, and
sometimes a touching languor. One read in them as in a book the
knowledge of a woman and the innocence of a child; but it would have
blinded one to have read the book for a long time. Her glance burned
like fire, as truly as I call myself, Hermann. It would have ripened the
peaches on your garden wall.

Words fail when I think that that poor simpleton, Dimitri, found her
less beautiful than Photini. In truth, love is a malady which singularly
stupefies its victims; I, who had never lost the use of my reason, and
who judged everything with the wise indifference of a naturalist, I
confess to you, that the world never held as incomparable a woman as
Mary-Ann. I would like to show you her picture as it is graven in the
depths of my memory. You would see what long eye-lashes she had, how the
eyebrows traced a beautiful arch above her eyes, how small her mouth
was, how white her teeth, how rosy and transparent her little ear. I
studied her beauty in the minutest details, because I possess an
analytical mind and have formed habits of observation. One thing struck
me especially, it was the fineness and transparency of her skin; it was
more delicate than the velvety covering which envelops beautiful fruits.
The color of her cheeks seemed made of that impalpable dust which adorns
the wings of the butterflies. If I had not been a Doctor of Natural
Sciences, I would have feared that the contact of her veil would brush
off some of the luster of her beauty. I do not know whether you like
pale women, or not, and I do not wish to hurt your feelings, if by
chance, you have a taste for that kind of deathly looking women who have
been the rage, during certain periods; but in my quality of savant, I
can admire nothing without health, that joy of life. If I had become a
doctor, I would have been a safe man to allow in any family, because it
is certain that I should never have fallen in love with any of my
patients. The sight of a pretty face, healthy and vivacious, gives me
nearly as much pleasure as finding a vigorous beautiful bush, whose
flowers open widely in the sunshine, and whose leaves have never been
touched by butterfly or cockchafer. So that the first time that I saw
Mary-Ann's face, I experienced a strong temptation to take her hand and
say to her: "Mademoiselle, how happy you must be to have such good
health."

I have forgotten to tell you that the lines of her face were not
regular, and that her profile was not that of a statue. Phidias would,
perhaps, have refused to make a bust of her; but your Pradier would have
begged on his knees for sittings. I must confess, at the risk of
destroying your illusions, that she had a dimple in her left cheek, but
none in the right; this is contrary to all laws of symmetry. Know,
moreover, that her nose was neither straight nor aquiline, but purely
retroussé, as French noses are. But that this rendered her less pretty,
I will deny, even upon the scaffold. She was as beautiful as Greek
statues are; but was entirely different. Beauty cannot be judged by one
invariable type, although Plato affirms it. It varies according to
times, according to peoples, and according to culture. The Venus de Milo
was considered, two thousand years ago, the most beautiful woman of the
Archipelago. I do not believe that, in 1856, she would have been
considered the prettiest woman in Paris. Take her to a dressmaker's in
the Place Vendome, or to a milliner's in the Rue de la Paix, and in
these places she would be less of a success than some other women whose
features were not so classical, and whose nose was not so straight. One
could admire a woman geometrically beautiful, in the days when she was
only an object of art destined to please the eyes, without appealing to
the mind; a bird of Paradise at whose plumage one looks, without
thinking of asking it to sing. A beautiful Athenian was as
well-proportioned, as white, and as cold, as the column of a temple. M.
Mérinay has shown to me, in a book, that the Ionic column is only a
woman, disguised. The portico of the Temple of Erechtée, at the
Acropolis at Athens, rests upon four Athenian women of the century of
Pericles. The women of to-day are little, winged beings, active, busy,
and above all, thoughtful; created, not to hold temples on their heads,
but to awaken genius, to engage in work, to animate with courage, and to
light the world with the flashes of their wit. What we love in them, and
what makes their beauty, is not regularity of features; it is the lively
and mobile expression of sentiments, more delicate than ours; it is the
radiation of thought around that fragile envelope, which does not
suffice to contain it; it is the quick play of a speaking physiognomy. I
am not a sculptor, but if I knew how to use the chisel and one gave me a
commission to make a statue of our epoch, I swear to you that she would
have a dimple in her left cheek, and a retroussé nose.

I led Mary-Ann's horse to the village of Castia. What she said to me on
the way, and what I replied, left no more impression on my mind, than
the flight of a swallow leaves on the air. Her voice was so sweet to
listen to, that I probably did not listen to what she said. It was as
if I were at the opera, where the music does not often permit one to
hear the words. All the circumstances of that first interview made an
ineffaceable impression on my mind. I have only to close my eyes to
believe that I am still there. The April sun shone softly on my head.
Above the path, and below, the resinous trees disseminated their
aromatic odors through the air. The pines, the thugas, and the
turpentine trees gave forth a harsh and acrid incense as Mary-Ann
passed. She inhaled, with evident happiness, nature's odorous largess.
Her dear little nose breathed in the fragrance; her eyes, those
beautiful eyes, roved from object to object with sparkling joy. Seeing
her so pretty, so lively, so happy, you would have said that a dryad had
escaped from its wood. I can see now, the horse she rode; it was Psari,
a white horse from Zimmerman's. Her habit was black; Mrs. Simons', which
showed distinctly against the sky, was bottle-green, sufficiently
eccentric to testify to her independence of taste. She also wore a black
hat, of that absurd and ungraceful shape worn by men of all countries;
her daughter wore the gray felt adopted by the heroines of the Fronde.
Both wore chamois gloves. Mary-Ann's hand was not small, but admirably
formed. I have never worn gloves, I do not like them. And you?

The village of Castia was as deserted as the inn at Calyvia. Dimitri
could not understand why. We dismounted in front of the church, beside a
fountain. Each went from house to house knocking at the doors; not a
soul. No one at the priest's, no one at the magistrate's. The
authorities of the village had moved away with the residents. Each house
consisted of four walls and a roof, with two openings, one of which
served as door, the other as window. Poor Dimitri forced in two or three
doors, and opened five or six shutters, to assure himself that the
inmates were not asleep. These incursions resulted in setting free an
unfortunate cat, forgotten by its master, and which departed like a
flash in the direction of the wood.

Soon, Mrs. Simons lost patience. "I am English," she said to Dimitri,
"and one does not mock me with impunity. I shall complain to the
Legation. What! I hire you for a trip to the mountains, and you make me
travel over precipices! I order you to bring food, and you expose me to
starvation! We were to breakfast at the inn! The inn is abandoned: I had
the goodness to follow you, fasting, to this frightful village; and all
the inhabitants have fled. All this is unnatural. I have traveled in
Switzerland: Switzerland is a country of mountains; however, nothing was
lacking there! and I had trout to eat, do you hear?"

Mary-Ann tried to calm her mother, but the good woman could not and
would not listen. Dimitri explained to her as fully as she would
permit him, that the inhabitants of the village were nearly all
charcoal-burners, and that their business very often took them into the
mountains. In any case, the time was not lost: it was not later than
eight o'clock, and they were sure to find within ten minutes' walk an
inhabited house where breakfast would be all prepared.

"What house?" demanded Mrs. Simons.

"The farm at the Convent. The monks from Pentelicus have broad lands
above Castia. They raise bees there. The good old man who carries on the
farm always has wine, bread, honey and fowls; he will give us our
breakfast."

"He may have gone away like everyone else."

"If he is away, it will not be far. The time for the swarming is near,
and he would not wish to lose his bees."

"Go and see: as for me, I have gone far enough since morning. I vow to
you that I will not remount until after I have eaten."

"Madame, you need not remount," said Dimitri, patient as are all guides.
"We can hitch our horses to the fountain, and we shall quickly reach the
place on foot."

Mary-Ann influenced her mother to consent. She was dying to see the good
old man, and his apiary. Dimitri hitched the horses to the watering
trough, weighting each bridle with a huge stone. Mrs. Simons and her
daughter looped up their habits and we started up a precipitous path,
fit only for the goats of Castia. The green lizards which were warming
themselves in the sun, discreetly retired at our approach, but each drew
a piercing cry from Mrs. Simons, who had a horror of reptiles. After a
quarter of an hour of these vocalizations, she had, at last, the joy of
seeing an open house and a human face. It was the farmhouse and the old
man.

The house was a small one made of red bricks, topped with five cupolas,
almost like a mosque to the village. At a distance, it possessed a
certain elegance. Comely without and coarse within, it was a sample of
the Orient. One saw, in the shelter of a hill covered with thyme, a
hundred straw bee-hives, placed in a line like the tents in a camp. The
king of this empire, the good old man, was a small, young man of
twenty-five, round and merry. All Greek monks are honored with the title
of "good old man," age having nothing to do with it. He was dressed like
a peasant, except his bonnet, which was black instead of red; it was by
this sign that Dimitri recognized him.

The little man, seeing us running toward him, raised his arms to heaven,
and appeared utterly amazed. "Here is an original," Mrs. Simons
exclaimed; "what astonishes him so much? One would say that he had never
seen any English people before."

Dimitri, who had run on ahead, kissed the monk's hand, and said to him
with a curious mixture of respect and familiarity:

"Thy blessing, father! Wring the necks of two chickens, we will pay thee
well."

"Unhappy man: why do you come here?"

"To breakfast."

"Didst thou not see that the inn was deserted?"

"I saw it so well, that I found no one at home."

"And that the village was deserted?"

"If I had met anyone, I should not have climbed up to thy house."

"Thou art then in accord with them?"

"Them? With whom?"

"The brigands."

"Are there brigands on Parnassus?"

"Since day before yesterday."

"Where are they?"

"Everywhere!"

Dimitri turned quickly toward us and said: "We have not a moment to
lose. The brigands are in the mountains. Let us run for our horses. Have
courage, Mesdames; and step out lively, if you please."

"This is too hard," cried Mrs. Simons. "Without having breakfasted!"

"Madame, your breakfast would cost you dear! Let us hasten, for the love
of God!"

"Is this a conspiracy? You have sworn to make me die of hunger! Behold
the brigands! As if there were brigands! I do not believe in brigands!
All the papers state that they are disbanded! Moreover, I am English,
and if anyone touched a hair of my head----!"

Mary-Ann was less confident. She leaned on my arm and asked me if I
thought that we were in danger of death.

"Of death? No. Of being robbed? Yes."

"Of what importance is that? They are welcome to take all that I carry,
if only they will give me my breakfast."

I learned later that the poor woman was subject to a rare malady which
the vulgar call canine appetite, and our learned men know as _boulime_.
When hunger assailed her, she would have given her fortune for a plate
of lentils.

Dimitri and Mary-Ann each seized a hand and dragged her to the path we
had just ascended. The little monk followed her, gesticulating. I was
strongly tempted to push forward; but a quick and imperative tone
stopped us suddenly.

"Halt! I say!"

I raised my eyes. Two mastic bushes and arbutus-trees were on the right
and left of the path. From each bush the muzzles of three or four guns
protruded. A voice cried in Greek: "Seat yourselves on the ground!" This
operation was exceedingly easy for me, as my knees weakened under me.
But I consoled myself with the thought that Ajax, Agamemnon, and the
hot-headed Achilles, if they found themselves in a like position, would
not have refused the seat offered them.

The guns were lowered toward us. I expected to see them pushed out so
far that their muzzles would touch each other over our heads. It was not
that I was afraid; but I had never before realized the extraordinary
length of Greek guns. The whole arsenal marched out into the path,
showing the owner of each.

The only difference which exists between devils and brigands, is that
devils are less black than one expects, and brigands more squalid than
one supposes. The eight scoundrels who surrounded us were so foul, that
I would have preferred to give them my money with pinchers. One could
imagine that their bonnets might once have been red; but lye itself
could never have found the original shade of their coats. All the rocks
of the kingdom had contributed to the color of their percale skirts, and
their vests bore a specimen of the different soils upon which they had
reposed. Their hands, their faces, and even their mustaches were of a
reddish gray like the dirt which they had on their clothes. Every animal
colors itself like the house or land it inhabits: the foxes of Greenland
are like the snow; lions, the color of the desert; partridges, like the
ground; the Greek brigands, the color of the paths.

The chief of the little band who had taken us prisoners, was not
distinguished by outward sign. Possibly his face, his hands, his
clothes, were richer in dirt than those of his comrades. He bent over us
from his great height, and examined us so closely, that I almost felt
the touch of his gray mustache. You would have thought him a tiger who
smelled his prey before devouring it. When his curiosity was satisfied,
he said to Dimitri: "Empty thy pockets!" Dimitri did not make him repeat
it the second time. He threw down, at his feet, a knife, a bag of
tobacco, and three Mexican piastres, which made a sum of sixteen francs.

"Is that all?" demanded the brigand.

"Yes, brother."

"Thou art the servant?"

"Yes, brother."

"Take one piastre. Thou must not return to the city without money."

Dimitri began to haggle. "Thou mightest leave me two. I have two horses
below; they are hired from the stable; I will have to pay for the day."

"Thou canst explain to Zimmerman that we have taken thy money."

"And if he insists on being paid even then?"

"Tell him that he is only too happy in seeing his horses again."

"He knows very well that you would not take the horses. What would you
do with them in the mountains?"

"Enough! Tell me who is this tall, thin man behind thee?"

I answered for myself: "An honest German whose spoils will not enrich
you."

"Thou speakest Greek; well. Empty thy pockets!"

I placed on the ground twenty francs, my tobacco, my pipe and my
handkerchief.

"What is that?"

"A handkerchief."

"What for?"

"To wipe my nose."

"Why didst thou tell me that thou wert poor? Only lords wipe their noses
with handkerchiefs. Take off the box which thou carriest on thy back.
That is well! Now open it."

My box contained some plants, a book, a knife, a small packet of
arsenic, an almost empty gourd of wine, and the remains of my breakfast
which brought a gleam of covetousness to Mrs. Simons' eyes. I had the
impudence to offer them to her before my property changed hands. She
snatched them greedily and began to devour the bread and meat. To my
great astonishment, this gluttonous act disgusted the thieves, who
murmured among themselves the word _heretic_! The monk made a half-dozen
signs of the cross, according to the rite of the Greek church.

"Thou probably hast a watch," said the brigand to me, "put it with the
other things."

I took off my silver watch, an heirloom, which weighed about four
ounces. The rascals passed it from hand to hand and found it very
beautiful. I hoped that admiration, which softens men's feelings, would
dispose them to restore to me something of my belongings, and I begged
the Chief to give me my tin box. He rudely told me to keep silent. "At
least," I persisted, "give back my two écus so that I can return to the
city." He replied with a sardonic grin: "Thou wilt have no use for
them."

Mrs. Simons' turn had come. Before putting her hand into her pocket, she
addressed our captors in the tongue of her fathers. English is one of
the rare languages which one can speak with one's mouth full. "Reflect
well upon what you are doing," she said in a menacing tone. "I am an
Englishwoman, and English subjects are sacred in every country in the
world. What you take from me will serve you little, and cost you dear.
England will avenge me, and you will be hung, at the very least. Now, if
you wish my money, you have only to speak; but it will burn your
fingers; it is English money!"

"What does she say?" asked the leader of the brigands.

Dimitri answered: "She says she is English."

"So much the better; all the English are rich. Tell her to shell out!"

The poor woman emptied her pocket; her purse contained a dozen
sovereigns. As her watch was not in sight, and as they did not search
us, she kept that. The kindness of these thieves left her her
handkerchief.

Mary-Ann threw down her watch and a string of charms against the evil
eye. She took off, with mutinous grace, a shagreen-leather bag, which
she wore slung on her shoulder. The bandit opened it with all the
importance of a custom-house officer. He took out an English
dressing-case, a bottle of English smelling-salts, a box of English
Menthol pastilles and a hundred and several odd francs of English money.

"Now," said the enraged beauty, "you can let us go; we have nothing more
for you."

One of the men indicated to her by a menacing gesture, that the
interview was not yet over. The leader of the band knelt down before
their spoils, called the monk, counted the money in his presence and
gave to him a sum of forty-five francs. Mrs. Simons nudged me. "Do you
see?" she whispered; "the monk and Dimitri have betrayed us into their
hands; the bandits have divided with them!"

"No, Madame," I replied, "Dimitri has received only a fraction of what
was taken from him. It is customary everywhere. On the borders of the
Rhine, when a traveler is ruined at roulette, the banker gives him
enough to return home."

"But the monk?"

"He has only received the tithe of the spoils, according to custom from
time immemorial. Do not reproach him, but rather be grateful to him in
his wish to save us, when his convent would have benefited by our
capture."

This conversation was interrupted by Dimitri's departure. They had told
him that he was free. "Wait for me," I said to him, "we will return
together." He sadly shook his head and answered in English, so that the
ladies could understand:

"You are prisoners for a time, and you will not see Athens again until
you have paid a ransom. I am going to inform milord. Have the ladies any
message to send to him?"

"Tell him," cried Mrs. Simons, "that he must hurry to the Ambassador,
that he must go to Piraeus to find the Admiral, that he must complain at
the Foreign Office, and he must surely write to Lord Palmerston! That we
must be rescued from here by force of arms, if necessary, or by
political authority; but that I will not hear of paying one penny for my
liberty."

"And I," I said with less anger, "I pray thee to tell my friends in
whose hands thou hast left me. If it is necessary to have a few hundred
drachmas to ransom a poor devil of a naturalist, they will furnish them
without doubt. The lords of the road will not put a very high price on
me. I wish whilst thou art still here, that thou wouldst ask them the
price."

"Useless, my dear M. Hermann, they do not fix the ransom."

"Who, then?"

"Their chief, Hadgi-Stavros."




IV.

HADGI-STAVROS.


Dimitri descended to Athens; the monk went back to his bees; our new
masters pushed us into the path which led to the camp of their king.
Mrs. Simons rebelled and refused to stir a step. The brigands threatened
to carry her in their arms; she declared that she would not let them
carry her. But her daughter talked her into a more tractable frame of
mind, telling that she would find the table spread and that she would be
invited to breakfast by Hadgi-Stavros. Mary-Ann was more surprised than
frightened. The followers who had come to arrest us, had acted with a
certain courtesy; they had not searched us, and they had kept their
hands from their prisoners. Instead of turning our pockets wrong side
out, they had asked us to put down our money and valuables ourselves;
they made no remark about the ladies' ear-rings and they did not even
ask them to take off their gloves. We were far, it seemed, from those
highwaymen in Spain and Italy who cut off a finger to get a ring and who
tear out an ear-ring to possess themselves of a diamond or pearl. All
these misfortunes were reduced to the payment of a ransom; yet was it
not probable that we might be delivered without it? How could one
imagine that Hadgi-Stavros would be able to hold us with impunity, at
five leagues from the capital, from the court, from the Greek army, from
her Britannic Majesty's battalion, at an English station. Thus reasoned
Mary-Ann. As for me--I, involuntarily, thought of those two little
daughters whom Mistra went to seek, and I was sad. I feared that Mrs.
Simons, in her obstinate patriotism, only exposed her daughter to some
great danger, and I promised myself that I would enlighten her as to her
position. We walked in a narrow path, single file, separated from each
other by our disagreeable companions. The journey seemed to me to be
interminable, and I asked more than ten times, if we would not soon be
there. The road was frightful; in the crevices of the bare rock an oak
sapling struggled for life, or a thorny bush scratched our legs. The
victorious bandits manifested no joy, and their triumphal march
resembled a funeral parade. They silently smoked cigarettes as large as
one's finger.

They did not speak; one, only, now and then hummed a sort of tune. Those
people are as lugubrious as a ruin.

About eleven o'clock, a fierce barking announced the neighborhood of the
camp. Ten or a dozen enormous dogs rushed out and hurled themselves upon
us, showing all their teeth. Our captors drove them back with stones,
and after a quarter of an hour of hostilities, peace was declared. These
inhospitable monsters were the advance sentinels of the King of the
Mountains. They scent the soldiers as a contrabandist's dog scents a
custom-house officer. But that is not all, and their zeal is so great,
that they, occasionally, devoured an inoffensive shepherd, a lost
traveler, or even one of Hadgi-Stavros' band. The King kept them, as the
old Sultans kept their Janissaries, with the perpetual fear of falling
a victim to them.

The King's camp was a plateau of seven or eight hundred metres in
extent. I searched everywhere for our captors' tents. The brigands were
not sybarites, and they slept under the sky on the 30th of April. I saw
neither heaps of spoils nor a display of treasures, nothing which one
would hope to find at the headquarters of a band of brigands.
Hadgi-Stavros took upon himself the sale of the plunder; each man
received his pay in silver and used it according to his fancy. Some put
their money into commerce, others invested in mortgages on houses in
Athens, while others bought land in their villages; no one squandered
the proceeds of theft. Our arrival interrupted the morning meal of
twenty-five or thirty men, who hastened to meet us, bread and cheese in
hand. The Chief furnished his band with food: the men received, every
day, a ration of bread, oil, wine, cheese, caviare, piment (wine mixed
with honey and spices), bitter olives, and meat when their religion
permitted. Gourmands who wish for mallows and other green food, can pick
these dainties on the mountains. Brigands, as some other classes of
people, rarely light a fire for their repasts; they eat their food cold,
and their vegetables uncooked. I noticed that everyone was religiously
observing the law of abstinence. We were on the eve of the celebration
of the Ascension, and these good people, of whom the most innocent had
at least the life of one man on his conscience, would not touch a
mouthful of meat. Holding up two Englishwomen, at the point of a
musket, seemed an insignificant sin; Mrs. Simons had very greatly sinned
in eating the cold meat, the Wednesday before Ascension. The men who had
escorted us, satisfied the curiosity of their comrades. They were
overwhelmed with questions and they answered them all. They put down in
a pile, the booty they had secured, and my silver watch scored yet
another success, which added to my pride. Mary-Ann's little gold watch
was less noticed. In that first interview, public attention fell upon my
watch, and it reflected a little on me. In the eyes of these simple men,
the owner of such an imposing piece of silver could be no less than a
lord.

The bandits' curiosity was annoying, but not insolent. They did not
treat us harshly. They knew that we were in their hands and that we
would be exchanged, sooner or later, for a certain number of gold
pieces; but they did not think that they ought to avail themselves of
that circumstance to maltreat us, or show a lack of respect. Good sense,
that imperishable spirit of the Greeks, told them that we represented a
different race, and one, to a certain degree, superior. Victorious
barbarians render a secret homage to a conquered civilized people. Many
of these men saw for the first time, the European dress. These walked
around us, as the inhabitants of the new world around Columbus'
Spaniards. They furtively felt my coat, to see of what material it was
made. They would have been happy to have examined the articles of my
clothing, one by one. Perhaps, even, they would have liked to break me
in two or three pieces, in order to study the inner mechanism of a
lord, but I am sure that they would have done it with profuse excuses,
and not without asking pardon for the liberty.

Mrs. Simons soon lost patience; she did not like to be examined so
closely by these cheese-eaters, who offered her no breakfast. No one
likes to be made a spectacle of. The role of "living curiosity" very
much displeased the good woman, although she had filled it
advantageously in all countries of the globe. As for Mary-Ann, she was
overcome with fatigue. A ride of six hours, hunger, emotion, surprise,
had worn out this delicate creature. Imagine this young girl, brought up
delicately, accustomed to walk on carpets, or upon the velvety turf of
parks. Her shoes were already nearly off her feet, worn out by the
roughness of the path, and the bushes had torn her dress. Only the
evening before she had taken tea in the parlors of the English Legation,
while looking over the beautiful albums belonging to Mr. Wyse. She now
found herself transported into a frightful country, in the midst of a
crowd of savages, and she had not the consolation of saying: "It is a
dream!" because she was neither in bed, nor even seated, but standing,
in great despair, on her two weary little feet.

A band now surrounded us, which rendered our position intolerable. It
was not a band of thieves; it was worse. The Greeks carry upon their
persons a whole menagerie of little animals, agile, capricious, not
seizable, who cling to them night and day, give them occupation even
when asleep, and by their jumps and their stings, accelerate the action
of the mind, and the circulation of the blood. The fleas of the
brigands, of which I can show some specimens in my Entomological
collection, are very much larger, stronger and more agile than their
city cousins; the open country air possesses virtue so powerful! I soon
perceived that they were not content with their lot, and that they found
more to their taste, the fine skin of a young German than the tough hide
of their masters. An emigrating army settled upon me. I felt, at first,
an uneasy sensation around the ankles: it was the declaration of war.
Two minutes later, an advance guard threw itself upon the calf of my
right leg; it reached my knee. I was out-flanked, and all resistance
became useless. If I had been alone, I might have been more successful
in the combat.

I dared neither complain nor defend myself; I heroically hid my sorrows
and did not raise my eyes.

At last, at the end of my patience, and determined to escape, by flight,
from the pests, I demanded to be taken before the King. This recalled
our guides to their duty. They asked the whereabouts of Hadgi-Stavros.
The reply was that he was at work in his offices.

"At last," said Mrs. Simons, "I can seat myself in an easy chair."

She took my arm, offered hers to her daughter, and walked, with a
deliberate step, in the direction in which the crowd conducted us. The
offices were not far from the camp, and we reached them in five minutes.

The offices of the King resembled other offices, as the bandits' camp
was like to other camps. There were neither tables, chairs nor
furniture of any sort. Hadgi-Stavros was seated, tailor-fashion, upon a
square of carpet, under the shade of a fir tree. Four secretaries and
two servants sat around him.

A young boy of sixteen or eighteen, was incessantly occupied in filling,
lighting and cleaning his master's chibouk. He wore at his belt a
tobacco bag, embroidered with gold and fine pearls, and a pair of silver
tongs, used for taking out coals. Another servant passed his days
preparing cups of coffee, glasses of water and syrup, destined for the
royal mouth.

The secretaries, seated on the bare rock, wrote with cut reeds, upon
their knees. Each of them had a long copper box containing reeds, a
knife and an inkstand. Some tin cylinders, like those in which soldiers
keep their papers, served as a place of safety for their archives. The
paper was not poor, for the reason that each sheet bore in capitals the
word "Bath."

The King was an old man, marvelously well-preserved, straight, thin,
supple as a steel spring, clean and shining as a new sword. His long,
white mustaches hung over the chin, like two marble stalactites. The
rest of his face was scrupulously shaved, the cranium bare as far as the
occiput, where a great mass of white hair flowed down from under his
bonnet. The expression of his face was calm and reflective. A pair of
small, clear blue eyes, and a square-cut chin denoted an inflexible
will. His face was long, and the many long wrinkles added to its length.
Every fold in his forehead seemed to break in the middle and diverge
toward the meeting of his eyebrows; two wide and deep furrows descended
to the corners of the lips, as if the weight of the mustaches dragged
down the muscles of the face. I have seen a great number of
septuagenarians, I have even dissected one who would have attained a
hundred, if the diligence from Osnabruck had not passed over his body;
but I never remembered having seen an old man fresher and more robust
than Hadgi-Stavros.

He wore the dress of Tino and all the islands of the Archipelago. His
red bonnet formed a large fold around his forehead. He wore a black
vest, heavily embroidered with black silk, immense blue trousers which
must have taken twenty metres of cotton stuff, and large boots of Russia
leather, solid yet supple. The only richness about his costume, was a
belt decked with gold and precious stones, worth two or three thousand
francs. Thrust in it, was a purse of embroidered cashmere, a Damascus
blade in a silver sheath, a long pistol, mounted with gold and rubies,
and a ramrod, similarly decorated.

Immovable in the midst of his secretaries, the King moved only his lips
and his fingers; his lips to dictate his letters, his fingers to tell
off the beads of his rosary. It was one of those beautiful milk-white
amber rosaries which serve, not only to mark the number of prayers, but
to amuse the solemn idleness of the Turks.

He raised his head at our approach, divined, by a glance, what had
brought us to him, and said, with a gravity, not at all ironical; "You
are very welcome! Be seated."

"Monsieur," cried Mrs. Simons, "I am English, and----"

He interrupted the discourse: "All in good time," he said; "I am
occupied." He spoke in Greek and Mrs. Simons understood only English,
but the King's face was so expressive, that the good woman easily
comprehended what he meant without the aid of an interpreter. We sat
down on the ground. Fifteen or twenty brigands crouched around us, and
the King, who had no secrets to hide, dictated family letters as well as
those pertaining to business. The leader of the band which had arrested
us, went to him and whispered in his ear. He haughtily answered: "What
of that? I am doing nothing wrong, and the whole world is welcome to
hear me. Go, seat thyself; Thou, Spiro, write: it is to my daughter."

After he had vigorously blown his nose, he dictated in a grave, yet
sweet voice:

     "My Dear Child:

     "The preceptress of the school writes to me that thy health is much
     improved and that the severe cold with which thou wast troubled,
     has left thee with the cold winter weather. But she is not pleased
     with thy lack of application, and complains that thou hast done
     nothing with thy studies during the month of April. Mme. Mavros
     writes that thou hast become distrait, and that thou sittest with
     thy elbow on thy book, thy eyes looking at nothing, as if thou wert
     thinking of something else. I know that it is unnecessary to tell
     thee to work assiduously. Follow the example of my life. If I had
     taken it easy, as many do, I should never have reached the position
     which I occupy in society. I wish to have thee worthy of me, that
     is why I make great sacrifices for thy education. Thou knowest
     that I have never refused thee the masters nor the books for which
     thou hast asked; but my money must profit by it. The set of 'Walter
     Scott,' has arrived at Piraeus, also the 'Robinson,' and all the
     other English books thou hast said that thou didst wish to read;
     have our friends in the Rue d'Hèrmes get them from the Custom-House
     for thee. Thou wilt receive, at the same time, the bracelet which
     thou desirest, and that steel machine for puffing out thy skirts.
     If the piano from Vienna is not as good as thou toldest me, and it
     seems necessary that thou shouldst have another, thou shalt have
     it. I shall do one or two villages, after the sales of the harvest,
     and the Devil will be against me, if I cannot find enough money for
     a pretty piano. I think, as thou dost, that thou must learn music.
     Use thy Sundays in the way I have told thee, and profit by the
     kindness of our friends. Thou must learn to speak French, English,
     and above all, German. Because, thou art not to live forever in
     this ridiculous country, and I would rather see thee dead than
     married to a Greek. Daughter of a King, thou shouldst, by right,
     marry a Prince. I do not mean, a prince of smugglers, like all our
     Fanariot families, who pride themselves on their descent from
     Oriental emperors, and whom I would not have for servants; but a
     Prince, reigning and crowned. One can find some very good ones in
     Germany, and my fortune will enable me to choose one of them. If
     these Germans come to reign in this country, I do not see why thou
     canst not reign there, in thy turn. Make haste, then, to learn the
     language, and tell me in thy next letter of the progress thou hast
     made. My child, I embrace thee tenderly, and I send thee, with thy
     quarter's allowance, my paternal blessing."

Mrs. Simons leaned toward me and whispered: "Is he dictating our
sentence to his brigands?"

I replied: "No, Madame; he is writing to his daughter."

"Concerning our capture?"

"Concerning a piano, a crinoline, and Walter Scott."

"That takes a long time. Will he invite us to breakfast?"

"There comes a servant with refreshments."

The King's coffee-bearer came to us, bringing three cups of coffee, a
box of rahat-loukoum, and a pot of preserves. Mrs. Simons and her
daughter rejected the beverage with disgust, because it was made like
Turkish coffee, and was like thickened milk. I emptied my cup like a
veritable gourmand of the Orient. The pot of sweets was a rose sorbet,
and received only a small share of our attention, as we were forced to
eat it with one spoon. Delicate eaters are unfortunate when in this
country of primitive simplicity. But the rahat-loukoum, cut in pieces,
pleased the palates of the ladies, without shocking too much, their
ordinary tastes. They took in their beautiful fingers that perfumed
jellied paste, and emptied the box, while the King dictated the
following letter:

     "Messrs. Barley and Company,
     "31 Cavendish Square,
     "London.

     "I see by your honored letter of the 5th of April and the current
     account which accompanies it, that I have, at the present time,
     22,750 livres sterling, to my credit. Please place these funds,
     half in English three per cents, half in shares of the company,
     before the coupons are cut. Sell my shares of the Royal Britannic
     Bank; it is an institution in which I have no longer any
     confidence. Take for me, in exchange, all in Bank of London. If you
     can get 15,000 livres for my house in the Strand (it was valued at
     that in 1852), you may buy for me, in the Vieille-Montagne, an
     equal amount. Send to the firm, Rhalli Brothers, 100 guineas; it is
     my subscription for the Hellenic School at Liverpool. I have
     seriously pondered the proposition which you have done me the honor
     to submit to me, and, after many reflections, I have decided to
     persist in my line of conduct and transact business strictly on a
     cash basis. Purchases in future are of a speculative character,
     which ought to prevent any good father of a family from dealing in
     them. I am assured that you would not expose my capital to danger,
     and would use it with a prudence which has always characterized
     your house; but even where the benefit of which you write, seems
     sure, I experience, I must confess it, a certain repugnance to
     leaving to my heirs a fortune augmented by gambling. Accept, etc.,

     "Hadgi-Stavros,
     "Proprietor."

"Is it about us?" Mary-Ann whispered.

"Not yet, Mademoiselle, His Majesty is investing in stocks."

"In stocks! Here? I thought that was only done at home."

"Is Monsieur, your father, associated with a banking establishment?"

"Yes; with the firm of Barley & Co."

"Are there two bankers of the same name in London?"

"Not that I am aware of."

"Have you ever heard that the firm transacted business with the
Orient?"

"Certainly, all over the world."

"And do you live in Cavendish Square?"

"No, the offices are there. Our house is in Piccadilly."

"Thank you, Mademoiselle. Allow me to listen to the next. This old man's
correspondence is very interesting."

The King dictated, without stopping, a long report of the shares of his
band. This curious document was addressed to M. Georges Micrommati,
Officer of Ordinance, at the Palaces, that he might read it in the
General Assembly to those interested.

     "Account rendered of the operations of the National
     Company by the King of the Mountains.

     Receipts and Expenditures, 1855-56.
     Camp of the King, April 30, '56.

     Sirs:

     The agent whom you have honored with your confidence, to-day, for
     the fourteenth time, submits for your approval the report of the
     year's transactions. Since the day when the constitutional act of
     our society was signed in the office of Master Tsappas, Royal
     Notary of Athens, never has our enterprise encountered more
     obstacles, never has the progress of our labors been embarrassed by
     more serious difficulties. It is in the presence of a strange
     occupation, under the eyes of two armies, if not hostile, at least
     ill-disposed, that the regular practice of an eminently national
     institution must be carried on. Piraeus is occupied by the
     military; the Turkish frontier is watched with a zealousness
     without precedent in history, and this restricts our activity to a
     very narrow circle, and confines our zeal to impassable limits.
     Within these narrow boundaries, our resources are still more
     reduced by the general penury, the scarcity of money, and the small
     crops. The olive trees have not yielded as they promised; the
     cereal harvests have been small, and the vines are not yet rid of
     the oïdium. In these circumstances it has been difficult to profit
     by the tolerance of the authorities and the kindness of a friendly
     government. Our enterprise is so identified with the interests of
     the country, that it can flourish only in the general prosperity,
     and so repulse the counterstrokes of all public calamities; for
     from those who have nothing, one can take nothing, or little of
     anything.

     The strangers traveling in this country, whose curiosity is so
     useful to the kingdom and to us, have become rare. English
     tourists, who, formerly, composed an important branch of our
     revenue, are totally lacking. Two young Americans, stopped upon the
     road to Pentelicus, lost us their ransom. The French and English
     papers had inspired them with a spirit of defiance, and they
     escaped from our hands, at a time when their capture would have
     been most useful.

     And now, gentlemen, this is our record, a report of our society
     which has resisted the fatal crisis better than agriculture,
     industries and commerce. Your funds, confided to my keeping, have
     been made profitable, not as much so as I could wish, but better
     than any one could hope for. I will say no more; I leave the
     figures to speak for themselves. Arithmetic is more eloquent than
     Demosthenes.

     The society capital, limited at first to the modest sum of 50,000
     francs, has increased to 120,000 by three successive issuings of
     bonds of 500 francs.

     Our gross receipts, from May 1, 1855, to April 30, 1856, are
     261,482 francs.

     Expenses as follows:

     Tithes paid to churches and monasteries             26,148

     Interest on capital of the legal tax of 10 per
      cent per 100                                       12,000
                                                        -------
                                                         38,148

     Report.

     Pay and board for 80 men at 650 francs per
     capita                                                        52,000

     Material, arms, etc.                                           7,056

     Repairing the road to Thebes, which had become
     impassable and where there were no
     travelers to hold up                                           2,540

     Expense of watching the highways                               5,835

     Rent for office                                                    3

     Subsidizing some journalists                                  11,900

     Rewards to various employes of the judicial
     and administrative orders                                     18,000
                                                                  -------
         Total                                                    135,482

     If this sum is deducted from the gross receipts, there are left,
     net 126,000

     According to the statutes, the above is apportioned as follows:

     Reserve funds in the Bank of Athens                            6,000
     Share belonging to Agent                                      40,000
     Share-holders' part                                           80,000
     333 francs, 33 c. per share.

     Add to the 333 francs, 33 c., 50 francs interest and 25 francs in
     reserve funds, and you will have a total of 408 francs, 33 c. per
     share. Your money is then drawing nearly 82 per cent.

     Such are the results, gentlemen, of the last campaign. Judge what
     the future will be, when our country and our operations shall be
     free from the foreign power which presses so heavily."

The King dictated this without consulting any notes, without hesitating
about a figure and without stopping to choose words. I would never have
believed that an old man of his age could have possessed so remarkable a
memory. He appended his seal to the three letters; it was his way of
signing. He read easily, but he had never found time to learn to write.
Charlemagne and Alfred the Great were, it is said, in the same
predicament.

While the Under-Secretaries of State were transcribing the letters for
the day in order to place them in the archives, he gave audience to
subaltern officers who had returned with their detachments, from the
day's duty. Each man seated himself in front of him, saluted him by
laying his right hand on his heart and making his report in a few words.
I swear to you that Saint-Louis, under his oak, inspired no greater
reverence among the people of Vincennes.

The first who presented himself was a small man, with a bad face; a fine
sample for the Court of Assizes. It was an islander from Corfu,
persecuted as an incendiary: he had been well brought up, and his
talents had advanced him. But his chief and his soldiers held him in no
great esteem. He was suspected of keeping for his own profit a part of
the spoils. Now the King was unreasonable on the subject of probity.
When he found a man in fault, he ignominiously thrust him out and
ironically said to him: "Go and make a magistrate of thyself!"

Hadgi-Stavros asked the man from Corfu: "What hast thou done?"

"I have just come, with my fifteen men, from the ravine of Cirondelles,
upon the road to Thebes. I met a detachment of soldiers; twenty-five
men."

"Where are their guns?"

"I left them. They were percussion muskets, which would not serve us on
account of lack of caps."

"Good! Then?"

"It was market-day; I stopped the passers-by."

"How many?"

"One hundred and forty-two persons."

"And thou hast brought----?"

"About a thousand francs," naming the sum.

"Seven francs per head! It is small!"

"It is good. They were peasants."

"They had not, then, sold their goods?"

"Some had sold, others bought."

The man opened a heavy sack which he carried under his arm; he spread
out the contents before the secretaries, who began to count the amount.
The receipts were from thirty to forty Mexican piastres, some handfuls
of Austrian zwanzigs and an enormous quantity of copper coins. Some
crumpled papers were among the money. They were bank notes of ten francs
each.

"Thou hast no jewels?" asked the King.

"No!"

"Were there no women, then?"

"I found nothing worth bringing away."

"What is that on thy finger?"

"A ring."

"Gold?"

"Or copper; I do not know which."

"Where didst thou get it?"

"I bought it two months ago."

"If thou hadst bought it, thou wouldst know whether it was gold or
copper. Give it to me."

The man took it off with bad grace. The ring was immediately locked up
in a small coffer full of jewels.

"I pardon thee!" said the King, "because of thy bad education. The
people of thy country disgrace theft by mixing knavery with it. If I had
only Ionians in my band, I would be obliged to place turnstiles in the
roads as they do at the Exposition in London, so that I might count the
visitors and the money. The next!"

He, who came forward now, was a tall young man, well-proportioned, and
with a most pleasing face. His round eyes beamed forth rectitude and
good-nature. His lips, half-opened with a pleasant smile, showed a
magnificent set of teeth; I was greatly taken with him, and I said to
myself that if he had been led astray by evil associations, he must
surely return, some day, to the right path. My face must have pleased
him, for he saluted me very politely, before seating himself in front of
the King.

Hadgi-Stavros said to him: "What hast thou done, Vasile?"

"I reached Pigadia, yesterday evening, with my six men; it is the
village of the Senator Zimbellis."

"Well!"

"Zimbellis was absent, as usual; but his relatives, his farmers, and his
tenants were all at home, and in bed."

"Well!"

"I entered an inn; I awakened the landlord; I bought twenty-five
bundles of straw, and for payment I killed him."

"Well!"

"We carried the straw to the houses, and spread it around; the houses
are of wood or osier, and we set fire to seven places at once. The
matches were good; the wind from the north; everything went."

"Well!"

"We retired quietly to the wells. The whole village awakened and rushed
out, shouting. The men came running with their leather buckets to get
water. We drowned four whom we did not know; the others escaped."

"Well!"

"We returned to the village. There was no one, only an infant forgotten
by his parents, and who cried like a little raven fallen from its nest.
I threw him into a burning house, and he cried no more."

"Well!"

"Then we took fire-brands, and placed them around the olive trees. The
thing was well-executed. We then started for the camp; we supped and
slept about half-way here, and we arrived at nine o'clock, in prime
condition without even a burn."

"Good! The Senator Zimbellis will not discourse against us again! The
next!"

Vasile withdrew, saluting me as he passed, as politely as the first
time; but I did not return his bow.

He was soon replaced by the great devil who had taken us. By a singular
caprice of chance, the first author of the drama in which I was called
to play a part, was named Sophocles. At the moment when he began his
report, I felt the blood congeal in my veins. I supplicated Mrs. Simons
not to risk an imprudent word. She replied, that she was English, and
that she knew how to behave herself. The King asked us to be silent, and
allow the man to speak.

He first spread out the booty which he had taken from us; then he drew
from his belt forty Austrian ducats, which made a sum of four hundred
and seventy francs, at the rate of 11 francs-15c.

"The ducats," he said, "came from the village of Castia; the rest was
taken from these nobles. Thou didst tell me to scour the boundaries, I
began with the village."

"Thou hast not done well," replied the King. "The people of Castia are
our neighbors, they must not be molested. How can we live in safety, if
we have enemies at our door? Moreover, they were brave people who have
given us aid when occasion demanded."

"Oh! I took nothing from the charcoal burners. They disappeared into the
woods, without giving me time to speak to them. But the padre had the
gout; I found him at home."

"What didst thou say to him?"

"I asked him for his money; he insisted that he had none. I shut him up
in a sack with his cat; and I do not know what the cat did, but he began
to cry out that his treasure was behind the house, under a huge stone."

"Thou wert wrong. The padre will incite all the village against us."

"Oh! no! In leaving him, I forgot to open the sack, and the cat ought to
have fixed him by this time."

"All in good time:----But listen to me well, all of you: I do not wish
anyone to trouble our neighbors. Thou mayst retire."

Our examination now began. Hadgi-Stavros, instead of having us come to
him, gravely rose, came and seated himself on the ground in front of us.
This mark of deference to us seemed a favorable augury. Mrs. Simons
prepared to question him herself. As for me, perceiving too well what
she was capable of saying, and knowing the intemperance of her tongue, I
offered my services to the King, as interpreter. He thanked me coldly,
and called the Corfuan, who knew English.

"Madame," the King said to Mrs. Simons, "you seem to be in great anger.
Have you any complaints to make of the men who brought you here?"

"It is a horror!" she cried. "Your rascals have arrested, dragged me
through the dirt, despoiled me, worn me out, and starved me."

"Will you accept my excuses? I am forced to employ men without
education. Believe me, my dear Madame, it is not by my orders they have
acted thus. You are English?"

"An Englishwoman from London."

"I have been to London; I know and esteem the English. I know that they
have good appetites, and you noticed that I was moved to offer you
refreshments. I know that ladies of your country do not like to run over
rocks, and I regret that you were not allowed to walk your own gait. I
know that people of your nation carry, while traveling, only such things
as are necessary, and I have not yet pardoned Sophocles for having
robbed you, above all, if you are a person of distinction."

"I belong to the best society of London!"

"Deign to take back your money. You are rich?"

"Assuredly."

"This traveling-case is yours, is it not?"

"It is my daughter's."

"Take, also, all that belongs to your daughter. You are very rich?"

"Very rich."

"Do these things belong to Monsieur, your son?"

"Monsieur is not my son; he is a German. Since I am English how could I
have a German son?"

"That is true. Have you twenty thousand francs income?"

"More."

"A carpet for these ladies! Are you rich enough to have thirty thousand
francs income?"

"We have more than that."

"Sophocles is a villain whom I shall chastise. Logothète, tell them to
prepare dinner for these ladies. May it be possible, Madame, that you
are a millionaire?"

"I am that."

"And I--I am annoyed at the way in which you have been treated. You
have, without doubt, fine friends in Athens?"

"I know the English Minister."

"Oh! Madame! You also know some merchants, some bankers?"

"My brother, who is at Athens, knows many bankers in the city."

"I am delighted. Sophocles, come here. Ask pardon of these ladies."

Sophocles muttered some words between his teeth, I know not what
excuses. The King replied:

"These ladies are Englishwomen of distinction; they are worth a million
or more; they have been received by the English Ambassador; their
brother, who is in Athens, knows all the bankers in the city."

"That is right!" cried Mrs. Simons. The King continued:

"Thou shouldst have treated these ladies with all the regard due their
fortune."

"Good!" Mrs. Simons cried.

"Have conducted them here carefully."

"For what purpose?" murmured Mary-Ann.

"And abstained from touching their baggage. When one has the honor of
meeting, in the mountains, two persons of the rank of these ladies, one
should salute them with respect, one should bring them to the camp with
deference, one should guard them circumspectly, and one should offer
them politely every necessary thing in life, until their brother or
their ambassador sends us a ransom of a hundred thousand francs."

Poor Mrs. Simons! dear Mary-Ann! Neither expected this termination. As
for me, I was not surprised. I knew with what a crafty knave we had to
do. I took up the word, and I said to him fiercely: "Thou canst keep
what thy men have taken from me, because it is all that thou wilt get
from me. I am poor, my father has nothing, my brothers often eat dry
bread. I know neither bankers nor ambassadors, and if thou keepest me
with the hope of a ransom, thou wilt reap no reward. I swear it to
thee!"

A murmur of incredulity was heard, but the King appeared to believe me.

"If that is true," he said to me, "I will not keep you. I will send you
back to the city. Madame will give you a letter for Monsieur, her
brother, and you may even leave to-day. If, however, you need to remain
a day or two in the mountains, I will offer my hospitality to you;
because I suppose that you have not come as far as this, with this large
box, in order to look over the country."

This little speech gave me a profound feeling of relief. I looked around
with satisfaction. The King, his secretaries, and his soldiers seemed
less terrible; the surrounding rocks more picturesque, since I viewed
them with the eye of a guest and not as a prisoner. The desire I had
experienced to see Athens suddenly subsided, and I decided to pass two
or three days in the mountains. I felt that my counsels would not be
useless to Mary-Ann's mother. The good woman was in a state of
excitement which might urge her to do something rash. If, perchance, she
determined to refuse to pay the ransom! Before England could come to
her aid, she would have ample time to draw dire calamity upon her
charming head. I must not leave her until I had an opportunity to relate
the history of Mistra's little daughters. Shall I say more? You know my
passion for botany. The flora of Parnassus is very enticing at the end
of April. One can find in the mountains five or six plants as rare as
they are celebrated. One especially: Boryana variabilis, discovered and
named by M. Bory de Saint-Vincent. Should I leave such a lacuna and
present my herbarium to the Museum of Hamburg, without the boryana
variabilis?

I replied to the King: "I accept thy hospitality, but on one condition."

"What is it?"

"That thou wilt return my box."

"Oh well! so be it: and the condition?"

"That is it."

"Will you tell me of what use it is to you?"

"To hold the plants which I pick."

"And why do you search for plants? To sell them?"

"Nonsense! I am not a merchant, I am a savant."

He held out his hand to me and said with visible joy: "I am charmed.
Science is a beautiful thing. Our ancestors were wise men. Our
grandchildren will be, perhaps. As for us, time is lacking. Savants are
much esteemed in your country?"

"Greatly."

"One gives them rank?"

"Sometimes."

"One pays them well?"

"Enough!"

"One attaches a little ribbon to their coat?"

"Occasionally!"

"Is it true that cities dispute as to which they belong?"

"It is true in Germany!"

"And one looks upon their death as a public calamity?"

"Assuredly!"

"What you tell me gives me great pleasure. Then you have no complaints
to make of your fellow-citizens?"

"Very much to the contrary. It is through their liberality that I was
enabled to come to Greece."

"You travel at their expense?"

"Yes."

"You are well-educated?"

"I am a doctor."

"It is the highest grade in science?"

"No."

"And how many doctors are there in the city in which you live?"

"I do not know exactly, but not as many doctors in Hamburg, as generals
in Athens."

"Oh! oh! I would not deprive your country of a man so rare. You shall
return to Hamburg, Monsieur, doctor; what would they say down below if
they knew that you were a prisoner up here in the mountains?"

"They would say that it was a misfortune."

"Good! Rather than lose such a man as you, the city of Hamburg would
sacrifice fifteen thousand francs. Take back your box, haste away,
search, gather plants, and follow your studies. Why not put that silver
watch back in your pocket? It is yours, and I respect savants too much
to rob them. But your country is rich enough to pay for her glory. Happy
young man! You recognize, to-day, how much the title of doctor adds to
your personal value. I would not have demanded a centime of ransom, if
you had been as ignorant as I am."

The King listened neither to my objections, nor to Mrs. Simons'
expostulations. He closed the interview, and pointed out to us the
dining hall. Mrs. Simons descended to the place, all the while
protesting that although she would eat her breakfast, yet she would
never pay the bill. Mary-Ann seemed more depressed; but such is the
mobility of youth, that she cried out with joy when she saw the place
where our meal was spread. It was a little corner of green, sheltered by
gray rocks. Beautiful grass formed the carpet; some clumps of privet and
laurels served as hangings and hid the rocky walls. A beautiful blue
arch was above our heads; birds flew back and forth in the azure vault.
In a corner of our dining-hall, a limpid stream, clear as crystal,
silently swept along in its course, spreading over its banks, and
falling in a silvery sheet down the side of the mountain. From this
side, the view illimitably extended to the sides of the Pentelicus, the
great white pile which overhangs Athens; across the sad-colored olive
groves; the dusty plain; the gray sides of Hymettus, rounded like an old
man's spine; and that beautiful Saronic Gulf, so blue that one might
say that a strip had fallen from the sky. Assuredly, Mrs. Simons had not
a mind turned to admiration, and yet, she confessed that the price for
such a beautiful sight would be very high in London or Paris.

The table was laid with heroic simplicity. Brown bread, baked in a field
oven, smoked upon the sod and gave out a most appetizing odor. The
clotted milk quivered in a huge wooden bowl. The large olives and green
piments, were laid on roughly cut pieces of wood. A shaggy goat-skin
bottle spread out its large sides next to a red copper cup, roughly
chiseled. An ewe's-milk cheese reposed upon the cloth which had pressed
it, and which still bore its imprint. Five or six appetizing lettuces
promised us a delicious salad, but there were no condiments with which
to dress them. The King had placed his traveling plate at our disposal,
consisting of spoons cut out with a knife, and we had, as a surfeit of
luxury, our five fingers, for forks. They had not been tolerant enough
to serve us with meat, but the yellow tobacco of Almyros promised me an
admirable digester.

One of the King's officers served us. It was the hideous Corfuan, the
man of the gold ring, who knew English. He cut the bread with his
poniard and distributed it freely, praying us not to lack for anything.
Mrs. Simons, without losing one stroke of her teeth, said to him in a
haughty tone: "Monsieur, does your master seriously believe that we
shall pay a ransom of a hundred thousand francs?"

"He is sure of it!"

"It is because he does not know the English nation."

"He knows it well, Madame, and I also. At Corfu, I have associated with
many distinguished Englishmen! judges!"

"I wish you joy of it! but tell this Stavros to arm himself with
patience, because he will wait a long time for the hundred thousand
francs, which he has promised himself."

"He told me to tell you that he would wait for them until the 15th of
May, at noon, precisely."

"And if we have not paid it the 15th of May, at noon?"

"He will regret that he will be obliged to cut off your head, as well as
Mademoiselle's."

Mary-Ann dropped the bread which she was carrying to her mouth. "Give me
a little wine," she said. The bandit handed to her a cup full; but
scarcely had it touched her lips, before she cried out with fear. The
poor child imagined that the wine was poisoned. I reassured her by
emptying the cup at one draught. "Fear nothing," I said to her; "it is
the resin."

"What resin?"

"Wine would not keep in these goat-skins if a certain amount of resin
was not added, to prevent it from spoiling. The mixture is not very
agreeable, but you may drink it without fear."

Despite my example, Mary-Ann and her mother made the bandit bring water.
The man ran to the brook and was back in an instant. "You understand,
Mesdames," he smilingly said, "that the King would not be foolish
enough to poison such valuable people as you are." He added, turning to
me: "You, M. le docteur, I have orders to tell you that you have thirty
days to pursue your studies and pay the sum. I will furnish you all with
writing materials."

"Thanks," Mrs. Simons said. "We will think of it in eight days, if we
are not delivered before."

"And by whom, Madame?"

"By England."

"Is it far?"

"Or by the police."

"For your sake, I hope you may have that luck. In the meantime, I will
do anything in my power for you."

"I wish first for a bed-chamber."

"We have near here a grotto, which is called Les Etables. You would not
like it; the sheep were kept there during the winter, and the odor still
remains. I will get two tents from the shepherds below and you can camp
here--until the arrival--of the gendarmes!"

"I wish for a waiting-maid."

"Nothing is easier. Our men will go down to the plain, and stop the
first peasant-woman who passes,--if, however, the gendarmerie will
permit!"

"I must have clothes, dresses, linen, toilet appurtenances, soap, a
mirror, combs, scents, a tapestry frame, a----"

"A good many things, Madame, and in order to get them all, we would be
forced to go to Athens. But one will do the best. Count on me and count
not too much on your soldiers."

"May God pity us!" Mary-Ann said.

A vigorous echo replied: "Kyrie Eleison!" (Lord, have mercy upon us.) It
was the good old man who came to visit us, and who sang while traveling
about in order to keep in practice. He saluted us cordially, placed upon
the grass a vessel full of honey, and seated himself near us. "Take and
eat," he said. "My bees offer you a dessert."

I shook hands with him; Mrs. Simons and Mary-Ann turned away in disgust.
They obstinately refused to see him in any other light than as an
accomplice of the brigands. The poor, good man knew no malice. He knew
only how to chant his prayers, to care for his bees, to sell his goods,
to collect the revenues of the convent, and to live at peace with the
whole world. His intelligence was limited; his science, nothing; his
conduct as innocent as that of a well-regulated machine. I do not
believe that he was able to clearly distinguish good from bad, and to
see any difference between a thief and an honest man. His wisdom
consisted in making four meals a day, and of never getting more than
half-seas over. He was, moreover, one of the best monks of his order.

I did full justice to the present he had brought us. This half-wild
honey resembled the kind which we eat in France, as the flesh of a roe
resembles lamb's meat. One would have said that the bees had distilled
in an invisible alembic all the perfumes of the mountains. I forgot, in
eating my bread spread with the honey, that I had only a month in which
to find fifteen thousand francs, or die.

The monk, in his turn, asked permission to refresh himself a little, and
without waiting for a reply, took the cup and turned out a bumper. He
drank, successively, to each of us. Five or six brigands, drawn by
curiosity, glided into the nook. He spoke to each by name, and drank to
each, in a spirit of justice. It was not long before I cursed his
presence. An hour after his arrival, half the band was seated in a
circle around our viands. In the absence of the King, who was taking a
siesta in his office, the brigands came, one by one, to cultivate our
acquaintance. One offered his services, another brought us something,
still a third introduced himself without pretext and without
embarrassment, as a man who felt himself at home. The more familiar
besought me to relate our history; the more timid held back at first but
insensibly drew nearer. Some, having satisfied themselves with looking
at us, threw themselves down, without courtesy for the ladies' presence,
and immediately began to snore. And the fleas, always flying about, and
the presence of their original master rendering them so bold that I
surprised two or three of them on the back of my hand. Impossible to
dispute their right to a grazing ground, I was no more a man, but a
common pasture. At this moment, I would have given three of the most
beautiful plants in my herbarium for a quarter of an hour of solitude.

Mrs. Simons and her daughter were too discreet to impart to me their
views, but they proved, by some involuntary starts, that we were of a
community of ideas. I even surprised a look between them which seemed
to say: "The gendarmes will deliver us from the thieves, but who can
deliver us from these fleas." This mute complaint awoke in my heart a
chivalrous sentiment. I resolutely rose and said:

"Go away, all of you; the King has sent us here to live quietly until
the arrival of our ransoms. The rent is so high that we have a right to
remain alone. Are you not ashamed to crowd around a table, like
parasitical dogs? You have no business here. We have no use for you; we
do not want you here. Do you believe that we can escape? How? By the
cascade? Or past the King's cabinet? Leave us then in peace. Corfuan,
drive them away, and I will help you, if you wish."

I added action to the word. I shoved along the loiterers, I awakened the
sleepers, I shook the monk, I forced the Corfuan to aid me, and soon the
troop of brigands, a troop armed with poniards and pistols, gave up to
us the place, with lamb-like meekness, although kicking, taking short
steps, resisting with the shoulders and twisting the head, in the
fashion of school-boys who have to be pushed into the schoolroom, when
recreation is over.

At last we were alone with the Corfuan. I said to Mistress Simons:
"Madame, this is our house. Will you be kind enough to separate the
apartment into two divisions? I must have a little corner for my tent.
Behind those trees, I shall not be badly off, and all the rest is yours,
if that pleases you. You will have the brook at hand."

My offers were accepted with sufficiently bad grace. These ladies would
have liked to keep all and let me go to sleep with the thieves. It is
true that British conventions might have gained something by this
separation, but I would have lost sight of Mary-Ann. And, moreover, I
had decided to sleep far from the fleas. The Corfuan approved of my
proposition, which rendered his watch less difficult. He had orders to
guard us night and day. It was necessary that he should sleep near my
tent, but I exacted the condition of a distance of six English feet
between us.

The treaty concluded, I established myself in a corner to give chase to
my domestic game. But I had scarcely begun, before the curious bandits
appeared under pretext of bringing our tents.

Mrs. Simons fairly screamed when she saw that her house was composed of
a simple strip of heavy felt, pleated in the middle, fastened to the
earth at the two ends, and opened to the wind on two sides. The Corfuan
swore that we should be lodged like princes, save in case of rain or a
strong wind. The entire band began to drive in stakes, to fix our beds
and to bring bed-covers. Each bed was composed of a rug with a covering
made of goat-skin. At six o'clock, the King came to assure himself, with
his own eyes, that we lacked nothing. Mrs. Simons, more incensed than
ever, replied that she lacked everything. I formally asked for the
exclusion of all useless visitors. The King established severe
regulations, such as we had never followed. Discipline is a French word
hard to translate in Greek. The King and his subjects retired at seven
o'clock, and we were to be served then with supper. Four torches of
resinous wood lighted the table. Their red and smoky light strangely
colored Miss Simons' pale face. Her eyes seemed to flash, become dim,
and rekindle again, like a revolving beacon-light. Her voice, weakened
by fatigue, took on, at intervals, a discordant tone. In listening to
her, my mind seemed to wander in a supernatural world, and I remembered
some very fantastic tales which I had once read. A nightingale sang, and
I believed I saw its silvery song pouring from Mary-Ann's lips. The day
had been a hard one for all, and even I, who had given substantial proof
of my appetite, soon recognized the fact that I was famished only for
sleep. I said good-night to the ladies and retired to my tent. In an
instant, I forgot nightingale, danger, ransom, stings; I closed my eyes
and I slept.

A fearful discharge of musketry awoke me with a start. I jumped up so
quickly that I struck my head against the poles of my tent. At the same
moment, I heard two feminine voices crying: "We are saved! The
gendarmes!" I saw two or three indistinct forms rush by in the night. In
my joy, in my trouble, I embraced the first shadow which passed my
tent--it was the Corfuan.

"Halt!" he cried, "where are you running, if you please?"

"Dog of a thief!" I replied, "I am going to see if the gendarmes will
soon finish shooting your comrades."

Mrs. Simons and her daughter, guided by my voice, came up to us. The man
said to us:

"The gendarmes will not travel to-day. It is the Ascension and the 1st
of May, a double fête-day. The noise which you have heard is the signal
for rejoicing. It is after midnight, almost morning; our companions go
to drink wine, eat meat, dance the Romaique and burn powder. If you wish
to see this beautiful sight, it will give me pleasure to take you to it.
I can guard you more agreeably around the roast than at the fountain
here."

"You lie!" cried Mrs. Simons, "it is the gendarmes!"

"Let us go and see," added Mary-Ann.

I followed them. The tumult was so great that one could not have slept
if one had wished. Our guide led us through the King's cabinet, and we
climbed to the bandit camp which was all ablaze with light. Whole pine
trees, placed at intervals, were used as torches. Five or six groups,
seated around a huge fire, watched the lambs roasting on spits. In the
midst of the crowd, a line of dancers wound slowly around in serpentine
fashion, to the measures of most frightful music. Occasional volleys of
musketry were heard. Once, it came quite near us and I felt the whizzing
of a ball, close to my ear. I begged the ladies to hasten forward,
hoping that, near the King, we would be farther from danger. The King,
seated on his everlasting carpet, presided with due solemnity over the
diversions of his people. Around him were goat-skin bottles; the sheep
were cut up and each man took a leg or shoulder and carried it about in
his hands. The orchestra was composed of a rude tambourine, and a shrill
flageolet. The dancers had taken off their shoes, in order to be more
agile. They flounced and jumped all over the spot and came near
cracking their bones, sometimes. From time to time, they left the dance,
drank a cup of wine, ate a piece of meat, discharged a gun, and then
returned to the dance. All these men, except the King, drank, ate,
hurled themselves about and jumped; I saw not one of them even smile.

Hadgi-Stavros courteously excused himself for having awakened us.

"It is not I who am to blame, it is the custom. If the first of May
passed without a discharge of musketry, these worthy people would not
believe that Spring had come. I have here only simple people, brought up
in the country and attached to ancient customs. I have done the best for
their education that I could do, but I shall die before they become
civilized. Men cannot be made over in a day like silver forks and
spoons. Even I, such as you see me, have found pleasure in these gross
sports; I have eaten and drunk and danced like the others. I have never
known European civilization; why should I take the trouble to travel so
late in life? I would give much to be young and only fifty, again. I
have ideas of reform which will never be executed; I see myself, like
Alexander, without an heir worthy of me. I dream of a new organization
of brigandage, without disorder, without turbulence, and without noise.
But I have no one to second me. I ought to have the exact census of all
the inhabitants of the kingdom, with an approximate statement of their
wealth, personal and real. As for the strangers who land on our shores,
an agent established at each port would learn and send to me their
names, their itinerary, and, as nearly as possible, their fortune. In
this way, I would know what each one could give me; and I would not make
the mistake of asking too little or too much. I would establish on each
road a post, with proper clerks, well brought-up and well educated;
because, for what good, to frighten clients with disgusting behavior or
a surly mien? I have seen, in France and in England, thieves, elegant to
excess; and did they not certainly succeed better because of it?

"I would demand of all my subordinates, exquisite manners, above all,
from those whose business it was to accost people. I would have for
prisoners of distinction like you, comfortable quarters in the open air,
with fine gardens. And do not think that they would cost the occupants
more dearly; to the contrary! If all those who traveled in this country
were, necessarily, to fall into my hands, I could tax the passers-by for
a very insignificant sum. So that each nation and each traveler would
give me only a fourth per cent on their principals, I would gain upon
the quantity. Then brigandage would only be a tax on the circulation; a
just tax, because it would be proportional; a normal tax, because it had
always been collected since ancient times. We could simplify it, if
necessary, by yearly subscriptions. In consideration of a sum, once
paid, one could obtain safe conduct for the natives, and an indorsed
pass-port for travelers. You say that according to the terms of the
Constitution no tax could be imposed without the vote of the Chambers.
Ah! Monsieur, if I only had time! I would buy the whole Senate; I would
nominate a Chamber of Deputies, friendly to me! A law would be passed,
in a trice! One could create, if necessary, a Ministry of the Highway.
That might cost me two or three millions, at first; but in four years I
could square myself--, and I could keep the roads in order, into the
bargain!"

He sighed heavily, then he said: "You see with what freedom I have
spoken to you. It is an old habit, of which I can never break myself. I
have lived, always, in the open air and in the sunlight. Our profession
would be shameful if exercised clandestinely. I hide nothing about
myself, but I fear no one. When you read in the papers, that search is
being made for me, say without hesitation that it is a parliamentary
fiction; it is always known where I am. I fear neither Ministers, the
Army, nor the Tribunals. The Ministers know that by a gesture I can
change a Cabinet. The Army is on my side; it furnishes me with recruits,
when I need them. I receive from it, soldiers; I return, officers. As
for Messieurs, the Judges, they know my opinion of them. I do not esteem
them, but I pity them. Poor, and badly recompensed, one cannot expect
them to be honest. I have fed some, and clothed others; I have hung very
few in my life; I am, then, the benefactor of the magistracy."

He pointed out to me with a magnificent gesture, the sky, the sea, the
country: "All that," said he, "is mine! Every breathing thing in the
kingdom submits to me through fear, friendship or admiration. I have
made many weep, and there is not one mother who would wish to have a son
like Hadgi-Stavros. A day will come, when doctors, like you, will write
my history, and when the isles of the Archipelago will dispute the
honor of my birthplace. My portrait will hang on the walls of the
houses, to keep company with the sacred images in the niches. At that
time, my daughter's grandchildren will be reigning princes, who will
speak with pride of their ancestor, the King of the Mountains!"

Perhaps you will laugh at my German simplicity; but this strange
discourse moved me profoundly. I admired, in spite of myself, this
grandeur in crime. I had not, until then, ever met a majestic rascal.
This devil of a man, who might cut off my head at the end of a month,
almost inspired me with respect. His grand face, as if carved from
marble, serene in the midst of the orgies, seemed to me like an
inflexible mask of destiny. I could not restrain myself from saying:
"Yes, you are, truly, a King!"

He smilingly answered:

"In truth, then, I have flatterers even among my enemies. Do not defend
yourself; I can read faces, and you have looked at me since morning, as
if you would like to hang me."

"Since you have asked me to be frank, I confess that I have been angry.
You have asked me a most unreasonable ransom. That you can take a
hundred thousand francs from these ladies, who have them, is a very
natural thing, and what might be expected of you; but that you should
exact fifteen thousand from me, who has nothing, it is outrageous."

"Nothing, however, is more simple. All strangers who come here are rich,
because traveling costs. You pretend that you are not traveling at your
own expenses; I would like to believe you. But those who have sent you
here give you at least three or four thousand francs yearly. If they go
to this expense, they have their reasons, because one does nothing for
nothing. You represent, in their eyes, a capital of sixty to eighty
thousand francs. Then, in ransoming you for fifteen thousand, they gain
by it."

"But the establishment which pays me has no capital; it has only
revenues. The appropriation for the Jardin des Plantes is voted every
year by the Senate; its resources are limited; one has never known a
parallel case; I know not how to explain it to you--you could not
comprehend--"

"And when I did comprehend it," he replied in a haughty tone, "do you
believe that I would take back what I have said? My words are laws; if I
wish to have them respected, I must not violate them myself.

"I have a right to be unjust; I have not the right to be weak. My
injustices injure others; a weakness would ruin me. If I was known to be
exorable, my prisoners would endeavor to find prayers to win me, instead
of endeavoring to find money to pay me. I am not one of your European
brigands who are a medley of sternness and generosity, of speculation
and imprudence, of cruelty without cause, and comparison without excuse,
in order to end, foolishly, on the scaffold. I have said, before
witnesses, that I must have fifteen thousand francs for your head.
Arrange it to suit yourself; but, in some way or other, I must be paid.
Listen: in 1854, I condemned two little girls who were the age of my
dear Photini. They held out their arms to me, weeping, and their cries
made my fatherly heart bleed. Vasile, who killed them, tried many times;
his hand trembled. And yet I was inflexible, because the ransom was not
paid. Do you think, after that, that I would show you grace? What
purpose would it have served me to kill them, the poor things! if one
learned that I sent you away for nothing?"

I dropped my head without a word in reply. I had a thousand reasons; but
I knew not how to oppose them to the pitiless logic of this old
executioner. He aroused me from my reflections with a friendly tap on
the shoulder. "Have courage," he said to me. "I have seen death nearer
to me than you are, and I carried myself like an oak. During the war of
Independence, Ibrahim ordered me to be shot by seven Egyptians. Six
balls failed of their duty; the seventh struck me on the forehead and
glanced off. When the Turks came to pick up my body, I had disappeared
in the smoke. You have, perhaps, a longer time to live than you think
you have. Write to your friends in Hamburg. You have received an
education; a doctor ought to have friends worth more than fifteen
thousand francs. I really wish so. I do not hate you! you have never
harmed me! your death would cause me no pleasure, and it would please me
to believe that you will find the means for paying the money. While
waiting, go and remain with the ladies. My people may drink a drop too
much, and they look upon the English with eyes that say nothing good.
These poor devils are condemned to an austere life, and they are not
seventy years old, as I am. In ordinary times, I can keep them obedient
by fatigue; but to-day, it is different; in an hour, I cannot answer for
them."

In truth, a menacing circle had already formed itself around Mary-Ann,
who looked at these strange figures with innocent curiosity. The
brigands, crouched before her, talked in loud tones, and praised her
beauty in terms that it was well she did not comprehend. The Corfuan,
who was making up for lost time, held out to her a cup of wine, which
she proudly repulsed.

Five or six drinkers, more inflamed than the rest, began to fight among
themselves, as if to warm themselves up and toughen themselves for later
and harder exploits. I made a sign to Mrs. Simons; the ladies both rose.
But the moment I offered my arm to Mary-Ann, Vasile, red with wine,
advanced with a staggering gait, and made as if to take hold of her. At
this sight, I was furious. I jumped at the miserable cur and I made of
my ten fingers a cravat for him. He clapped his hands to his belt, and
gropingly felt for the handle of the knife; but before he could find it,
I saw him torn from my hands and thrown ten feet away, by the powerful
hand of the old King. A murmur arose from the crowd. Hadgi-Stavros
raised his head and in a tone which dominated the noise, cried:
"Silence! Show that you are Greeks and not Albanians!" He added in a low
tone: "Make haste! the Corfuan shall not leave me; M. German, tell the
ladies that I will sleep at the door of their tent."

He went with us, preceded by his pipe-bearer, who never left him, day
or night. Two or three men, inflamed with wine, made as if to follow us;
he repulsed them rudely. We were not a hundred feet from the crowd, when
a ball whizzed by us. The old Palikar did not deign to turn his head. He
looked at me and smiled, and said in a low tone: "One must be indulgent;
it is the day of the Ascension." Reaching the path, I profited by the
stupidity of the Corfuan, who was tumbling along, to ask Mrs. Simons for
a private interview. "I have," I said to her, "an important secret to
confide to you! Permit me to come to your tent, when our spy sleeps the
sleep of Noah."

I knew not whether this Biblical comparison seemed irreverent; but she
dryly replied that she knew enough not to have any secrets with me. I
insisted; she was firm. I told her I had found a means of freeing
ourselves without impoverishing us. She threw me a glance of defiance,
consulted her daughter, and at last, acquiesced. Hadgi-Stavros made easy
our interview, by keeping the Corfuan near him. He had his carpet spread
at the top of the natural staircase which led to our camp, placed his
arms near at hand, made the pipe-bearer lie down upon his right and the
Corfuan on his left.

I kept prudently within my tent until three distinct snores assured me
that our guardians were asleep. The tumult had almost subsided. Two or
three shots occasionally disturbed the silence of the night. Our
neighbor, the nightingale, poured forth his song. I carefully crept
along in the shadow of the trees, until I reached Mrs. Simons' tent.
Mother and daughter were waiting for me, outside, on the damp grass.
English custom forbade my entrance to the sleeping-room.

"Speak, Monsieur," said Mrs. Simons, "but be quick about it. You know
that we need rest."

I replied with assurance: "Mesdames, what I have to say to you is well
worth an hour of sleep. Would you like to be free in three days?"

"But, Monsieur, we shall be to-morrow, or England will not be England.
Dimitri ought to have apprised my brother by 5 o'clock; my brother would
see our Minister at dinner-time; orders ought to have been given at
once; the soldiers are already on the way, and we shall be free in the
morning, in time for breakfast."

"Let us not deceive ourselves! time passes. I do not count upon the
gendarmes! Our captors speak too lightly of them, to fear them. I have
always heard, that in this country, hunter and game, gendarme and
brigand, are in collusion with each other. I suppose, strictly speaking,
that some men may be sent to our aid; Hadgi-Stavros will see them coming
and will drag us, by lonely paths, to another and more remote retreat.
He knows the country, thoroughly; all the rocks are his accomplices,
every bush his ally, the ravines his "fence" (receiver of stolen goods).
Parnassus is leagued with him against us; he is the King of the
Mountains!"

"Bravo, Monsieur! Hadgi-Stavros is God, and you are his Prophet! He
would be touched to hear with what admiration you speak of him! I have
already divined that you are one of his friends, seeing how he put his
hand on your shoulder, as if he was speaking to you in confidence. Is
it not he who has suggested the plan of escape which you have come to
propose?"

"Yes, Madame, it is he; or rather, his correspondence. I found, this
morning, while he was dictating to his secretaries, the infallible means
of freeing us gratis. Will you write to Monsieur, your brother, to send
a sum of 115,000 francs, 100,000 for you and 15,000 for me, by some safe
person, say, Dimitri?"

"By your friend, Dimitri, to your friend, the King of the Mountains?
Many thanks, my dear Monsieur. It is for this price that we are to be
freed for nothing?"

"Yes, Madame. Dimitri is not my friend and Hadgi-Stavros would not
scruple to cut off my head. But I will continue; in exchange for the
money, you shall insist that the King sign a receipt."

"And a fine receipt it would be."

"With this paper, you would get back your 115,000 francs, without losing
a centime, and you will see how."

"Good evening, Monsieur. Do not waste time to say any more. Since we
landed in this miserable country we have been robbed by everybody. The
Customs-officers robbed us; the man who drove us to Athens robbed us;
our inn-keeper has robbed us; our servant, hired by the day, who is not
your friend, has thrown us into the hands of these thieves; we met a
respectable monk, who shared the spoils with the brigands; all the men
who were drinking up there are knaves; those who sleep before our tent,
to protect us, are of the same class; you are the only honest man whom
we have met in Greece, and your counsels are the best in the world! but
good-evening, Monsieur! good-evening!"

"In the name of heaven, Madame!--I will not attempt to justify myself,
think what you will of me. Only permit me to tell you how you can get
back your money."

"And how do you think I can get it back, if all the soldiers of the
kingdom cannot free us? Hadgi-Stavros is, then, no longer King of the
Mountains? He knows no more hidden paths? The ravines, the bushes, the
rocks, are no longer his accomplices? Good-evening, Monsieur; I can
testify to your zeal; I will tell the brigands that you have executed
their commission; but once for all, Monsieur, good-evening!"

The good woman gave me a push by the shoulders, crying "good-evening" in
so shrill a tone, that I trembled lest she should awaken our guardians,
and I sorrowfully went to my tent. What a day! I went over, one by one,
all the incidents which had occurred since the hour I left in pursuit of
the boryana variabilis. The meeting with the Englishwomen, Mary-Ann's
beautiful eyes, the attack of the brigands, the dogs, the fleas,
Hadgi-Stavros, fifteen thousand francs to pay, my life at that price,
the orgies of the Ascension, the balls whizzing about my ears, the
drunken face of Vasile, and to crown all, Mrs. Simons' injustice. And
then to be taken for a thief! Sleep, which consoled the others, did not
come to my aid. All the events which had happened had over-excited me
and I could not sleep. Day broke upon my miserable meditations. I
followed the course of the sun as it rose in the heavens. Some confused
noises followed, little by little, the silence of the night. I had not
courage to look at my watch, or to turn my head to see what was passing
around me. I was overcome with fatigue and discouragement. I believe if
anyone had attempted to roll me down the hill, that I would not have put
out my hands to stop myself. In this prostration of my faculties, I had
a vision, which partook, at the same time, of a dream and an
hallucination, because I was neither awake nor asleep, and my eyes were
neither closed nor open. It seemed that I had been buried alive, that my
felt tent was a catafalque, adorned with flowers, and that some one
chanted prayers for the dead. Fears seized me; I tried to cry out; the
words stuck in my throat, or the sound of them was drowned in the
chants. I heard, distinctly, verses and responses, and I recognized that
funeral services were being celebrated over me, in Greek. I made a
violent effort to move my right arm; it was like lead. I extended my
left; it yielded easily, striking against the tent and causing something
like a bouquet to fall. I rubbed my eyes, I rose on my elbow, I examined
the flowers, fallen from above, and I recognized in the superb specimen,
the boryana variabilis. It was certainly the flower! I touched the
lobated leaves, its gamosepalous calyx, its corolla composed of five
oblique petals, united at the base by a staminal filament, its ten
stamens, its ovary with its five loculaments; I held in my hand the
queen of malvaceae! But by what chance had I found it at the bottom of
my tomb? and how send it so far to the Jardin des Plantes at Hamburg? At
this moment, a lively pain drew my attention to my right arm. One would
have said that it was the prey of a swarm of invisible little animals. I
rubbed it with my left hand, and little by little, it became normal. I
had lain with it under my head for many hours, and it had become numb. I
lived then, since pain is one of the privileges of life. But, then, what
did that funeral chant, which rang obstinately in my ears, mean? I
raised myself. Our apartment was in the same state as on the evening
before. Mrs. Simons and her daughter were sleeping profoundly. A huge
bunch of flowers like mine hung from the upper part of their tent. It
occurred to me that I had heard that the Greeks had a custom of
decorating their dwellings on the night before the first of May. These
bouquets and the boryana variabilis came, then, from the munificence of
the King. The funeral chant haunted me, I could still hear it. I climbed
the staircase which led to the King's cabinet, and saw a more curious
spectacle than any that had astonished me the evening before. An altar
was set up and dressed, under the pine. The monk, clothed in magnificent
pontificals, was celebrating, with imposing dignity, the divine office.
Our drinkers of the night before, some standing, others kneeling in the
dust, all religiously uncovered, were metamorphosed into little saints.
One fervently kissed an image painted on wood, another made the sign of
the cross, the most fervent bowed themselves to the ground and wiped the
dust with their hair. The King's young pipe-bearer circulated through
the crowd, with a plate, saying: "Give alms! He who giveth to the Church
lendeth to the Lord!" And the centimes showered upon the plate, and the
ring of the coins as they fell upon the copper dish made an
accompaniment to the voice of the priest and the prayers of the
suppliants. When I entered the assembly of the faithful, each one
saluted me with a discreet cordiality, which recalled the primitive
Church. Hadgi-Stavros, near the altar, made place for me at his side. He
held a large book in his hand, and judge of my surprise, when I heard
him recite the lessons in a loud voice. A brigand, officiating! He had
received, in his youth, two of the lower orders; he was reader. One
degree more, he would have been exorcist, and invested with the power of
chasing out devils! Assuredly, I am not one of those travelers who are
astonished at everything, and I practice, energetically enough, the nil
admirari; but I was wonder-struck and amazed before this strange
spectacle. Looking on at the genuflections, listening to the prayers,
one would have supposed these actors guilty, only, of a little idolatry.
Their faith seemed active and their conviction profound, but I who had
seen them at work and who knew how little Christ-like they were in
action, I could not help saying to myself: "Who is being fooled?"

The office lasted until some minutes after noon. An hour afterward, the
altar had disappeared, the men had begun to drink again, and the good
old man (the monk) led them.

The King took me one side and asked me if I had written. I promised to
do so at once, and he gave me reeds, ink and paper. I wrote to John
Harris, to Christodule, and to my father. I supplicated Christodule to
intercede for me with his old comrade, and I told him it was impossible
for me to furnish fifteen thousand francs. I recommended myself to the
courage and imagination of John Harris, who was not a man to leave a
friend in trouble. "If any one can save me," I wrote to him, "it is you.
I do not know how you can do it, but I hope in you with all my soul; you
are such a hot-headed fellow! I do not count on your finding fifteen
thousand francs ransom; it would be necessary to borrow them of M.
Mérinay, who lends nothing. You are, moreover, too American to consent
to such a bargain. Do as you please; set fire to the Kingdom; I approve
of everything in advance; but lose no time. I believe that my head is
weak, and that my reason will be gone before the end of the month."

As for my unfortunate father, I kept from him the facts. To what good to
bring death to his soul, by telling him to what dangers I was exposed? I
wrote to him, as always, the first of the month: that I was well, and I
hoped my letter would find the family well. I added that I was
sojourning in the mountains, that I had discovered the boryana
variabilis and a young Englishwoman more beautiful and richer than the
Princess Ypsoff, of romantic memory. I had not yet been able to inspire
her with love, for the lack of favorable circumstances; but I would
find, perhaps, some occasion when I could render her some great service
or show myself to her in my Uncle Rosenthaler's uniform. But I added
with a feeling of unconquerable sadness: "Who knows but that I may die
a bachelor? Then, it would fall to Frantz or Jean-Nicholas to make a
fortune for the family. My health is better than ever, and my strength
is not yet weakened; but Greece is a traitor which makes short work of
the most vigorous men. If I am condemned to never see Germany again and
to die here, some unexpected death, at the end of my travels and my
work, my last regret would be for my family, and my last thought of
them."

The King came up just as I was wiping away a tear, and I believe that
this mark of weakness made him lose some of his esteem for me.

"Come, young man, have courage! The time is not yet come to weep over
yourself. What the devil! One would say that you had been assisting at
your own interment. The English lady has written a letter of eight
pages, and she has not dropped a tear. Go and keep her company for a
little while. She needs entertainment. Ah! if you were a man of my
temper! I swear to you that at your age and in your position, I would
not remain long a prisoner. My ransom would be paid in two days, and I
know full well who would furnish the funds. You are not married?"

"No."

"Oh, well! You do not understand? Return to your camping place and make
yourself agreeable. I have furnished you a fine opportunity to get a
fortune. If you do not profit by it, you will be foolish, and if you do
not put me on the list of your benefactors, you will be an ingrate."

I found Mary-Ann and her mother seated near the cascade. While waiting
for their waiting-maid, which had been promised them, they were
themselves endeavoring to mend their torn habits. The bandits had
furnished them with thread, or rather with twine, and some needles
suitable for sewing sails. From time to time they stopped their work to
look with melancholy gaze upon the houses in Athens. It was hard to see
the city so near, and not to be able to go there except at a cost of a
hundred thousand francs. I asked them how they had slept. The curtness
of their reply, proved to me that they had been discussing our
interview. At this moment, I noticed Mary-Ann's hair; she was
bare-headed, and after washing it at the brook, she had left it to dry
in the sun. I would never have believed that any woman could possess
such a profusion of soft, glossy chestnut hair. It fell in masses over
her shoulders and down her back. But it did not hang in limp strings
like the locks of other women who have just washed them. It fell in
perfect waves, like the surface of a little lake rippled by the wind. I
had never loved anyone and I ought not to have begun by falling in love
with a girl who took me for a thief. But I confess that I wished, at the
price of my life, to save those beautiful tresses from the clutches of
Hadgi-Stavros. I conceived, while sitting there, a plan of escape,
difficult but not impossible. Our apartment (so-called) had two exits,
one upon the King's cabinet, or office; the other, over the precipice.
To escape by the King's cabinet was absurd! It would be necessary to
traverse the camp and pass the second line of defense, guarded by the
dogs. There remained the precipice. In looking over into the abyss I
saw that the rock, almost perpendicular, offered enough sinuous
depression, with tufts of grass, with little saplings, and available
shrubs of all kinds to permit one to descend without breaking one's
neck. What would render flight dangerous on this side, was the cascade.
The brook, which flowed through the place, formed, on the side of the
mountain, a horribly glistening sheet. It would, moreover, be difficult
to keep one's courage, while descending the side of the mountain safely,
with a torrent of water pouring over one's head. But were there no means
of turning the course of the stream? Perhaps. In examining more closely
the place where we had slept, I saw that, without any doubt, the water
had once traversed that spot. Our camping place was, then, only the dry
bed of a torrent. I raised a corner of the carpet which was spread under
our feet, and I discovered a thick sediment, left by the water. It was
possible, that some day or other, an earthquake, so frequent in those
mountains, had broken down an embankment; or a vein of rock, softer than
the others, had given passage to the current, and the mass of waters had
been thrown from its bed. A strip ten feet long and three wide, led to
the side of the mountain. In order to close this sluice, open for many
years, and imprison the waters in their first reservoir, only two hours
work was needed. An hour more would be enough to drain off the water,
and the night wind would soon dry the rocks. Our escape, the way thus
prepared, would not take more than twenty-five minutes. Once at the foot
of the mountain, we would have Athens before us, and the stars would
serve as guides; the paths were detestable, but we would run no risk of
meeting a brigand. When the King would come in the morning to make us a
visit, to inquire how we had passed the night, he would see that we had
passed it, running; and, as one can acquire knowledge at any age, he
would learn, to his sorrow, that one cannot count on one's self, and
that a cascade was a bad guard for prisoners.

This project seemed to me so marvelous, that I, at once, imparted it to
the ladies. They listened, at first, as prudent conspirators listen to
an irritating agent. The younger woman, however, measured, without a
tremor, the depth of the ravine. "One could do it," she said. "Not
alone, but with the help of a strong arm. Are you strong, Monsieur?"

I replied, without knowing why: "I shall be, if you will have confidence
in me." These words, to which I attached no particular meaning, seemed,
without doubt, somewhat foolish, for she blushed and turned away her
head. "Monsieur," she replied, "it may be that we have judged you
wrongly; misfortune embitters one. I would willingly believe that you
are a worthy young man."

She might have been able to find something more agreeable to say; but
she gave me this half compliment in a voice so sweet and a look so
sincere, that I was moved to the depths of my soul. So true is it, that
if the air is pretty, the words of a song do not matter.

She held out to me her beautiful hand, and I had already put my own out
to take it, when she suddenly withdrew it, and said: "Where will you
get the material for a dike?"

"Under our feet! the turf!"

"The water will wash it away."

"Not under two hours. After us, the deluge!"

"Good!" This time she gave me her hand and I was about to carry it to my
lips, but she quickly withdrew it again. "We are guarded night and day,
have you thought of that?"

I had not even thought of it, but I was too well on my way to recoil
before any obstacle. I replied with a resolution which astonished me:
"The Corfuan? I will see to him. I will tie him to a tree."

"He will cry out."

"I will kill him."

"And the arms to do it with?"

"I will steal them." To steal! to kill! it seemed natural, since I had
almost kissed her hand. Judge then, Monsieur, of what I might be
capable, if ever I fell in love!

Mrs. Simons listened with a certain kindness, and I believe, approved of
my plan by look and gesture. "My dear Monsieur," she said to me, "your
second plan is better than your first, yes, infinitely better; I would
never consent to pay a ransom, even with the certainty of receiving it
again, immediately. Tell me again then, if you please, what you intend
to do?"

"I will tell you the whole plan, Madame. I will procure a poniard
to-day. To-night, our brigands will go to sleep early, and they will
sleep soundly. I will rise at ten o'clock, I will bind our guard, I will
gag him, and if necessary, I will kill him. It would not be murder, it
would be an execution; he merits twenty deaths instead of one. At ten
and a half, I will take up fifty square feet of turf, you can carry it
to the edge of the brook, and I will construct the dam; total, one hour
and a half. It will take till midnight. We will labor together to hasten
the work, while the wind will dry off our path. One o'clock will come; I
will take Mademoiselle on my left arm, we will glide carefully to that
crevasse, we will hold ourselves up by those bushes, we will reach the
wild fig-tree, we will stop to rest at that green oak, we will creep
along to that prominence near those red rocks, we will get down to the
ravine, and we shall be free."

"Good! and I?"

That "I" fell upon my enthusiasm like a douche of water. One is not wise
in all things, and I had forgotten all about saving Mrs. Simons.
Returning to help her down was not to be thought of. The ascent would be
impossible without a ladder. The good woman noticed my confusion. She
said to me with more pity than spite: "My poor man, you see that
romantic projects always fail at some point. Permit me to hold to my
first idea of waiting for the gendarmerie. I am English, and I have a
confirmed habit of placing my confidence in the law. I know, moreover,
the soldiers of Athens; I have seen them parade in the Palace Square.
They are handsome fellows and quite soldiers, for Greeks. They have long
mustaches and percussion-guns. It is they, pardon me, who will liberate
us."

The Corfuan's appearance prevented my reply. He brought a maid for the
ladies. She was an Albanian, quite handsome, in spite of her snub nose.
Two brigands, who were returning to the mountains, had forcibly taken
her, as she was walking between her mother and her betrothed, all
dressed in their Sunday clothes. She screamed with such agonizing cries
that it would have pierced a heart of marble, but they consoled her by
telling her that they would not only release her in fifteen days, but
that they would also pay her. She accepted her lot bravely and almost
rejoiced at the misfortune which would increase her dowry. Happy
country, where the wounds of the heart are cured with five franc pieces.
This philosophical servant was not of very great use to Mrs. Simons; of
all the different avenues of work open to her sex, she knew only
farming. As for me, she made life unbearable by the habit she had of
nibbling at a clove of garlic, as a dainty bit, and through coquetry, as
the ladies of Hamburg amuse themselves devouring bonbons.

The day passed without incident. The next day seemed to all of us
interminably long.

The Corfuan left us not an instant alone. Mary-Ann and her mother
searched the horizon for the soldiers, but saw nothing. I, who am
accustomed to active life, fretted at the inactivity. I could have had
the range of mountains to add to my herbarium, under guard; but a
certain feeling, I knew not what, held me near the ladies. During the
night, I slept little; my plan of escape obstinately haunted me. I had
noticed the place where the Corfuan laid his dagger before going to
sleep; but I would have considered it treachery to have saved myself
without Mary-Ann.

Saturday morning, between five and six o'clock, an unusual noise drew me
towards the King's cabinet. My toilet was quickly made; I went to bed
fully dressed.

Hadgi-Stavros, standing in the midst of his band, was presiding at a
noisy council. All the brigands were upon the war path, armed to the
teeth. Ten or a dozen coffers which I had not seen before had been piled
on some wagon-frames. I divined that they contained the baggage and that
our captors were preparing to leave camp. The Corfuan, Vasile, and
Sophocles were contesting something at the top of their voices, and all
talking together. One could hear from a distance the barking of the
outside guards. A courier, in tatters, ran toward the King, crying: "The
gendarmes!"




V.

THE GENDARMES.


The King appeared to be little troubled. His eyebrows were, however,
drawn a little nearer together than was usual, and the wrinkles on his
forehead formed an acute angle between his eyes. He asked the courier:

"Where are they?"

"Near Castia."

"How many companies?"

"One."

"Whose?"

"I do not know."

"Wait!"

A second messenger was seen running toward the King. Hadgi-Stavros cried
out to him: "Is it Pericles' company?"

"I do not know; I did not see their number." A shot was heard at a
distance. "Listen!" commanded the King, taking out his watch. The men
were silent. Four shots followed, a minute apart. The last one was
followed by a thundering detonation which resembled platoon-firing. The
King, with a smile, put his watch back in his pocket.

"It is all right! Return the baggage to the storeroom, and serve me with
wine of Aegina; it is Pericles' company."

He saw me just as he finished the sentence. He called to me, in a
jeering tone:

"Come, Monsieur German, you are not _de trop_. It is well to rise early;
one sees curious things. Your thirst has awakened you! Will you drink a
glass of wine of Aegina with our brave gendarmes?"

Five minutes later three enormous goat-skin bottles were brought from
some secret hiding place. A sentinel approached the King.

"Good news! They are Pericles' men!"

A few of the bandits were in advance of the troops. The Corfuan, a fine
talker, skipped along by the Captain's side, his tongue running. A drum
was heard; then a blue flag was seen, and sixty men, fully armed,
marched in double file to the King's Cabinet. I recognized M. Pericles,
because I had admired him on the promenade at Athens. He was a young
officer of thirty-five, dark, a coxcomb, admired by the ladies, the best
waltzer at Court, and wearing his epaulets with grace. He put up his
sword, ran to the King of the Mountains, who kissed him on the mouth,
saying, "Good morning, godfather!"

"Good morning, little one," the King replied, caressing his cheek with
his hand. "Thou art well?"

"Yes. And thou?"

"As thou seest. And thy family?"

"My uncle, the Bishop, has a fever."

"Bring him here, I will cure him. The Prefect of Police is better?"

"A little; he sends his kind regards; the Minister also."

"What is new?"

"A ball at the Palace on the 15th. It is decided; the 'Siècle' publishes
it!"

"Thou dancest, then, all the time? And what about the Bourse?"

"There is a general fall in stocks."

"Good! hast thou letters for me?"

"Yes; here they are. Photini's was not ready. She will send it by the
post."

"A glass of wine: ... Thy health, little one!"

"God bless thee, godfather! Who is this Frank who is listening to us?"

"Nothing! A German of no consequence. Thou hast not news for us?"

"The paymaster-general sends 20,000 francs to Argos. They will pass by
the Sciromian Rocks to-morrow night."

"I will be there. Will a large band be necessary?"

"Yes! the coffer is guarded by two companies."

"Good or bad?"

"Detestable! Men who are dead shots."

"I will take all my band. In my absence thou wilt guard our prisoners?"

"With pleasure. Apropos, I have the most rigid orders. Thy English
prisoners have written to their Ambassador. They have called the entire
army to their aid."

"And it is I who furnished them the paper!"

"It is necessary, in consequence, that I write my report. I will recount
a bloody battle."

"We will write it out together."

"Yes. This time, godfather, I must be the victor."

"No!"

"Yes! I wish to be decorated."

"Thou shalt be, some other time. What an insatiable! It is only a year
since I made thee Captain."

"But understand, dear godfather, that it is for thy interest to be
conquered. When the world shall learn that thy band is dispersed,
confidence will be restored, travelers will again pour into the country
and thou wilt make thy fortune."

"Yes, but if I am conquered the Bourse will send up stocks, and I am
speculating on a fall."

"That is another affair! At least, let me kill a dozen men!"

"So be it! That will harm no one. On my side I must kill ten."

"How! One will see on our return that our company is full."

"Not so! Thou shalt leave them here; I need recruits."

"In that case, I recommend to thee little Spiro, my adjutant. He is a
graduate of the military school, he has been well instructed and is
intelligent. The poor boy gets only 78 francs a month, and his parents
are not very well satisfied. If he remains in the army he will not
become a sub-lieutenant under five or six years; the staffs are
complete. But let him make himself remarked in thy troop; they will
offer to bribe him, and he would have his nomination in six months."

"Good for the little Spiro! Does he speak French?"

"Passably."

"I will keep him, perhaps. If he does well for me, I will include him in
the enterprise; he might be a stockholder. Thou wilt receive our account
rendered for the year. I give 82 per cent."

"Bravo! my eight shares will bring me more than my Captain's pay. Ah!
godfather, what career is mine?"

"What dost thou risk? Thou couldst be a brigand, but for thy mother's
notions. She has always pretended that thou hast lacked a vocation. To
thy health! And to yours, M. German! I present to you my godson, Captain
Pericles, a charming young man who knows many languages, and who will
replace me during my absence. My dear Pericles, I present to thee
Monsieur, who is a doctor and is valued at fifteen thousand francs.
Canst thou believe that this tall doctor, all doctor as he is, has not
yet found out how to pay his ransom through our English captives. The
world has degenerated, little one: it was better in my day."

Thereupon, he nimbly rose and hastened to give some orders for
departure. Was it the pleasure of entering on a campaign, or the joy of
seeing his godson? He seemed rejuvenated; he was twenty years younger,
he laughed, he jested, he shook off his royal dignity. I would never
have supposed that the only event capable of cheering a brigand would be
the arrival of the gendarmerie. Sophocles, Vasile, the Corfuan and the
other chiefs carried the King's orders through the camp. Every one was
soon ready to depart, owing to the morning's activity. The young
adjutant, Spiro, and the nine men chosen from among the gendarmes
exchanged their uniforms for the picturesque dress of the bandits. This
was a veritable lightning-change; the Minister of War, if he had been
there, would have almost been unable to have told how it was done. The
newly-made brigands seemed to feel no regret for their former
employment. The only ones who murmured were those who remained under the
old flag. Two or three veterans loudly complained that the selection had
not been well made, and that no account had been taken of seniority. A
few old soldiers vaunted their exploits and laid claim to having served
the required time in brigandage. The Captain soothed them as best he
could, and promised them that their turn should come.

Hadgi-Stavros, before departing, gave all his keys to his
representative. He showed him the grotto where the wine was kept, in the
cave in which was the flour, the cheese packed in a crevice, and the
trunk of a tree in which was kept the coffee. He instructed him in every
precaution which was to be taken to prevent our escape and to keep
possession of so splendid a sum. The handsome Pericles smilingly
replied: "What dost thou fear? I am a stockholder."

At seven o'clock in the morning the King put himself at the head of his
band, and the men marched forth in single file. They marched toward the
north, keeping their backs to the Sciromian Rocks. They made a long
detour, by a path which was easy, to the bottom of the ravine which was
below our camping place. The bandits sang at the top of their voices
while wading through the brook formed by the waters of the cascade as
they fell into the ravine. The war-song was a story of Hadgi-Stavros'
youth, consisting of four verses:

    "The Clephte aux yeux noirs descend dans les plaines;
    Sonfusil doré----"

"You ought to know it; the little Athenian lads sing nothing else on the
way to Catechism."

Mrs. Simons, who slept near her daughter, and who was always dreaming of
the gendarmes, jumped up and ran to the window, that is to say, the
cascade. She was cruelly disappointed in seeing enemies, when she
expected to find saviors. She recognized the King, the Corfuan, and
several others. What was the most astonishing thing to her was the
formidable appearance and numbers of this morning expedition. She
counted sixty men following Hadgi-Stavros. "Sixty," she thought; "there
only remains twenty, then, to guard us?" The idea of escape, which she
had scorned the night before, now presented itself to her with some
favor. In the midst of these reflections she saw the rear-guard appear,
and which she had not counted. Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen,
twenty men! Then there was no one left in the camp! "We are free!
Mary-Ann," she cried. The men still filed past. The band itself
consisted of eighty men; ninety marched by; a dozen dogs came behind,
but she took no trouble to count them.

Mary-Ann arose at her mother's call and came quickly from the tent.

"Free!" cried Mrs. Simons. "They have all left, What did I say? all!
Even a larger number has gone than was here. Let us hasten away, my
daughter!"

She hurried to the top of the staircase and saw the King's camp occupied
by the soldiers. The Greek flag floated triumphantly at the summit of
the pine tree. Hadgi-Stavros' place was occupied by M. Pericles. Mrs.
Simons threw herself into his arms in such a transport that he had hard
work to free himself from her embrace.

"Angel of God!" she said to him, "the brigands have gone."

The Captain replied in English: "Yes, Madame."

"You have put them to flight?"

"It is true, Madame, that but for us they would still be here."

"Excellent young man! The battle must have been terrible!"

"Not so! a battle without tears. I had only to say a word."

"And we are free?"

"Assuredly!"

"We may return to Athens?"

"When it pleases you."

"Oh, well! let us depart at once."

"Impossible, for the moment."

"What would we do here?"

"Our duty to our conquerors; we will guard the battle ground."

"Mary-Ann, give thy hand to Monsieur."

The young English girl obeyed.

"Monsieur," said Mrs. Simons, "it is God who sends you here. We had
lost all hope. Our only protector was a young German of the middle
class, a savant who gathers herbs and who wished to save us by the most
preposterous means. At last, you have come! I was sure that we would be
delivered by the gendarmerie. Is it not so, Mary-Ann?"

"Yes, Mamma."

"Know, Monsieur, that these bandits are the vilest of men. They began by
taking everything from us."

"All?" asked the Captain.

"All, except my watch, which I took the precaution to hide."

"You did well, Madame. And they kept all that they took from you?"

"No, they returned three hundred francs, a silver traveling case and my
daughter's watch."

"These things are still in your possession?"

"Certainly."

"They did not take from you your rings and your ear-rings?"

"No, Monsieur le Capitaine."

"Will you be good enough to give them to me?"

"Give you what?"

"Your rings, your ear-rings, the silver traveling case, two watches and
the sum of three hundred francs."

Mrs. Simons cried out: "What! Monsieur, you would take from us the
articles the bandits returned to us?"

The Captain replied with dignity: "Madame, I must do my duty."

"Your duty is to despoil us?"

"My duty is to collect all the articles for necessary conviction in the
trial of Hadgi-Stavros."

"He will then be tried?"

"Since we have taken him."

"It seems to me that our jewels and our money would serve nothing, and
that you have sufficient testimony to hang him. First of all, he
captured two Englishwomen; what more is necessary?"

"It is necessary, Madame, that the forms of justice be observed."

"But, dear sir, among the articles which you demand there are some which
I prize highly."

"The more reason, Madame, to confide them to my care."

"But if I had no watch I should never----"

"Madame, it will always give me pleasure to tell you the hour."

Mary-Ann observed in her turn that it was disagreeable to her to be
obliged to give up her ear-rings.

"Mademoiselle," the gallant Captain replied, "you are beautiful enough
not to need jewels. You can do better without gems than your gems can do
without you."

"You are very good, Monsieur, but my silver dressing case or necessaire
is an indispensable article. What one calls a necessaire is a thing with
which one cannot dispense."

"You are a thousand times right, Mademoiselle. So I beg of you not to
insist upon that point. Do not add to the regret with which I have
already legally despoiled two so distinguished persons. Alas!
Mademoiselle, we military men, we are the slaves of orders, instruments
of the law, men of duty. Deign to accept my arm, I will do myself the
honor of conducting you to your tent. There, we will proceed to the
inventory, if you will be good enough to permit it."

I lost not one word of this conversation, and I kept silent to the end;
but when I saw this rascal of an officer offer his arm to Mary-Ann in
order to politely plunder her, I became enraged, and I marched up to him
to tell him what I thought of him. He must have read in my eyes the
exordium of my discourse, because he threw a menacing look at me, left
the ladies at the staircase of their chamber, placed a sentinel there,
and returned to me, saying:

"Between us two!"

He drew me, without adding a word, to the rear of the King's cabinet.
There, he seated himself before me, looked me straight in the eyes, and
said:

"Monsieur, you understand English?"

I confessed my knowledge. He added:

"You know Greek, also?"

"Yes, Monsieur."

"Then, you are too learned. Do you understand my godfather, who amuses
himself recounting our affairs before you? That is of no importance to
him; he has nothing to hide; he is King, he is responsible to no one but
himself. As for me, what the devil! put yourself in my place. My
position is delicate, and I have many affairs to manage. I am not rich;
I have only my pay, the esteem of my chiefs, and the friendship of the
brigands. A traveler's indiscretion might cost me my promotions."

"And you count on the fact that I will keep your infamies secret?"

"When I count on anything, Monsieur, my confidence is rarely misplaced.
I do not know that you will leave these mountains alive, and yet your
ransom may never be paid. If my godfather would cut off your head, I
should be satisfied you would not talk. If, on the contrary, you should
return to Athens, I counsel you, as a friend, to keep silent about what
you have seen. Imitate the discretion of the late Madame la Duchesse de
Plaisance, who was taken captive by Bibichi and who died ten years later
without having related to any one the details of her captivity. Do you
know a proverb which runs: "The tongue cuts off the head?" Meditate
seriously upon it, and do not put yourself in a place to exactly verify
it."

"The menace----"

"I do not menace you, Monsieur, I am a man too well brought up to resort
to threats, I warn you! If you should gossip, it is not I who would
avenge myself. All the men in my company adore their Captain. They are
even more warmly interested in my interests than I am myself; they would
be pitiless, to my great regret, to any indiscreet person who had caused
me any trouble."

"What do you fear, if you have so many accomplices?"

"I fear nothing from the Greeks, and, in ordinary times, I should insist
less strongly on my orders. We have, among our chiefs, some fanatics
who think that we ought to treat bandits like Turks; but I have also
found some who are on the right side, in case it came to an internecine
struggle. The misfortune is that the diplomats would interfere, and the
presence of a stranger would, without doubt, injure my cause. If any
misfortune happens to me through you, do you see, Monsieur, to what you
would be exposed? One cannot take four steps in the kingdom without
meeting a gendarme. The road from Athens to Piraeus is under the
vigilance of these quarrelsome persons, and accidents frequently occur."

"It is well, Monsieur; I will reflect upon it."

"And will keep the secret?"

"You have nothing to ask of me and I have nothing to promise. You have
advised me of the danger of being indiscreet. I accept the advice and I
will refrain from speaking of it."

"When you return to Germany, you may tell whatever you please. Speak,
write, publish; it is of no importance. The works published against us
do no harm to any one, unless, perhaps, to their authors. You are free
to relate the adventure. If you paint, faithfully, what you have seen
the good people of Europe will accuse you of traducing an illustrious
and oppressed people. Our friends, and we have many among men of sixty,
will tax you with levity, caprice, and even of ingratitude. They will
recall that you have been the guest of Hadgi-Stavros and mine; they will
reproach you with having broken the holy laws of hospitality. But the
most pleasing thing of the whole will be, that no one will believe you.
The public will place no confidence in seeming lies. Try to persuade the
cockneys of Paris, of London, of Berlin, that you have seen a Captain of
the standing army, embraced by a chief of banditti. A company of choice
troops acting as guards to Hadgi-Stavros' prisoners, in order to give
him the opportunity of capturing the army coffers! The highest State
functionaries founding a stock company for the purpose of plundering
travelers! As well tell them that the mice of Attica have formed an
alliance with the cats, and that our sheep take their food from the
wolves' mouths! Do you know what protects us against the displeasure of
Europe? It is the improbability of our civilization. Happily for the
kingdom, everything which will be written against us will be too
unnatural to be believed. I can cite to you a little book, which is not
in praise of us, although it is accurate from beginning to end. It has
been read, somewhat, everywhere; in Paris they found it curious, but I
know of only one city where it seemed true! Athens! I do not prevent you
from adding a second volume, but wait until away; if not, there possibly
might be a drop of blood on the last page."

"But," I answered, "if I should commit an indiscretion before my
departure, how could you know that I was to blame?"

"You, alone, are in my secret. The Englishwomen are persuaded that I
have delivered them from Hadgi-Stavros. I charge myself with keeping up
the delusion until the King's return. It will be for only two days,
three at the most. We are forty kilometres from the Scironian Rocks;
our friend will reach there in the night. They will make the attack
to-morrow evening, and conquerors or conquered, they will be here Monday
morning. We can prove to the prisoners that the brigands surprised us.
While my godfather is absent, I will protect you against yourself by
keeping you away from these ladies. I will borrow your tent. You ought
to see, Monsieur, that I have a more delicate skin than this worthy
Hadgi-Stavros, and that I ought not to expose my complexion to the
changes of temperature! What would be said, on the 15th, at the Court
Ball if I presented myself brown as a peasant? I must, moreover, give
those poor captives the benefit of my society; it is my duty as their
liberator. As for you, you will sleep here in the midst of my soldiers.
Permit me to give an order, which concerns you. Ianni! Brigadier Ianni!
I confide Monsieur to thy care! Place around him four guards, who will
watch him night and day, accompany him everywhere, fully armed. Thou
wilt relieve them every two hours. Forward!"

He saluted me with ironical politeness, and humming a tune, descended
Mrs. Simons' staircase. The sentinel shouldered arms.

From that instant there began for me a purgatory of which the human mind
can have little conception. Everyone knows or guesses what a prison
would be; but try to imagine a living and moving prison, the four walls
of which come and go, recede and approach, turn and return, rubbing
hands, scratching, blowing noses, shaking, floundering about, and
obstinately fixing eight great black eyes upon the prisoner. I tried to
walk; my prison of eight feet regulated the step to mine. I went toward
the front of the camp; the two men who preceded me stopped short, I
bumped into them. This incident explained to me an inscription which I
had often seen, without understanding it, in the neighborhood of camps:
"Limit of Garrison" I turned around; my four walls turned like the
scenes in a theater where a change of view is required. At last, tired
of this way of promenading, I sat down. My prison seated itself around
me; I resembled an intoxicated man who sees his house turn. I closed my
eyes; the measured step of the sentinels wearied my brain. At least, I
thought if these four soldiers would but speak to me! I spoke to them in
Greek; it was a seductive agent which had never failed me with
sentinels. It was clear loss of time. The walls had, possibly, ears, but
the use of the voice was denied them; no one spoke under arms; I
attempted bribery. I drew from my pocket the money which Hadgi-Stavros
had returned and which the Captain had forgotten to take from me. I
distributed it to the four cardinal points of my lodge. The somber and
frowning walls changed to a smiling front, and my prison was illumined
as with a ray of sunlight. But five minutes later the Brigadier relieved
the guards; it was just two hours that I had been a prisoner! The day
seemed long! the night, eternal! The Captain had already taken
possession of my tent and my bed, and the rock which served me for a
resting place was not as soft as feather. A fine penetrating rain
cruelly convinced me that a roof was a fine invention; and that thatches
rendered a true service to society. If at times, in spite of my
unpleasant surroundings, I dropped off to sleep, I was almost always
awakened by the Brigadier Ianni, who ordered a change of guards.
Finally, what shall I say? At night and in dreams I saw Mary-Ann and her
respectable mother in the hands of their liberator. Ah! Monsieur, how I
began to render justice to the good old King of the Mountains! How I
retracted all the maledictions which I had hurled against him! How I
regretted his kind and paternal government! How I sighed for his return!
How warmly did I breathe his name in my prayers! "My God!" I cried with
fervor, "give the victory to thy servant, Hadgi-Stavros! Make every
soldier in the kingdom fall beneath his hand! Bring to his hands the
coffer, and even to the last écus of that infernal army! And let the
bandits return, that we may be delivered from the hands of the
soldiers!"

As I finished this prayer, a well-sustained fire was heard in the midst
of the camp. This occurred many times during the day and following
night. It was only a trick of M. Pericles. In order the better to
deceive Mrs. Simons and to persuade her that he was defending her
against an army of bandits, he had ordered that volleys should be fired
from time to time.

This pretty conceit came near costing him dear. When the brigands
arrived in camp, at dawn, on Monday morning, they believed that a fight
was going on with a true enemy, and they began to fire some balls,
which, unfortunately, touched no one.

I had never seen a defeated army when I assisted at the return of the
King of the Mountains. The sight had, for me, all the novelty of a
first experience. Heaven had listened unfavorably to my prayers. The
Greek soldiers had defended themselves with so much ardor that the
engagement was prolonged till night. Formed in a square around the two
mules which carried the treasure, they had, at first, returned a regular
fire upon Hadgi-Stavros' sharp-shooters. The old Palikar, despairing of
killing one by one, a hundred and twenty men who would not give an inch,
attacked them with bare blades. His men assured us that he had performed
marvels, and the blood with which he was covered testified to it. But
the bayonet had had the last word; in other words, had won the day. The
troops had killed forty brigands, of which one was a dog. A regulation
bullet had arrested the advancement of young Spiro, that young officer
with so brilliant a future. I saw march in sixty men, overcome with
fatigue, dusty, bloody, bruised, and wounded. Sophocles had been shot in
the shoulder; the men were carrying him. The Corfuan and a few others
had been left on the road, some with the shepherds, some in a village,
and others on the bare rocks beside the path.

The band was sad and discouraged. Sophocles howled with grief. I heard
some murmurs against the King's imprudence, who had exposed the lives of
his men for a miserable sum, instead of peaceably plundering rich and
careless travelers.

The strongest, the freshest, the most content, the gayest of the lot was
the King. His face expressed the proud satisfaction of a duty
accomplished. He recognized me at once in the midst of my four men, and
cordially held out his hand to me. "Dear prisoner," he said, "you see a
badly treated King. Those dogs of soldiers would not give up the
treasure. It was their money; my trip to the Scironian Rocks brought me
nothing, and I have lost forty men, without counting some wounded who
cannot live. But no matter! I am well beaten. There were too many of
those rascals for us, and they had bayonets. Without which----. Come!
this day has rejuvenated me. I have proved to myself that I still have
blood in my veins!"

And he hummed the first verse of his favorite song: "Un Clephte aux
yeux, noirs----" He added: "By Jupiter (as Lord Byron said), I would not
for twenty thousand francs have remained quietly at home since Saturday.
That can still be put into my history. It can be said that, at more than
sixty years of age, I fought with bare sabre in the midst of bayonets;
that I killed three or four soldiers with my own hand, and that I
marched ten leagues in the mountains in order to return in time to take
my cup of coffee. Cafedgi, my child, do thy duty! I have done mine. But
where the devil is Pericles?"

The charming Captain was still resting in his tent. Ianni hurried away
to bring him forth, half asleep, his mustache uncurled, his head
carefully tied up in a handkerchief. I know of nothing which will so
thoroughly awaken a man as a glass of cold water or bad news. When M.
Pericles learned that the little Spiro and two other soldiers had been
left behind, it was truly another defeat. He pulled off his
handkerchief, and but for the respect he had for his person he would
have torn his hair.

"This will do for me," he cried. "How explain their presence among you?
and in bandit dress, too! They will be recognized! The others are
masters of the battle ground. Shall I say that they deserted in order to
join you? That you made them prisoners? The question will be asked why I
said nothing about it. I have waited for thy coming to make my final
report. I wrote last evening that I had thee almost surrounded on
Parnassus, and that all our men were admirable. Holy Virgin! I shall not
dare to show myself Sunday at Patissia! What will be said the 15th at
the Court Ball? The whole diplomatic corps will talk me over. They will
convene the council. Will I yet be invited?"

"To the council?" asked the bandit.

"No; to the Court Ball!"

"Dancer! Go!"

"My God! my God! who knows what will be done? If the only trouble was
about these Englishwomen, I would not worry myself. I would confess
everything to the Minister of War. These English! That was enough! But
to lend my soldiers to attack the army box! To send Spiro into the
engagement! They will point the finger at me; I shall never dance
again!"

Who was it who rubbed his hands in glee during this monologue? It was
the son of my father, surrounded by his four soldiers!

Hadgi-Stavros, quietly seated, enjoyed his coffee in little sips. He
said to his godson: "Thou seemest much troubled! Remain with us. I
assure thee a minimum of ten thousand francs a year, and I will enroll
thy men. We will take our revenge together."

The offer was alluring. Two days before it would have received much
approval. And even now it caused a faint smile among the soldiers, none
from the Captain. The soldiers said nothing; they looked at their old
comrades; they eyed Sophocles' wound; they thought of the deaths of the
night before, and they turned wistful faces toward Athens, as if they
could inhale the, to them, sweet odor of the barracks.

As for M. Pericles, he replied with visible embarrassment:

"I thank thee, but I would need to reflect. My habits are those of a
city; I am delicate in health; the winters are rigorous in the
mountains; I have already taken cold. My absence would be noticed at all
assemblies; I would be searched for everywhere; fine marriages are often
proposed to me. Moreover, the trouble is not so great as we believe it.
Who knows whether the three unfortunates will be recognized? Will news
of the event arrive before we do? I will go at once to the Ministry; I
will find out how matters stand. No one will come to contradict me,
since the two companies have kept on their march to Argos.... Decidedly,
I must be there; I must face the music. Care for the wounded.... Adieu!"

He made a sign to his drummer.

Hadgi-Stavros rose, came and placed himself in front of me with his
godson, whom he dominated by a head, and said to me: "Monsieur, behold a
Greek of to-day! I! I am a Greek of former days! And the papers pretend
that we have progressed!"

At the roll of the drum the walls of my prison fell away like the
ramparts of Jericho! Two minutes afterward I was before Mary-Ann's tent.
Mother and daughter hastily arose. Mrs. Simons perceived me first, and
cried out to me:

"Oh, well! are we to start?"

"Alas! Madame, we are not there."

"Where are we then? The Captain gave us word for this morning."

"How did you find the Captain?"

"Gallant, elegant, charming! A little too much the slave of discipline;
it was his only fault."

"Coxcomb and scamp, coward and bully, liar and thief; those are his true
names, and I will prove it to you."

"Come, Monsieur; what have the soldiers done to you?"

"What have they done to me, Madame? Deign to come with me only to the
top of the staircase."

Mrs. Simons arrived there just in time to see the soldiers defile past,
the drummer at the head, the bandits again installed in their places,
the Captain and the King mouth to mouth, giving the last good-bye kiss.
The surprise was a little too much. I had not been sufficiently
considerate of the good woman, and I was punished for it, because she
fainted dead away and nearly broke my arms as I caught her. I carried
her to the brook; Mary-Ann rubbed and slapped her hands; I threw a
handful of water in her face. But I believe that it was fury which
revived her.

"Miserable wretch!" she cried.

"He has plundered you, is it not true? Stole your watches, your money?"

"I do not regret my jewels; he may keep them! But I would give ten
thousand francs to get back the handshakes I have given him. I am
English, and I do not clasp hands with every one!" This regret of Mrs.
Simons drew from me a heavy sigh. She let fall upon me all the weight of
her anger. "It is your fault," she said. "Could you not have warned me?
It was only necessary to tell me that the brigands were saints in
comparison!"

"But, Madame, I advised you that you must put no faith in the soldiers."

"You told me so; but you said it softly, slowly, coldly. Could I believe
you? Could I divine that this man was only Stavros' jailer? That he
remained here to give the bandits time to get back? That he frightened
us with imaginary dangers? That he claimed to have been besieged in
order to have us admire him? That he simulated the night attacks to make
it appear that he was defending us? I see all now, but tell us if you
have nothing to say?"

"My God! Madame, I told all I knew; I did what I could!"

"But, German, who are you? In your place an Englishman would have
sacrificed his life for us, and I would have given him my daughter's
hand!"

Wild poppies are very scarlet, but I was more than that when I heard
Mrs. Simons' speech. I was so troubled that I dared not raise my eyes,
nor respond; neither did I ask the good woman what she meant by her
words. Because, in a word, why should a person as harsh as she had shown
herself to be, use such language before her daughter and before me? By
what door had this idea of marriage entered her mind? Was Mrs. Simons
truly a woman to award her daughter, as an honest recompense, to the
first liberator? There were no signs of it. Was it not rather a cruel
irony addressed to my most secret thoughts?

When I examined myself I ascertained, with legitimate pride, the
innocent warmth of all my sentiments. I render this justice to myself,
that the fire of passion had not raised a degree the temperature of my
heart. At each instant of the day, in order to test myself, I occupied
myself with thinking of Mary-Ann. I built castles in Spain, of which she
was the mistress. I planned romances, of which she was the heroine and I
the hero. I thought of the most absurd things. I imagined events as
improbable as the history of the Princess Ypsoff and Lieutenant
Reynauld. I even went so far as to see the pretty English girl seated at
my right on the back seat of a post-chaise, with her beautiful arm
around my long neck. All these flattering suppositions, which should
have agitated deeply a soul less philosophical than mine, did not
disturb my serenity. I did not experience the alternatives of fear and
hope which are the symptoms of love. Never, no, never, have I felt those
great convulsions of the heart which are recorded in romances. Then I
did not love Mary-Ann. I was a man without reproach. I could walk with
uplifted head. But Mrs. Simons, who had not read my thoughts, was
perfectly capable of deceiving herself as to the nature of my devotion.
Who knows whether she did not suspect me of being in love with her
daughter; whether she had not misinterpreted my trouble and my timidity;
whether she had not let slip the word marriage, in order to force me to
betray myself. My pride revolted against so unjust a suspicion, and I
replied in a firm tone, without looking her in the face:

"Madame, if I was sufficiently fortunate to rescue you from here, I
swear to you that it would not be in order to marry your daughter."

"And why, then?" she asked, in a tone of pique. "Is it because my
daughter is not good enough for one to marry? I find you agreeable,
truly! Is she not pretty enough, or of a good enough family? Have I
brought her up improperly? Is she not a good match? To marry Miss
Simons, my dear sir! it is a beautiful dream! and most difficult to be
gratified!"

"Alas! Madame," I replied, "you have seriously misunderstood me. I
confess that Mademoiselle is perfect, and, if her presence did not make
me timid, I would tell you what passionate admiration she inspired in me
the first day. It is precisely for that reason that I have not the
impertinence to think that any chance could raise me to her level!"

I hoped that my humility would touch this dreadful mother. But her anger
was not in the least appeased.

"Why?" she cried. "Why are you not worthy of my daughter? Answer me,
then!"

"But, Madame, I have neither fortune nor position."

"A fine affair! no position! You would have one, Monsieur, if you
married my daughter. To be my son-in-law, is not that a position? You
have no fortune! Have we ever asked money of you? Have we not enough for
ourselves, for you, and for many others? Moreover, the man who would
rescue us from here, would he not receive a present of a hundred
thousand francs? It is a small sum, I confess, but it is something. Will
you say that a hundred thousand francs is a miserable sum? Then, why are
you not worthy to marry my daughter?"

"Madame, I am not----"

"Come! What is it you are not? You are not English?"

"Oh! by no means!"

"Eh! well! you cannot believe that we are foolish enough to make a crime
of your birth? Eh! Monsieur, I know very well that it is not permitted
to all the world to be English! The entire earth cannot be English--at
least, not for many years. But one may be an honest man and a learned
man without having really been born in England."

"As for integrity, Madame, it is a virtue which we transmit from father
to son. As for intelligence, I have just enough to be a doctor. But,
unfortunately, I have no illusions in regard to my physical defects,
and----"

"You wish to say that you are ugly? No, Monsieur, you are not ugly. You
have an intelligent face. Mary-Ann, is not Monsieur's face intelligent?"

"Yes, mamma!" Mary-Ann replied. If she blushed as she answered her
mother saw it better than I, for my eyes were fixed obstinately on the
ground.

"Monsieur," added Mrs. Simons, "were you ten times uglier, you would not
then be as ugly as my late husband. And, more than that, I beg you to
believe that I was as pretty as my daughter the day I gave him my hand.
What have you to say to that?"

"Nothing, Madame, except that you confuse me, and that it will not be my
fault if you are not on the road to Athens to-morrow."

"What do you count on doing? This time try to find a means less
ridiculous than that the other day!"

"I hope to satisfy you if you will listen to me to the end."

"Yes, Monsieur."

"Without interrupting me?"

"I will not interrupt you. Have I ever interrupted you?"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"When?"

"Always! Madame, Hadgi-Stavros has all his funds invested in the firm of
Barley & Company."

"With our firm?"

"No. 31 Cavendish Square, London. Last Wednesday he dictated, in our
presence, a business letter to Mr. Barley."

"And you never told me before?"

"You would never give me the opportunity."

"But this is monstrous! Your conduct is inexplicable! We could have been
at liberty six days ago! I will go straight to him; I will tell him our
relations----"

"And he will demand of you two or three hundred thousand francs! Believe
me, Madame, the best way is to say nothing to him. Pay your ransom; make
him give you a receipt, and in fifteen days send to him a statement,
with the following note: 'Item, 100,000 francs paid, personally, by Mrs.
Simons, our partner, as per receipt!' In this way you will get back your
money, without the aid of the soldiers. Is it clear?"

I raised my eyes and saw the pretty smile which broke over Mary-Ann's
face as she saw through the plot. Mrs. Simons angrily shrugged her
shoulders, and seemed moved only by ill-humor.

"Truly," she said to me, "you are a wonderful man! You proposed to us an
acrobatic escape when we had such simple means at our command! And you
have known it since Wednesday morning! I will never pardon you for not
having told me the first day."

"But, Madame, will you not remember that I begged you to write to
Monsieur, your brother, to send you a hundred and fifteen thousand
francs?"

"Why a hundred and fifteen?"

"I mean to say a hundred thousand."

"No! a hundred and fifteen. That is right! Are you sure that this
Stavros will not keep us here when he has received the money?"

"I will answer for it. The bandits are the only Greeks who never break
their word. Do you not understand that if it happened once that they
kept prisoners after having received the ransom, no one would ever pay
one again?"

"That is true! But what a queer German you are, not to have spoken
sooner."

"You always cut me short."

"You ought to have spoken even then!"

"But, Madame----"

"Silence! Lead me to this detestable Stavros."

The King was breakfasting on roast turtles, seated with his unwounded
officers under his tree of justice. He had made his toilet; he had
washed the blood from his hands and changed his clothes. He was
discussing, with his men, the most expeditious means of filling the
vacancies made by death in his ranks. Vasile, who was from Javina,
offered to find thirty men in Epinus, where the watchfulness of the
Turkish authorities had put more than a thousand bandits in retreat. A
Laconian wished that they might get for ready money the little band
belonging to Spartiate Pavlos, who had improved the province of Mague,
in the neighborhood of Calamato. The King, always imbued with English
ideas, thought of forced recruiting, and of pressing into service the
Attic shepherds. This plan seemed to him to possess superior advantages,
as it would require no outlay of funds and he would obtain the herds
into the bargain.

Interrupted in the midst of his deliberations, Hadgi-Stavros gave his
prisoners a cool reception. He did not offer even a glass of water to
Mrs. Simons, and she had not yet breakfasted; she fully realized the
omission of this courtesy. I took upon myself the part of speaker, and,
in the Corfuan's absence, the King was forced to accept my services as
intermediary. I said to him that after the disaster of the evening
before he would be glad to learn Mrs. Simons' decision; that she would
pay, with the briefest delay possible, her ransom and mine; that the
funds would be turned over the next day, either to a banker in Athens,
or to some other place which he would designate, in exchange for his
receipt.

"I am much pleased," he said, "that these ladies have renounced the idea
of calling the Greek army to their aid. Tell them that, for the second
time, anything necessary for writing will be furnished them; but that
they must not abuse my confidence! That they must not draw the soldiers
here! At the sight of the very first soldier who appears on the
mountain, I will cut off their heads. I swear it by the Virgin of the
Megaspilion, who was carved by Saint Luke's own hand."

"Do not doubt! I give my word for these ladies and myself. Where do you
wish to have the sum left?"

"At the National Bank of Greece. It is the only one which has not yet
gone into bankruptcy."

"Have you a safe man to carry the letter?"

"I have the good old man! I will send to the convent for him. What time
is it? Nine o'clock in the morning. The reverend gentleman has not yet
drunk enough to become tipsy."

"The monk will do. When Mrs. Simons' brother has turned over the sum and
taken your receipt, the monk will bring you the news."

"What receipt? Why a receipt? I have never given any. When you are at
liberty you will readily see that you have paid me what you owe me."

"I think that a man like you ought to transact business according to
European methods. In a good administration----"

"I transact business in my own way, and I am too old to change my
methods!"

"As you please! I ask it in the interest of Mrs. Simons. She is guardian
of her minor daughter, and she must render account of her whole
fortune."

"But that will arrange itself! I care for my interests as she does for
hers. When she pays for her daughter is it a great misfortune? I have
never regretted what I have disbursed for Photini. Here is the paper,
the ink and the reeds. Be good enough to watch the composition of the
letter. It concerns your head, too!"

I rose, abashed, and followed the ladies, who saw my confusion without
knowing the cause. But a sudden inspiration made me suddenly retrace my
steps. I said to the King: "Decidedly, you were right to refuse the
receipt, and I was wrong in asking for it. You are wiser than I; youth
is imprudent."

"What do you say?"

"You are right, I tell you. It is necessary to wait. Who knows if you
will not experience a second defeat more terrible than the first. You
are not as strong as at twenty years of age; you may fall a captive to
the soldiers."

"I?"

"They will try you as a common malefactor; the magistrates will no
longer fear you. In such circumstances a receipt for a hundred and
fifteen thousand francs would be overwhelming proof. Give no weapons of
justice to be turned against you. Perhaps Mrs. Simons or her heirs would
join in a criminal suit to recover what had been taken from them. Never
sign a receipt!"

He replied in thundering tones: "I will sign it! and two rather than
one! I will sign all; as many as need signing. I will sign them always
for anyone! Ah! the soldiers imagine that they will manage me easily,
because once, chance, and their larger force gave them the advantage! I
fall, living, into their hands, I, whose arm is proof against fatigue,
and whose head is proof against bullets! I seat myself on a bench,
before a judge, like a peasant who has stolen cabbages! Young man, you
do not yet know Hadgi-Stavros! It would be easier to pluck up Parnassus
and place it upon the summit of Taygète, than to tear me from my
mountains, and place me on a court bench! Write for me, in Greek, Madame
Simons' name! Good! Yours also!"

"It is not necessary, and----"

"Write! You know my name, and I am sure that you will not forget it. I
wish to have yours, to hold as a souvenir."

I wrote my name as best I could in the harmonious language of Plato.
The King's lieutenants applauded his firmness without understanding that
it would cost him a hundred and fifteen thousand francs. I hurried with
a light heart and much pleased with myself to Mrs. Simons' tent. I told
her that her money had had a narrow escape, and she deigned to smile on
learning that I had pretended to be deceived in order to rob our
robbers. A half hour afterward she submitted for my approval the
following letter:

     "My Dear Brother:--The gendarmes whom you sent to our rescue were
     treacherous, and fled ignominiously. I advise you to see that they
     are hung. They will need a gallows a hundred feet high for their
     Captain Pericles. I shall complain of him, especially, in the
     dispatch which I intend to send to Lord Palmerston, and I shall
     consecrate to him a portion of the letter which I shall write to
     the editor of the "Times," as soon as you have set us free. It is
     useless to hope anything from the local authorities. All the
     natives are leagued against us, and the day after our departure the
     Greeks will gather in some corner of the kingdom to divide what
     they have taken from us. Fortunately, they will have little. I have
     learned from a young German, whom I took at first for a spy, and
     who is a very honest man, that this Stavros, called Hadgi-Stavros,
     has funds placed with our firm. I beg you to verify the fact, and
     if it is true, let nothing prevent you from paying the ransom which
     is demanded. Turn over to the Bank of Greece 115,000 francs (4600
     sterling) for a regular receipt, sealed with this Stavros' seal.
     The amount will be charged to his account. Our health is good,
     although life in the mountains may not be comfortable. It is
     monstrous that two English women, citizens of the greatest kingdom
     in the world, should be compelled to eat their roast without
     mustard and without pickles and to drink pure water like any fish.

     "Hoping that you will not delay in arranging for our return to our
     accustomed habits, I am, my dear brother, very sincerely yours,

     "Rebecca Simons."

I carried, to the King, the good woman's letter. He took it with
defiance, and examined it so sharply that I trembled lest he should
understand it. I was, however, very sure that he knew no English. But
this devil of a man, inspired me with superstitious terror, and I
believed him capable of performing miracles. He seemed satisfied only
when he reached the figures 4600 livres sterling. He saw, at once, that
he was not to be troubled with the gendarmes. The letter was placed,
with other papers, in a tin cylinder. They brought forward the good old
man, who had drunk just enough wine to limber up his legs, and the King
gave the box to him, with very explicit instructions. He departed, and
my heart kept pace with him to the end of his journey. Horace did not
follow with a more tender look the ship which bore Virgil away.

As soon as the King saw the affair in train to be completed, he became
very genial. He ordered for us a veritable feast; he distributed double
rations of wine to his men; he went himself to look after the wounded,
and with his own hands extracted the ball from Sophocles' shoulder.
Orders were given the bandits to treat us with the respect due our
money.

The breakfast which I ate, without spectators, with the ladies was one
of the happiest repasts I ever remember. All my evils were then ended; I
should be free after two days of this sweet captivity. Perhaps even, on
leaving Hadgi-Stavros, an adorable slavery!... I felt that I was a poet
like Gessner. I ate as heartily as Mrs. Simons, and I assuredly drank
with more appetite. I gulped down the white wine of Aegina, as formerly
the wine of Santorin. I drank to Mary-Ann's health, to her mother's, to
my good parents' and to that of Princess Ypsoff. Mrs. Simons wished to
hear the history of that noble stranger, and by my faith, I did not keep
it secret. Good examples are never too well known. Mary-Ann gave
charming attention to my recital. She thought that the Princess had done
well, and that a woman ought to take her happiness wherever she found
it. Proverbs are the wisdom of nations, and sometimes their success. I
was cast upon the wind of prosperity, and I felt myself borne toward, I
know not what terrestrial paradise. Oh, Mary-Ann! the sailors who
traverse the ocean have never had for guides two stars like your eyes!

I was seated before her. Passing the wing of a fowl to her, I leaned so
near her that I saw my image reflected in her eyes. I found I looked
well, Monsieur, for the first time in my life! The frame set off the
picture so well. A strange thought seized me. I felt that I had
surprised, in this incident, a decree of destiny. It seemed to me that
the beautiful Mary-Ann carried in the depths of her heart the image
which I had discovered in her eyes.

All this was not love, I know it well, I wish neither to accuse myself,
nor to appropriate to myself a sentiment which I have never felt; but it
was a firm friendship, and which would suffice, I thought, for a man
about to enter the wedded state. No turbulent emotion stirred my heart,
but I felt it melting slowly like a piece of wax in the warmth of a
genial sun.

Under the influence of this reasonable ecstasy, I related to Mary-Ann
and her mother the history of my life. I described to them the paternal
mansion, the great kitchen where we all ate together; the copper
sauce-pans hanging on the wall according to size; the strings of hams
and sausages which hung in the inside of the chimney; our modest, and
often hard life: the future of each of my brothers; Henri ought to
succeed papa; Frederic was learning the tailor's trade; Frantz and
Jean-Nicholas had had positions since they were eighteen; the one as
corporal, the other, as quarter-master sergeant. I told them of studies,
my examinations, the little successes which I had enjoyed at the
University, the beautiful future of professor to which I could lay
claim, with three thousand francs income, at least. I do not know to
what point my recital interested them, but I took great pleasure in it,
and I stopped to drink from time to time.

Mrs. Simons did not speak to me again about our discussion on marriage,
and I was very happy. It is better not to say a word, than to talk in
the air when we know ourselves so little. The day passed for me, like an
hour; I mean as an hour of pleasure. The next day seemed long to Mrs.
Simons; as for me, I would have liked to stop the sun in its course. I
instructed Mary-Ann in the first principles of botany. Ah! Monsieur, the
world does not know all the tender and delicate sentiments one can
express in a lesson in botany.

At last, on Wednesday morning, the monk appeared on the horizon. He was
a worthy man, taken altogether, this little monk! He had risen before
dawn in order to bring us liberty in his pocket. He brought to the King
a letter from the president of the bank, and to Mrs. Simons a letter
from her brother. Hadgi-Stavros said to Mrs. Simons: "You are free,
Madame, and you may take Mademoiselle, your daughter, away. I hope that
you will not take away from our rocks too unpleasant memories. We have
offered you all that we have; if the bed and the table have not been
worthy of you, it is the fault of circumstances. I had this morning an
angry fit, which I pray you to forget; one must pardon a conquered
general. If I dared to offer a little present to Mademoiselle, I would
beg her to accept an antique ring which could be made to fit her finger.
It does not come from any plunder we have taken; I bought it of a
merchant of Nauplie. Mademoiselle will show this jewel in England, in
relating her visit to the King of the Mountains."

I faithfully translated this little speech, and I slipped the King's
ring on Mary-Ann's finger, myself.

"And I," I asked of Hadgi-Stavros, "shall I carry away nothing by which
to remember you?"

"You, dear sir? But you remain! Your ransom is not paid!"

I turned toward Mrs. Simons, who held out to me the following letter:

     "Dear Sister:

     Verification made, I have given the 4000. liv. sterl. for the
     receipt. I have not advanced the other 600, because the receipt was
     not in your name, and it would be impossible to recover it. I am,
     while waiting your dear presence,

     Always yours,
     "Edward Sharper."

I had overdone my instructions to Hadgi-Stavros; to be quite
business-like, he believed that he ought to send two receipts!

Mrs. Simons said to me in a low tone: "You seem to be in great trouble!
What good will it do to make such faces? Show that you are a man, and
leave that grievance for a whipped cur. The best part is done, since we
are saved, my daughter and I, without its costing us anything. As for
you, I am not uneasy about you; you know how to save yourself. Your
first plan, which was not feasible for two ladies, will be an admirable
one for you alone. Come, what day may we expect a visit from you?"

I thanked her cordially. She offered such a fine opportunity for me to
show off my personal qualities and to raise myself in Mary-Ann's esteem.
"Yes, Madame, count on me! I will leave here a man of spirit, and much
better if I run a little danger. I am glad that my ransom has not been
paid, and I thank Monsieur, your brother, for what he has done for me.
You will see if a German does not know how to extricate himself from
difficulties. Yes, I will soon bring you my own messages!"

"Once out of here, do not fail to present yourself at our hotel."

"Oh! Madame!"

"And now beg this Stavros to give us an escort of five or six brigands."

"In God's name why?"

"To protect us from the gendarmes!"




VI.

THE ESCAPE.


In the midst of our adieux, there came to us a powerful odor of garlic
which made me ill. It was the waiting-maid who had come to the ladies,
to call upon their generosity. This creature had been more annoying than
useful, and since the first two days, the ladies had dispensed with her
services. Mrs. Simons regretted, however, not being able to do anything
for her, and asked me to inform the King how she had been robbed of her
money. Hadgi-Stavros seemed neither surprised nor scandalized. He simply
shrugged his shoulders, and muttered: "That Pericles!--bad
education--the city--the court--I ought to attend to that." He added out
loud: "Beg the ladies to not trouble themselves about anything. It is I
who provided the servant and it is I who will pay her. Tell them, that
if they need a little money to return to the city, my purse is at their
disposal. I will have them escorted to the foot of the mountain,
although they will run no kind of danger. The soldiers are less to be
feared than one thinks. They will find breakfast, horses and a guide in
the village of Castia: everything is provided and everything paid. Do
you think that they will give me the pleasure of shaking hands with me,
in token of reconciliation?"

Mrs. Simons was very reluctant, but her daughter resolutely held out her
hand to the old Palikar. She said to him in English, with roguish
pleasantry: "It is much honor that you do us, very interesting, sir,
because at this moment we are the Clephtes, and you are the victim!"

The King replied with much confidence: "Thank you, Mademoiselle; you are
too good!"

Mary-Ann's pretty hand was colored like a piece of rosy satin which had
been in a shop-window for three months. Believe, however, that I did not
have to beg to kiss it. I then touched my lips to Mrs. Simons' skinny
hand. "Courage! Monsieur," cried the old lady as she was going away.
Mary-Ann said nothing; but she threw me a glance capable of rousing an
army. Such looks are worth a proclamation!

When the last man of the escort had disappeared, Hadgi-Stavros took me
to one side and said to me: "Eh, well! we have then made some mistake!"

"Alas! Yes, we were not clever."

"This ransom is not paid. Will it be? I believe so. These English women
seem to be friendly to you."

"Be not uneasy: within three days I shall be far from Parnassus."

"All right, so much the better. I have great need of money, as you know.
Our bad luck on Monday will tax our income heavily. We must make up our
personal and material losses."

"You can complain with good grace. You have obtained a hundred thousand
francs at one stroke!"

"No, ninety! the monk has already taken his tithe. Of that sum, which
seems enormous to you, there will be only twenty thousand for me. Our
expenses are considerable; there are heavy charges. What would be done
if the company of stock-holders should decide to build a Hotel des
Invalides, as has been talked of? There are always pensions to be paid
to the widows and orphans of the band. Fever and bullets yearly relieve
us of thirty men, and you can see where that places us. Our expenses
would scarcely be met; I should have to pay money out of my own pocket,
my dear sir!"

"Have you never happened to lose more than once?"

"Once, only. I had received fifty thousand francs on account, of the
society. One of my secretaries, whom I afterward hung, fled to Thessaly
with the sum. I had to make up the deficit: I was responsible. My share
amounted to seven thousand francs; I lost, then, forty-three thousand.
But the knave who stole from me paid dearly. I punished him according to
the Persian mode. Before hanging him, his teeth were pulled, one after
the other, and they were driven, with a mallet, into his cranium--for a
good example, you understand. I am not wicked, but I suffer no one to
put me in the wrong."

It rejoiced my heart that the old Palikar, who was not wicked, should
lose the eighty thousand francs of Mrs. Simons' ransom, and that he
would receive the news when my cranium and my teeth were not in his
camp. He put his arm through mine, and said familiarly:

"How are you going to kill the time till your departure? These ladies
are gone and the house will seem large. Do you wish to look at the
Athenian papers? The monk brought some to me. I rarely read them. I
know exactly the price the articles are worth, since I pay for them.
Here you will find the Gazette officielle, l'Esperance, Pallicare,
Caricature. Each one ought to speak of us. Poor readers! I leave you. If
you find anything curious, tell me about it."

L'Esperance, printed in French, and intended to fool Europe, devoted a
long article to denying the latest news of brigandage. It cleverly joked
the simple travelers who saw a thief in every ragged peasant, an armed
band in every cloud of dust, and who asked pardon of the first
thorn-bush on which their clothes were caught. This truth-telling sheet
vaunted the security of the roads, celebrated the disinterestedness of
the natives, exalted the quiet and seclusion which one was sure of
finding on all the mountains in the kingdom.

The Pallicare, printed under the supervision of some of Hadgi-Stavros'
friends, contained an eloquent biography of its hero. It recounted that
this Theseus of modern times, the only man in our century who had never
been vanquished, had made a sortie in the direction of the Scironian
Rock. Betrayed by the weakness of his companions, he had withdrawn with
small loss. But seized with profound distaste for a degenerate
profession, he had renounced, henceforth, the practice of brigandage,
and had left Greece; he had exiled himself in Europe, where his fortune,
gloriously acquired, would enable him to live like a prince. "And now,"
added the Pallicare, "go, come, travel across the plain and in the
mountain! Bankers and Merchants, Greeks, strangers, travelers, you have
nothing to fear; the King of the Mountains wished, like Charles V., to
abdicate at the height of his glory and power."

The Gazette officielle read as follows:

"Sunday, 3d instant, at 5 o'clock in the evening, the military chest
containing 20,000 francs, which a large company was guarding on its way
to Argos, was attacked by the band of Hadgi-Stavros, known as the King
of the Mountains! The brigands, to the number of three or four hundred,
fell upon the soldiers with incredible ferocity. But the first two
companies of the second battalion of the 4th Line, under the command of
the brave Nicolaidis, opposed them with a heroic resistance. The
savage attacking party were repulsed at the point of the bayonet and
left the field covered with the dead. Report has it that Hadgi-Stavros
was seriously wounded. Our loss was insignificant.

"The same day, and the same hour, Her Majesty's troops were victors in
another skirmish, about ten leagues distant. It was at the summit of
Parnassus, four furlongs from Castia, that the 2d Company of the 1st
Battalion of gendarmes defeated Hadgi-Stavros' band. There, according to
the report of the brave Captain Pericles, the King of the Mountains was
wounded. Unfortunately, this success was dearly bought. The brigands,
protected by the rocks and shrubs, had killed or seriously wounded ten
of the soldiers. A young officer, M. Spiro, graduate of the Erelpides
School, died a heroic death on the field of battle. In the presence of
such great misfortunes, it is no mean consolation that there, as
everywhere, the law reigns."

The journal La Caricature contained a badly printed lithograph, in which
I recognized, however, Captain Pericles and the King of the Mountains.
The godson and godfather were holding each other in close embrace. Below
this cartoon, the artist had written the following sentence:

"This Is How They Fought!"

"It seems," I said to myself, "that I am not alone in their confidence,
and that Pericles' secret is an open secret."

I folded up the papers, and while waiting the King's return, I meditated
upon the position in which Mrs. Simons had left me. Surely, it was fine
to owe my freedom to no one but myself, and much braver to leave a
prison by a feat of courage, than by a schoolboy's trick. I could, in a
day or two, become a hero of romance, and the object of admiration of
all the young girls in Europe. No doubt Mary-Ann would adore me when she
saw me safe and sound after so perilous an escape. I might make a
misstep in that slippery path. What if I broke a leg or arm! Would
Mary-Ann look with favor on a lame and crippled man? I must, moreover,
expect to be guarded night and day. My plan, ingenious as it was, could
be executed only after the death of my guard. To kill a man is no small
affair, even for a doctor. It is nothing in words, especially when one
speaks to the woman whom one loves. But, since Mary-Ann's departure, I
was no longer deranged. It seemed less easy to procure a weapon and to
use it. A poniard thrust is a surgical operation which ought to make an
honest man's flesh creep. What do you say, Monsieur? I think that my
future mother-in-law had treated her hoped-for son-in-law very
contemptuously. It would not have cost her much to have sent me 15,000
francs ransom, taking them, later, out of Mary-Ann's dowry. Fifteen
thousand francs would have been of little value to me the day of my
marriage. It seemed of much account in the condition in which I found
myself, on the eve of murdering a man, and descending some hundreds of
meters by a ladder without any rungs. I cursed Mrs. Simons as heartily
as the generality of sons-in-law curse their mothers-in-law in all
civilized lands. As I had maledictions to spare, I directed some of them
against my friend John Harris, who had abandoned me to my lot. I said to
myself, that if we could have exchanged places, that I would never have
left him eight days without news.

I excused Lobster, who was very young; and Giacomo, who was not very
intelligent, and also M. Mérinay, whose downright selfishness I fully
understood. One easily pardons treason in such egotists, because one
never counts on them. But Harris, who had risked his life to save an old
negress in Boston! Was I not of as much account as a negress? I
believed, in truth, without any aristocratic prejudices, that I was
worth two or three times as much.

Hadgi-Stavros came to change the course of my thoughts by offering a
means of escape more simple and less dangerous. It was only necessary to
have legs, and, thank God! I was not lacking in that particular. The
King surprised me just as I was yawning fearfully.

"Do you feel dull?" he asked. "It is the reading. I never can open a
book without fear of dislocating my jaws. I am pleased to see that
doctors cannot endure it any better than I. But why not employ the time
you remain to better advantage? You came here to gather the mountain
plants; your box has received nothing these eight days. Would you like
to search for some, under guard of two men? I am too good a fellow for
you to refuse this little favor. Each must pursue his course in this
lower world. You collect plants; I, money. You can say to those who sent
you here: 'Here are plants gathered in Hadgi-Stavros' Kingdom!' If you
find one which is beautiful and strange, and of which one has never
heard in your country, you must give it my name, and call it the Queen
of the Mountains!"

"But truly," I thought, "if I was a league from here, with two brigands,
would it not be possible to out-strip them? There was no doubt but that
danger would give me double strength. He who runs best is he who has the
most to gain! Why is the hare the swiftest of all animals? Because he is
the most terrified!"

I accepted the King's offer, and, on the spot, he placed two guards over
me. He gave them no minute instructions. He simply said:

"Here is milord, worth 15,000 francs; if you lose him, you will have to
bring him back or pay the sum."

My attendants did not look like invalids; they had neither wounds,
bruises, nor injury of any sort; their muscles were like steel, and it
was not to be expected that they would be retarded by any constraint of
their foot-gear, because they wore large moccasins, which left their
heels bare. Passing them in review, I noticed, not without regret, two
pistols as long as children's guns. I, however, did not lose courage. By
reason of keeping bad company, the whizzing of bullets had become
familiar to me. I slung my box over my shoulder and started.

"Much pleasure to you!" cried the King.

"Adieu! Sire!"

"Not so, if you please; au revoir!"

I drew my companions in the direction of Athens; it was so much gained
from the enemy. They made no resistance, and allowed me to go where I
wished. These bandits, much better brought up than Pericles' four
guards, allowed me plenty of room. I did not feel, at each step, the
point of their elbows in my ribs. They picked on the path green stuff
for the evening meal. As for me, I appeared very eager in my work; I
pulled up, on the right hand and on the left, tufts of grass of no
account; I pretended to choose a sprig from the mass, and I placed it
very carefully in the bottom of my box, taking care not to overload
myself; it was enough of a burden that I carried. I had once known, at a
horse race, of a jockey who was beaten because he carried a burden
weighing five kilogrammes. My gaze seemed fixed upon the ground, but you
can well believe that the interest was feigned. Under such
circumstances one is not a botanist, one is a prisoner. Pellison would
never have amused himself with spiders if he had had a file with which
to saw his bars. I may have, perhaps, seen that day unknown plants which
would have made a naturalist's fortune; but I troubled myself no more
about them than as if they had been common wall-flowers. I am sure that
I passed near a fine specimen of the boryana variabilis! It would have
weighed a half-pound with its roots. I did not even honor it with a
look. I saw only two things: Athens in the distance, and the two
brigands on either side. I secretly watched the rascals' eyes, in the
hope that something would distract their attention; but, whether they
were right at hand or ten feet away, whether they were occupied in
picking their salads or following the flight of the vultures, they kept
an incessant watch on my movements.

An idea came to me to give them serious occupation. We were in a narrow
path, which evidently led towards Athens. I saw at my left a beautiful
bunch of broom which grew on the top of a rock. I pretended to be eager
to secure it as a treasure. I made five or six attempts to scale the
precipitous bowlder on which it blossomed. I seemed so determined to
reach it that one of my guards offered himself as a short ladder. This
was not exactly what I had counted on. I felt obliged to accept his
services, but, in climbing upon his shoulders, I hurt him so cruelly
with my hob-nailed shoes, that he groaned with agony and let me drop to
the ground. His comrade, who was interested in the process of the
enterprise, said to him: "Wait! I will mount instead of milord, I have
no nails in my shoes." No sooner said than done; he sprang up, seized it
by the stalk, shook it, pulled it, tore it up by the root and cried out.
I was already running away, without looking behind. Their stupefaction
gave me a good ten seconds' advantage. But they lost no time in accusing
each other, for I soon heard them following me. I redoubled my efforts;
the path was a good one, even, smooth, made for me. We descended a steep
declivity. I ran desperately, my arms pressed to my sides, without
noticing the stones which rolled under my heels, or looking to see where
I put my feet. I fairly flew over the path; rocks and bushes on either
side seemed to be running in the opposite direction; I was light-footed,
I was supple, my body weighed little; I had wings. But the four
foot-falls wearied my ears. Suddenly, they ceased; I heard nothing more.
Had they become weary of following me? A little cloud of dust rose ten
steps ahead of me. A little further on, a white spot suddenly appeared
on a gray rock. I heard two detonations at the same instant. The
brigands had discharged their pistols! I was not hit, and I still sped
on. The pursuit began again; I heard the breathless voices calling to
me: "Stop! Stop!" I did not stop. I lost the path, but I still ran on,
not knowing where I was going. A ditch as wide as a river presented
itself; but I was flying too fast to measure distances. I jumped, I was
saved!--my suspenders broke!--I was lost!

You laugh! I would like to see you run without suspenders, holding in
both hands the band of your trousers! Five minutes afterward, I was
again a captive. The men hand-cuffed me, fettered my legs, and drove me
with switches to Hadgi-Stavros' camp.

The King treated me as a bankrupt who had carried away 15,000 francs.
"Monsieur," he said to me, "I had a better opinion of you. I thought I
knew honest men! your face deceived me. I would never have believed that
you were capable of doing wrong, above all, after the way in which I
have treated you. Do not be astonished if I, henceforth, use severe
measures; you have forced me to do so. You will remain in your chamber
until further orders. One of my officers will remain with you under your
tent. This is only a precaution. In case of a repetition of the offense,
it is punishment which will be given you. Vasile, it is to thee I commit
Monsieur."

Vasile saluted me with his usual courtesy.

"Ah! wretch!" I thought, "it is thou who throwest infants into the fire!
It is thou who wouldst have embraced Mary-Ann; it is thou who wouldst
have stabbed me on Ascension Day. Oh, well! I prefer to settle with thee
rather than with another!"

I will not relate to you the details of the three days I passed in my
tent with Vasile. The scamp gave me a dose of disgust which I do not
wish to share with anyone. He did not wish me any ill; he even had a
certain sympathy for me. I believe that if I had been his own prisoner,
that he would have released me without ransom. My face had pleased him
at first sight. I recalled to him a younger brother who had been
condemned to death and hanged. But these friendly overtures wearied me
a hundred times more than bad treatment. He did not wait until sunrise
to say "good-morning" to me; at night-fall, he never missed a long list
of successes which he wished me. He aroused me, in my deepest sleep, to
ascertain if I was well covered. At table, he gave me good service; at
dessert he begged of me to listen to some stories which he wished to
relate. And always that hand was before me ready to shake mine. I
fiercely opposed his advances. It seemed to me unnecessary to include a
roaster of infants in my list of friends, and I had no desire to press
the hand of a man whom I had condemned to death. My conscience permitted
me to kill him; was it not a case of legitimate defense? but I did have
scruples about killing him treacherously, and I ought, at least, to put
him on his guard by hostile and menacing attitude. While repulsing his
advances, his kindness, and repelling his polite attentions, I carefully
watched for a chance to escape; but his friendship, more vigilant than
hate, did not lose sight of me for an instant. When I hung over the
cascade in order to impress upon my mind the unequal places in the bank,
Vasile would draw me from my contemplation with maternal solicitude:
"Take care!" he would say to me, pulling me back by the feet! "if thou
shouldst fall by some unhappy chance, I should reproach myself all my
life." When, at night, I stealthily tried to rise, he jumped from his
bed, asking if I needed anything. Never was there a more watchful
rascal. He turned around me like a squirrel in a cage.

What, above everything, made me despair, was the confidence he had in
me. I expressed, one day, a desire to examine his arms. He placed his
dagger in my hand. It was Russian blade, of inlaid steel, from the
famous sword factory of Toula. I drew it from its sheath, I tried the
point with my finger, I turned it toward his breast, choosing the place
between the fourth and fifth ribs. "Do not press on it, thou mightest
kill me!" Truly, by pressing on it a little, I could have given him his
just desserts, but something stayed my hand. It is to be regretted that
honest men recoil from killing assassins, when the latter feel no
compunctions about killing honest people. I put the weapon back into its
case. Vasile held out his pistol to me, but I refused it, and I told him
that my curiosity was satisfied. He cocked it, he made me look at the
priming, he placed it on his head, and said to me: "See! thou art no
longer guarded!"

No longer guarded! eh! parbleu! that was exactly what I wished. But the
occasion was too good a one, and the traitor paralyzed me. If I had
killed him at such a moment, I would not have felt equal to enduring his
last look. Much better to give the blow in the night. Unfortunately,
instead of hiding his arms, he placed them ostensibly between his bed
and mine.

At last, I conceived a plan for escaping, without awakening him or
killing him. The idea flashed across my mind, Sunday, the 11th day of
May, at 6 o'clock. I had noticed, on Ascension Day, that Vasile loved to
drink, and that it took but little wine to intoxicate him. I invited him
to dine with me. This exhibition of friendship mounted to his brain; the
wine of Aegina did the rest! Hadgi-Stavros, who had not honored me with
a visit since I had lost his esteem, still acted as a generous host. My
table was better served than his own. I could have drunk a goat-skin of
wine or a cask of rhaki. Vasile, admitted to his share of these
luxuries, began the repast with touching humility. He kept three feet
from the table, like a peasant invited to his master's house. Little by
little, the wine lessened the distance. At eight o'clock, my guardian
explained his character to me. At nine, stutteringly related to me the
adventures of his youth, and a series of exploits which would have made
a Criminal Examining Magistrate's hair stand on end. At ten, he became
philanthropic; this heart of tempered steel was dissolving in the rhaki,
like Cleopatra's pearl in the vinegar. He swore to me that he became a
bandit because of his love for humanity; that he would make his fortune
in ten years, would found a hospital with his savings, and then retire
to a monastery on Mount Athos. He promised that he would not forget me
in his prayers. I took advantage of his good intentions in order to make
him drink an enormous cup of rhaki. I might have offered him boiling
pitch; he was too much my friend to refuse me. Soon, he lost his voice;
his head swung from the right to the left, from the left to the right,
with the regularity of a pendulum; he held out his hand to me; it
alighted on the remains of the roast, this he shook cordially, fell over
on his back, and slept the sleep of the Egyptian Sphinx, which the
French cannons have never awakened.

I had not an instant to lose; the minutes were golden. I took his
pistol, which I threw to the bottom of the ravine. I seized his dagger,
and was going to throw that down also, when the thought came to me that
it would be useful in cutting up the turf. My watch showed eleven
o'clock. I extinguished the two torches of resinous wood which had
lighted our table; the light might attract the King's attention. It was
a beautiful night. No moon at all, but the sky was studded with stars;
it was just the kind of night for my purpose. The turf, cut in long
strips, came up like cloth. I had a sufficient quantity at the end of an
hour. As I carried them to the spring, I stumbled against Vasile. He
raised himself, heavily, and through habit, asked me if I needed
anything. I let fall my burden and seated myself near the drunken man,
and begged him to drink one more cup to my health. "Yes!" he mumbled, "I
am thirsty." I filled for him the copper cup for the last time. He drank
half of it; spilled the remainder over his face and neck, attempted to
get up, fell over on his face, with his arms extended, and moved no
more. I ran to my dike, and novice as I was, the brook was solidly
dammed up in forty-five minutes; it was a quarter of one o'clock. To the
noise of the cascade succeeded a profound silence. Fear seized me. I
reflected that the King probably slept lightly, like most old people,
and that the unusual silence would probably awake him. In the tumult of
thoughts which filled my mind, I remembered a scene in the Barbier de
Seville, where Bartholo was awakened when he ceased to hear a piano. I
glided under the trees to the staircase, and looked toward the King's
cabinet. He was sleeping peacefully beside his pipe-bearer. I crept
stealthily along within twenty feet of his tree, I listened; all were
asleep. I went back to my dam, passing through a puddle of icy water,
which was already up to my ankles, flung myself down and looked over the
abyss. The side of the mountain had gradually become polished. There
were, here and there, cavities in which water had formed in pools. I had
taken accurate note; these places were where I could put my feet. I
returned to my tent, took my box which was suspended over my bed, and
slung it over my shoulders. In passing the place where we had dined, I
picked up a part of a loaf, and a piece of meat which the water had not
yet wet. I put these provisions in my box for my breakfast next morning.
The dam still held well, the wind ought to have dried my path; it was
nearly two o'clock. I wished, in case of an encounter with any one, to
take Vasile's dagger, but it was under the water and I could lose no
time searching for it. I took off my shoes, I tied them together, and
hung them on the strap of my box. At last, after thinking of everything,
throwing a last look at my earthworks, giving a thought to my family at
home, and sending a kiss in the direction of Athens and Mary-Ann, I
threw one leg over the edge, I seized with both hands a tree which hung
over the abyss, and I started out, trusting to God to help me.

It was rough work, harder than I had supposed when looking down. The
rock, not entirely dry, gave me a feeling of clammy cold, like the
contact of a serpent. I had not calculated distances accurately, and
the points of support were farther apart than I had hoped. Twice I took
a wrong course in moving to the left. I had to return, a work of
incredible difficulty. Hope abandoned me often, but not my will. My foot
slipped; I mistook a shadow for a projection, and I fell fifteen or
twenty feet, clinging with my hands and body to the side of the
mountain, without finding a place to stop myself. A root of a fig-tree
caught me by the cuff of my coat-sleeve, you can see the marks here. A
little further on, a bird, hidden in a little hole, on the mountain
side, flew out between my legs so suddenly, and frightened me so, that I
almost fell head first. I advanced with feet and hands, especially with
my hands. My arms seemed broken, and I heard the tendons creak like the
cords of a harp. My nails were so cruelly torn that they ceased to pain
me. Perhaps, if I had been able to measure the distance still before me,
I would have felt renewed strength; but when I turned my head, I became
so dizzy that I abandoned the attempt. To sustain my courage, I talked
to myself; I spoke out loud between my clenched teeth. I said: "One more
step for my father! yet another for Mary-Ann! still one more for the
confusion of the brigands and the rage of Hadgi-Stavros!"

My feet at last rested on a broad ledge. It seemed to me that the soil
had changed color. I bent my knees, I seated myself, I turned my head. I
was only ten feet from the brook. I had reached the red rocks. The
smooth stone, full of hollows, in which the water still stood, allowed
me to take breath and rest a little. I drew out my watch; it was only
half past two. I would have believed that my journey had taken three
nights. I examined my arms and legs, to ascertain if I still possessed
them all; in this kind of an expedition one never knows what will
happen. I had had good luck; I had suffered some contusions and the skin
was rubbed off in two or three places. The worst sufferer was my
paletot. I looked up, not to thank Heaven, but to assure myself that
nothing had moved in my camping place. I heard only the drops of water
filtering through my dam. All was well; I was reassured; I knew where to
find Athens; adieu to the King of the Mountains!

I was about to leap to the bottom of the ravine, when a whitish form
jumped up before me, and I heard the most furious barking which had ever
awakened morning echoes. Alas! Monsieur, the enemies of man roamed at
all hours around the camp, and one of them had scented me. I cannot
describe the fury and hate which possessed me at meeting him; one does
not detest to this degree an irrational being. I would have much
preferred to find myself face to face with a wolf, with a tiger, or a
white bear, noble beasts, who would have eaten me without saying
anything, but who would not have denounced me. Ferocious beasts hunt for
themselves; but to think of this horrible dog who was about to devour
me, with a great uproar, in order to serve Hadgi-Stavros! I overwhelmed
him with insults; I hurled the most odious names at him; do the best I
could yet he spoke louder than I. I changed my tune, I tried the effect
of kind words, I spoke to him sweetly in Greek, in the tongue of his
fathers; he gave but one response to all my advances, and the response
awoke the mountain echoes. A thought struck me! I was silent; he ceased
barking. I stretched myself out among the pools of water; he crouched at
the foot of the rock with low growls. I pretended to sleep; he slept. I
glided, inch by inch, toward the brook; he was up with a bound, and I
had only time to regain my platform. My hat remained in the hands of the
enemy, or rather, in the teeth of the enemy. An instant afterward, it
was no more than a pulp, a chewed up mass, a rag of a hat! Poor hat! I
pitied it! I put myself in its place. If I could have escaped, less a
few mouthfuls, I would not have considered the matter a great while, I
would have made allowances for the dog's share. But these monsters are
not satisfied with killing people, they eat them!

I was convinced that he was hungry; that if I could find enough to
surfeit him, he might possibly bite me, but he would not devour me. I
had some provisions, I would sacrifice them; my only regret was that I
did not have a hundred times more. I threw a piece of bread to him; he
swallowed it in one mouthful; imagine a pebble which falls into a well.
As I looked piteously at the small portion which still remained, I saw,
in the bottom of the box, a white package, which gave me a new idea. It
was a small amount of arsenic, used in my zoological preparations. I
used it in stuffing birds, but no law prevented me from putting a few
grains into the body of a dog. My speaker, with sharpened appetite,
demanded more: "Wait," I said to him, "I am going to give thee a morsel
of my own making!" The package contained about 35 grammes of a pretty
powder, white and shining. I turned five or six into a small pool of
water, and I put the remainder in my pocket. I carefully diluted a
portion for the animal; I waited until the acid was well dissolved; I
dipped into the solution a piece of bread, which soaked it all up, like
a sponge. The dog sprang upon it with a good appetite and swallowed it
at once.

Why was not I provided with a little strychnine, or some other good
poison more fearful than arsenic? It was after three o'clock, and the
results of my experiment were not instantaneous. About half after three,
the dog began to howl with all his strength. I had not gained much;
barking and howling, cries of fury, or of agony, were all to the same
purpose--that is--the awakening of Hadgi-Stavros. Soon the animal fell
into frightful convulsions; he foamed at the mouth; he was seized with
nausea, he made violent effort to throw off the poison. It was a sweet
sight to me, and I enjoyed it; the death of the enemy was my only way of
escape, and death was vanquishing him. I hoped that, conquered by the
poison, he would permit me to leave; but he raged against me, he opened
his foam-flecked and bloody jaws, as if to reproach me with my presents,
and to tell me that he would not die without vengeance. I threw my
handkerchief to him; he tore it as savagely as my hat. The sky began to
lighten. I became convinced that I had committed a useless murder. An
hour later, the brigands would be upon me. I looked up to that horrid
place which I had left without expecting to return to it, and to which
the dog's endurance was forcing me. A volume of water suddenly poured
over the rock and threw me, face down. The icy water, filled with huge
pieces of turf, stones, fragments of rock rolled over me. The dam had
broken, and the whole body of water poured over my head. A trembling
seized me! I became chilled, my blood congealed! I looked toward the
dog; he was still at the foot of my rock, struggling with death, with
the current, with anything, jaws open and eyes turned towards me. This
must end. I took off my box, clutched it by the straps, and pounded that
hideous head with such fury that the enemy left me the field of battle.
The torrent seized him, rolled him over two or three times, and carried
him, I know not where.

I jumped into the water; it was up to my waist; I clung to the rocks; I
went with the current; I was over the bank; I shook myself, I cried:
"Hurrah for Mary-Ann!"

Four brigands rose out of the earth! they caught me by the collar,
saying: "Here thou art, assassin! Come! we will take thee back! the King
will be happy! Vasile will be avenged!"

It appeared, that without knowing it, I had drowned my friend, Vasile.

At that time, Monsieur, I had never killed a man; Vasile was my first. I
have fought others since, to defend myself and to save my life; but
Vasile is the only one who has caused me any remorse, although his end
was, probably, the result of a very innocent imprudence. You know that
it is only the first step! No murderer, discovered by the police,
surrounded with soldiers and led to the scene of his crime, hung his
head more humbly than I. I dared not raise my eyes to the good people
who had arrested me; I did not feel equal to encountering the eyes of
these reprobates; I trembled; I presented a guilty appearance; I knew
that I must appear before my judge, and be placed before my victim. How
could I confront the King's frown, after what I had done? How could I
see, without dying of shame, the inanimate body of the unfortunate
Vasile? My knees shook; I would have fallen but for the kicks I received
from those following me.

I crossed the deserted camp, the King's cabinet, occupied by some of the
wounded, and I descended, or, rather, I fell to the bottom of the
staircase to my chamber. The waters had receded, leaving traces of mud
everywhere. A small pool of water still remained where I had raised the
dam. The bandits, the King, and the monk, stood in a circle, about a
dark and muddy object, the sight of which made my hair stand on end: it
was Vasile! Heaven preserve you, Monsieur, from the sight of a corpse of
your own making! The water and the mud, rushing over him, had deposited
on him a hideous layer. Have you ever seen a great fly which had been
caught, three or four days before, in a large spider-web? The artisan of
the web, not being able to rid himself of his visitor, had enveloped him
in a tangle of gray threads, and changed him to an unformed and
unrecognizable mass. Such was Vasile a few hours after he had dined with
me. I found him ten feet from the path where I had bidden him farewell.
I do not know whether the brigands had laid him there, or whether he
had thrown himself there, in his convulsions of agony; I am inclined to
believe, however, that death had come to him gently. Full of wine as I
had left him, he must have succumbed, without a struggle, to some
cerebral congestion.

A menacing murmur, which was a bad augury, greeted my arrival.
Hadgi-Stavros, with pale and contracted brow, walked up to me, seized me
by the left wrist, and dragged me so violently that he dislocated my
arm. He threw me into the middle of the circle with such force, that I
almost fell on my victim; I instantly recoiled.

"Look!" he cried in thundering tones, "look at what you have done!
rejoice in your work; gaze upon your crime! Wretch! but where would you
have stopped? Who would have said, the day I received you here, that I
had opened my door to an assassin?"

I stammered some excuses; I tried to show the judge that I was guilty
only of imprudence. I warmly accused myself of having intoxicated my
guardian in order to escape his watchfulness, and to flee without
hindrance from my prison; but I defended myself from the crime of
assassinating him. Was it my fault if the rise of waters drowned him an
hour after my departure? The proof that I had wished him no evil, was
that I had not stabbed him when he was dead drunk, and that I had his
weapons at hand. They could wash the body and see that he was not
wounded.

"At least," the King replied, "confess that your act was very selfish
and very culpable! When your life was not threatened, when you were held
here for only a small sum, you fled through avarice; you thought only
of saving a few écus, and you did not trouble yourself about this poor
unfortunate whom you left to die! You never thought of me! that you were
going to deprive me of a valuable officer! And what moment did you
choose to betray us? The day on which all kinds of troubles assailed us;
when I had sustained a defeat; when I had lost my best soldiers; when
Sophocles was wounded; when the Corfuan was dying; when the little
Spiro, upon whom I relied, was killed; when all my men were weary and
discouraged; it was then you had the heart to relieve me of Vasile! Have
you, then, no humane sentiments? Would it not have been a hundred times
better to have paid your ransom honestly, as became a good prisoner,
than to have it said you sacrificed a life for 15,000 francs?"

"Eh! Zounds! You have killed people, and for less!"

He replied with dignity: "That is my business; it is not yours. I am a
brigand, and you are a doctor. I am Greek, and you are German."

To that, I had nothing to reply. I felt convinced from the trembling of
every fiber of my heart, that I had neither been born nor brought up to
the profession of killing men. The King, angry at my silence, raised his
voice, and said:

"Do you know, miserable young man, who was the excellent man of whose
death you are guilty? He was a descendant of those heroic brigands of
Souli who fought fierce battles for their religion, and against Ali de
Tebelen, Pasha of Janina. For four generations, all of his ancestors
have either been hung or decapitated; not one has died in his bed. Only
six years ago, his own brother perished in Epirus, having been condemned
to death; he had killed a Mohammedan. Devotion and courage are
hereditary in that family. Never did Vasile forget his religious duties.
He gave to the churches; he gave to the poor. At Easter, he always
lighted a larger taper than any one else. He would have killed himself
rather than violate the law of abstinence, or eat meat on a fast-day. He
economized in order to retire to a convent on Mount Athos. Did you know
it?"

I humbly confessed that I did know it.

"Do you know that he was the most steadfast of all my band? I do not
wish to detract from the personal merit of those who are listening to
me, but Vasile possessed a blind devotion, a fearless obedience, a true
zeal under all circumstances. No labor was too great for his courage; no
occupation too repugnant for his fidelity. He would have killed every
one in the kingdom if I had ordered him to do so. He would have torn out
his best friend's eye, if I had given him a sign with my little finger.
And you have killed him! Poor Vasile! when I shall have a village to
burn, a miser to torture, a woman to cut in pieces, an infant to burn
alive, who will replace thee?"

All the brigands, electrified by this funeral oration, cried in one
voice. "We! We!" Some held out their arms to the King, others unsheathed
their daggers; the most zealous leveled their pistols at me.
Hadgi-Stavros checked their enthusiasm: he stepped in front of me to
shield me, and went on with his discourse in these words:

"Be consoled, Vasile, thou shalt not rest without vengeance. If I
listened only to my grief, I would offer to thy manes thy murderer's
head; but it is worth 15,000 francs, and that thought restrains me.
Thou, thyself, if thou couldst speak, as formerly in our councils, thou
wouldst beg me to spare him; thou wouldst refuse so costly a vengeance.
It is not proper, in the circumstances in which thy death has left us,
to do foolish things, and to throw money away."

He stopped a moment; I drew a deep breath.

"But," the King went on, "I will know how to reconcile interest with
justice. I will chastise the guilty one without risking the capital. His
punishment shall be the most beautiful ornament of funeral obsequies;
and, from above, from the homes of the Palikars, to which thy spirit has
gone, thou shalt contemplate, with joy, an expiatory punishment, which
shall not cost us a sou!"

This peroration aroused the audience. I was the only one not charmed. I
puzzled my brain trying to imagine what the King had in store for me,
and I felt so little assured, that my teeth chattered. Surely, I ought
to esteem myself happy to save my life, and the preservation of my head
seemed no mean advantage; but I knew the inventive imagination of these
Greeks of the highway. Hadgi-Stavros, without putting me to death, could
inflict such chastisement as would make me hate life. The old rascal
refused to inform me as to what punishment he had in store for me. He
pitied my agony so little, that he compelled me to assist in the funeral
ceremonies of his lieutenant.

The body was stripped of its garments, carried to the brook, and bathed.
Vasile's features were changed but little; his mouth, half-open, still
bore the silly smile of the drunkard; his open eyes preserved a stupid
look. His limbs had not lost their suppleness; the rigor mortis does not
come, for a long time, to those who die by accident.

The King's coffee-bearer and pipe-bearer proceeded to dress the dead.
The King bore the expenses as heir. Vasile had no relatives, and all his
property reverted to the King. They clothed the body in a fine shirt, a
shirt of beautiful percale, and a vest embroidered with silver. They
covered his wet locks with a bonnet which was nearly new. They put
leggins of red silk on the legs which would never run again. Slippers of
Russia leather were slipped on his feet. In all his life, poor Vasile
had never been so clean nor so gorgeous. They touched his lips with
carmine; they whitened and rouged his face as if he was a young actor
about to step on the stage. During the whole operation, the bandit
orchestra executed a lugubrious air, which you must have heard in the
streets of Athens. I congratulate myself that I did not die in Greece,
because the music is abominable, and I never could have consoled myself,
if I had been buried to that air.

Four brigands began to dig a grave in the middle of the chamber, upon
the place where Mrs. Simons' tent stood, and on the spot where Mary-Ann
had slept. Two others ran to the store-house to find wax-tapers, which
they distributed. I was given one with all the others. The monk intoned
the service for the dead. Hadgi-Stavros made the responses in firm tones
which went to the depths of my soul. There was a light breeze, and the
wax from my taper fell upon my hand in a burning shower; but that, alas!
was a small thing in comparison with what awaited me. I would have
willingly endured that trouble, if the ceremony could never have been
finished.

It was finished at last. When the last oration had been delivered, the
King solemnly approached the bier on which the body lay, and kissed
Vasile's lips. The bandits, one by one, followed his example. I shivered
at the thought that my turn was coming. I tried to hide behind two who
had already performed their duty, but they saw me and said: "It is your
turn! Start then! You certainly owe him that!"

Was this, at last, the expiation which awaited me? A just man would have
been satisfied, at least. I swear to you, Monsieur, that it is no
child's play to kiss the lips of a corpse, above all, when one can
reproach one's self with being the instrument of his death. I walked
toward the bier, I looked at the face whose eyes seemed to laugh at my
embarrassment. I bent my head, I slightly touched the lips. A humorous
brigand applied his hand to the nape of my neck. My mouth struck the
cold lips! I felt the icy teeth, and seized with horror, I raised my
head, carrying away with me I know not what terror of death, which
seizes me at this moment! Women are very fortunate, they have the
resource of fainting!

They then lowered the body into the earth, they threw in a handful of
flowers, a loaf of bread, an apple, and a little wine. This latter was
the thing of which he had the least need. The grave was quickly filled,
more quickly than I wished. A brigand observed that they must get two
sticks for a cross. Hadgi-Stavros replied: "Be quiet! we will put up
milord's sticks." I leave it to you to think whether my heart beat
tumultuously. What sticks? What was there in common between sticks and
me?

The King made a sign to his pipe-bearer, who ran to the office and came
back with two long laurel poles. Hadgi-Stavros took the funeral bier and
laid it upon the grave. He pressed it down hard into the freshly turned
earth, and he raised it up at one end, while the other lay in the soil,
and he smilingly said to me: "It is for you that I am working! Take off
your shoes, if you please!"

He must have read in my eyes a question full of agony and terror, for he
replied to the demand which I dared not address to him:

"I am not wicked, and I have always detested useless severity. That is
why I wish to inflict on you a chastisement which will be of use to us,
inasmuch as it will dispense with any future watchfulness over you. You
have had for several days a craze to escape. I hope, that when you have
received twenty blows of the stick upon the soles of your feet, you will
no longer need to be watched, and your love for traveling will cease
for some time. I know what the punishment is; the Turks treated me to a
dose of it in my youth, and I know, by experience, that one does not die
of it. One suffers much from it; you will cry out, I warn you of it.
Vasile will hear from the depths of his tomb, and he will be pleased
with us."

At this announcement, my first thought was to use my legs while I still
had the freedom to do so. But you must believe that my will was very
weak, for it was impossible to put one foot before the other.
Hadgi-Stavros raised me from the ground as lightly as we pick up an
insect in our path. I felt myself bound down and unshod, before a
thought, leaving my brain, had time to act upon any of my members. I
knew neither upon what they supported my feet, nor how they kept them
from falling at the first stroke of the stick. I saw the two sticks
lifted in the air, the one to the right, the other to the left; I closed
my eyes and waited. I certainly did not wait the tenth part of a second,
and yet, so short a time was sufficient to send a tender thought to my
father, a kiss to Mary-Ann, and more than a hundred imprecations to be
divided between Mrs. Simons and John Harris.

I did not become unconscious for an instant; it is a weakness which I
never possessed, I have told you so. There was, also, nothing to lose.
The first blow was so terrific that I believed that those which followed
could amount to little. It took me in the middle of the soles, under
that small, elastic arch, just in front of the heel, which supports the
body. It was not the foot that hurt me most that time; but I believed
that the bones of my poor legs were breaking in pieces. The second blow
struck lower, just under the heels; it gave me a shock, profound,
violent, which made my whole vertebral column quiver, and filled my
brain with a frightful tumult that almost split my cranium. The third
was given directly on the toes and produced an acute and stinging
sensation, which shot all over my body and made me believe, for an
instant, that the stick had hit me on the end of the nose. It was at
this moment that the blood flowed for the first time. The blows
succeeded each other in the same order and in the same places, at equal
intervals. I had enough courage to keep silent during the first two; I
cried out at the third; I howled at the fourth; I groaned at the fifth,
and those which followed. At the tenth, the flesh itself could suffer no
more; I was silent. But the prostration of my physical force diminished,
in no wise, the clearness of my perceptions. I could not have raised my
eyelids, and yet the lightest sounds reached my ears. I lost no word of
what was said around me. It was an observation which I shall remember
later, if I practice medicine. Doctors do not hesitate to condemn a sick
man, four feet from his bed, without thinking that perhaps the poor
devil can hear them. I heard a young brigand say to the King: "He is
dead. What good to weary two men without profit to any one?"
Hadgi-Stavros replied: "Fear nothing. I received sixty, one after
another, and two days afterward I danced the Romanique."

"How didst thou do that?"

"I used the pomade of the Italian renegade, Ludgi-Bey--Where were we?
How many blows?"

"Seventeen."

"Three more, my children; and lay on the last ones hard."

The stick had done its work well. The last blows fell upon a bloody but
insentient mass of flesh. Pain had nearly paralyzed me!

They raised me from the stretcher; they unbound the cords; they swathed
my feet with compresses dipped in fresh water, and, as I had the thirst
of the wounded, they gave me a large cup of wine. Anger returned with my
strength. I do not know whether you have ever been bastinadoed, but I
know nothing more humiliating than physical chastisement. In order to
become the sovereign of the whole world, I would not, for an instant, be
the slave of a vile stick. Born in the nineteenth century, understanding
the use of steam and electricity, possessing a good share of the secrets
of nature, knowing thoroughly all that science has invented for the
well-being and security of man, knowing also how to cure fevers, how to
prevent taking small-pox, and then, not to be able to defend one's self
against a blow from a stick. It is a little too much, surely! If I had
been a soldier and had submitted to corporal punishment, I should
certainly have killed my chiefs!

When I felt myself seated on the slimy ground, my feet paralyzed with
pain, my hand useless; when I saw around me the men who had beaten me,
the ones who had struck me and those who had seen me punished; anger,
shame, a feeling of outraged dignity, of justice violated, of
intelligence brutalized, swept through my enfeebled body in a wave of
hate, of revolt, and of vengeance. I forgot everything, prudence,
interest, discretion, the future, and I gave free vent to the thoughts
which stifled me; a torrent of abuse poured from my lips, while an
overflow of bile mounted to my eyes. Surely, I am no orator, and my
solitary studies have given me no exercise in the use of words, but
indignation, which has made some poets, lent me, for a quarter of an
hour, the savage eloquence of those prisoners who rendered up their
souls with insults and who breathed their last sighs in the face of the
Roman conquerors. Everything which can outrage a man in his pride, in
his affections, and in his dearest sentiments I said to the King of the
Mountains. I put him in the rank with unclean animals, and I denied him
even the name of man. I insulted him through his mother, his wife, his
daughter, and all of his posterity. I would like to repeat to you,
verbatim, all that I made him listen to, but words are wanting to-day,
as I am not angry. I invented terms which are not found in the
dictionary, but which were understood, however, for the audience of
outcasts howled under my words like a pack of hounds under the lash of
whippers-in. But although I kept watch of the old Palikar, eagerly
scanning the muscles of his face, and searching for the slightest trace
of a frown, I could discern not the slightest sign of emotion.
Hadgi-Stavros' face was like that of a marble statue. He replied to all
insults with a contemptuous silence. His attitude exasperated me to
madness. I was certainly insane for a moment. A red cloud like blood
passed before my eyes. I rose suddenly on my wounded feet. I saw a
pistol thrust in the waist-band of one of the brigands, I pulled it out,
I aimed it at the King, I drew the trigger, and fell back murmuring, "I
am avenged!"

It was the King himself who raised me. I looked at him with an
astonishment as great as if I had seen him walking out of hell. He
seemed not at all moved, and smiled as tranquilly as an immortal. And
moreover, Monsieur, I had not missed him. My ball had touched his
forehead, a little above the left eyebrow; a trace of blood testified to
it. Possibly the pistol was badly loaded, or the powder poor, or it may
be, that the ball had glanced across the bone, but whatever it was, my
bullet had made only an abrasion.

The invulnerable monster seated me carefully on the ground, leaned
toward me, pulled my ear and said: "Why do you attempt the impossible,
young man? I warned you that I had a head that was bullet-proof, and you
know that I never lie. Were you not told that Ibrahim had seven
Egyptians shoot at me and that he was unsuccessful? I hope that you do
not pretend to be more powerful than seven Egyptians? But do you know
that you have a nimble hand for a Northern man? Peste! if my mother, of
whom you spoke lightly a few moments ago, had not endowed me with
strength, I would now be a dead man. Another, in my place, would have
died without having time to say, 'Thank you!' As for me, such things
rejuvenate me. It recalls my best days. At your age, I exposed my life
four times a day, and I only digested the better for it. Come, I will
pardon you your hasty action. But as all my subjects are not proof
against bullets, and that you may commit no new imprudence, I shall
apply to your hands the same treatment as your feet received. Nothing
prevents us from punishing you immediately; I will wait, however, until
to-morrow, in the interests of your health. You see the stick is a blunt
weapon which kills no one; you have yourself proved that one bastinadoed
man is worth two. To-morrow's ceremony will occupy you. Prisoners do not
know how to pass the time. It was idleness which gave you bad counsels.
Rest easy, moreover; as soon as your ransom arrives, I will cure your
wounds. I still have some of Ludgi-Bey's balm. There will be no signs of
them at the end of two days, and you can dance at the ball at the
Palace, without telling your partners that they are leaning on the arm
of a cavalier who has been beaten."

I am not a Greek, and the insults wounded me as grievously as the blows.
I shook my fist in the old rascal's face, and cried out with all my
strength:

"No, wretch! my ransom will never be paid! No! I have not asked anyone
for the money! Thou wilt get from me only my head, which will serve thee
nothing. Take it quickly if it seems good to thee. It will do me a favor
and thyself also. Thou wilt spare me two weeks of torture, and the
disgust of looking at thee, which is the most of all. Thou wilt save my
board for fifteen days. Do not miss it, it is the only benefit that thou
wilt reap from me!"

He smiled, shrugged his shoulders, and replied: "Ta! ta! ta! ta! Thus it
is with young people! Extremists in everything! They throw the helve
after the hatchet. If I listened to you, I would regret it before eight
hours had passed, and so would you. The Englishwomen will pay, I am sure
of it. I know women yet, although I have lived in retirement for a long
time. What would be said if I killed you to-day, and your ransom arrived
to-morrow? The story would go out that I had broken my word, and my
prisoners would allow themselves to be killed like sheep, without asking
a centime of their parents. It would spoil the trade."

"Ah! thou believest that the Englishwomen will pay thee, my clever
fellow? Yes, they will pay thee as thou meritest!"

"You are very good."

"Their ransom will cost thee 80,000 francs, dost thou hear? Eighty
thousand francs out of thy pocket!"

"Do not say such things. One would think that the blows of the stick had
turned your brain."

"I tell thee the truth. Dost thou recall the name of thy prisoners?"

"No, but I have it in writing."

"I will jog thy memory. The lady called herself Mrs. Simons."

"Well!"

"Partner of the firm of Barley in London."

"My banker?"

"Precisely."

"How doest thou know my banker's name?"

"Because thou didst dictate before me."

"What matter, after all? They cannot escape; they are not Greeks, they
are English; the courts--I will make complaint!"

"And thou wouldst lose. They have a receipt!"

"That is so. But by what mischance did I give them a receipt?"

"Because I advised thee to do it, poor man!"

"Wretch! dog wrongly baptized! heretic of hell! thou hast ruined me!
thou hast betrayed me! Thou hast robbed me! eighty thousand francs! I am
responsible! If they were the bankers of the company, I would lose only
my share. But they hold only my capital; I shall lose it all. Art thou
very sure that she is a partner of the firm of Barley?"

"As I am sure of dying to-day."

"No! thou shalt not die till to-morrow. Thou hast not suffered enough.
We will make thee pay for those 80,000 francs. What punishment can we
invent? Eighty thousand francs! Eighty thousand deaths would be little.
What have I done to this traitor who has robbed me! Peuh! Child's play,
a pleasantry! He has not howled two hours! I must invent something
better. But may be there are two firms of the same name?"

"Cavendish Square, No. 31."

"Yes, it is the same. Fool! why didst thou not warn me instead of
betraying me? I would have asked double the sum. They would have paid
it; they have the means. I would not have given the receipt; I will
never give another. No! no! it is the last time! Received a hundred
thousand francs of Mrs. Simons! What a foolish sentence! Was it really I
who dictated that? But I reflect now; I did not sign it. Yes, but my
seal is equal to a signature! There are twenty letters in my name. Why
didst thou demand this receipt? What do you expect from those ladies?
Fifteen thousand francs for thy ransom? Selfishness, everywhere! Thou
shouldst have confided in me; I would have let thee go without the
ransom; I would even have paid thee. If thou art poor, as thou sayest
thou art, thou shouldst know how good money is. Thou thinkest only of a
sum of 80,000 francs? Dost thou know what a heap that would make in a
room? How many pieces of gold? How much money one could make in business
with 80,000 francs? It is a calamity! Thou hast robbed me of a fortune!
Thou hast robbed my daughter, the only being I love in the world. It is
for her that I work. But, if thou knowest my affairs, thou knowest that
I scour the mountains for a whole year to gain 40,000 francs. Thou hast
plundered me of two years' income; it is as if I had slept for two
years!"

I had then found the tender chord. The old Palikar was touched to the
heart. I knew that there was a heavy score against me, and I expected no
mercy, and moreover, I experienced an intense joy in seeing that
impassable mask torn asunder and that stony face wrung with emotion. I
rejoiced to see in his wrinkled face, the convulsive movements of
passion, as the ship-wrecked boat lost in a raging sea, admires, afar
off, the wave which is to engulf it. I was like the thinking reed, which
the brutal universe crushes into a shapeless mass, and which consoles
itself in dying with the lofty thought of its superiority. I said to
myself, with pride: "I shall die by torture, but I am the master of my
master, and the executioner of my execution!"




VII.

JOHN HARRIS.


The King contemplated his vengeance, as a man who has fasted three days
contemplates a bountiful repast. He examined, one by one, all the
dishes, I mean to say all the tortures; he licked his dry lips, but he
knew not where to commence nor what to choose. One would have said that
excess of hunger spoiled his appetite. He struck his head with his fist,
as if he could force out some ideas, but they came so rapidly that it
was not easy to seize one in its passage. "Speak!" he cried to his
subjects. "Advise me! What good are you, if you are not able to give me
advice? Shall I await the coming of the Corfuan, or until Vasile shall
speak from the depths of his tomb? Find for me, beasts that you are,
some torture for the loss of 80,000 francs."

The young pipe-bearer said to his master: "An idea strikes me. Thou hast
one officer dead, another absent, and a third wounded. Put up their
places for competition. Promise us that those who shall tell of the best
way to avenge thee, shall succeed Sophocles, the Corfuan, and Vasile."

Hadgi-Stavros smiled complacently at this stratagem. He stroked the
young boy's chin and said to him:

"Thou art ambitious, my little man! All in good time! Ambition is the
result of courage. Agreed, for a competition! It is a modern idea, a
European idea, that pleases me. To reward thee, thou shalt give thy
advice, first; and if thou findest something very good, Vasile shall
have no other heir but thee."

"I would," said the child, "pull out some of my lord's teeth, put a bit
in his mouth, and make him run, bridled, till he dropped from fatigue."

"His feet are too sore; he would fall down at the first step. And you
others? Tambouris, Moustakas, Coltzida, Milotia, speak, I am listening."

"I," said Coltzida, "I would break boiling hot eggs under his arm-pits.
I tried it on a woman of Magara, and I had much fun."

"I," said Tambouris, "I would put him on the ground with a rock weighing
five hundred pounds on his chest. It thrusts out one's tongue and makes
one spit blood; it is fine!"

"I," said Milotia, "I would put vinegar in his nostrils, and drive
thorns under every nail. One sneezes violently and one does not know
what to do with one's hands."

Moustakas was one of the cooks of the band. He proposed to cook me in
front of a small fire. The King's face expanded.

The monk assisted at the conference, and let them talk without giving
his advice. He, however, took pity on me, according to the measure of
his sensibility, and helped me as far as his intelligence permitted.
"Moustakas," he said, "is too wicked. One can torture milord finely
without burning him alive. If you will give him salt meat without
allowing him to drink he will live a long time, he will suffer a great
deal, and the King will satisfy his vengeance without interfering with
God's vengeance. It is my disinterested advice which I give you; I shall
make nothing by it; but I wish everyone to be pleased, since the
monastery has received its tithe."

"Halt, there!" interrupted the coffee-bearer. "Good old man, I have an
idea which is better than thine. I condemn milord to die of hunger. The
others will do any evil to him which pleases them; I will not hinder
them. But I would place a sentinel before his mouth, and I would take
care that he had neither a drop of water nor a crumb of bread. Weakness
would redouble his hunger; his wounds would increase his thirst, and the
tortures of the others would finally finish him to my profit. What dost
thou say, Sire? Is it not well reasoned and will it not give me Vasile's
place?"

"Go to the devil, all of you!" cried the King. "You would reason less
calmly if the wretch had plundered you of 80,000 francs! Carry him away
to the camp and take your pleasure out of him. But unhappy the one who
kills him by any imprudence! This man must die only by my hand. I intend
that he shall reimburse me, in pleasure, for all that he has taken from
me in money. He shall shed his blood drop by drop, as a bad debtor who
pays sou by sou."

You would not believe, Monsieur, with what struggles the most wretched
man will cling to life. Truly, I longed to die; and the happiest thing
which could happen to me would be to end it all with one blow.
Something, however, rejoiced me at Hadgi-Stavros' threat. I blessed the
extension of my time. Hope sprang up in my heart. If a charitable friend
had offered to blow out my brains I would have looked twice at him.

Four brigands took me by the shoulders and legs and carried me, a
shrieking mass, to the King's cabinet. My voice awakened Sophocles on
his pallet. He called his companions and made them tell him the news,
and asked to look at me closely. It was the caprice of a sick person.
They threw me down by his side.

"Milord," he said to me, "we are both very weak, but the odds are that I
shall get well sooner than you do. It appears that they are already
talking of my successor. How unjust men are! My place is up for
competition. Oh, well! I wish to compete and to put myself in the race.
You will bear witness in my favor and your groans will testify that
Sophocles is not yet dead. You shall be bound, and I take upon myself
the pleasure of tormenting you with one hand, as spiritedly as the
strongest of the band."

In order to please the unfortunate fellow they bound me. He turned over
towards me and began to pull out hairs, one by one, with the patience
and the regularity of a professional hair remover. When I saw what this
new punishment was to be, I believed that the wounded man, touched by my
misery, and sympathizing with me because of his own sufferings, wished
to shield me from his comrades, and give me an hour's respite. The
extraction of one hair is not so painful, by a good deal, as the prick
of a pin. The first twenty came out, one after the other, without any
discomfiture. But soon I changed my tune. The scalp, irritated by a
multitude of imperceptible lesions, became inflamed. A dull itching
began on my head; it became a little livelier; and at last it was
intolerable. I would like to have raised my hands to my head; I
understood with what intuition the wretch had had me bound. Impatience
but aggravated the trouble; all the blood in my body rushed to my head.
Every time Sophocles approached his hand to my scalp, a woful shivering
seized my whole body. A thousand inexplicable stingings tormented my
arms and legs. The nervous system, irritated at every point, enveloped
me in a network more exasperating than Dejanire's tunic. I rolled over
on the ground, I groaned, I cried for mercy, I regretted the bastinado.
The executioner had pity on me only when he had completely exhausted
himself. When he felt his eyes become dim, his head heavy, and his arm
weary, he made a last effort, plunged his hand into my hair, seized a
fist full, and fell over on his pallet, drawing from me a despairing
cry.

"Come with me," said Moustakas. "Thou shalt decide, in a corner by the
fire, if I can compete with Sophocles, and whether I merit a
lieutenancy."

He raised me like a feather and carried me to the camp, in front of a
heap of resinous wood and piled up brushwood. He took off the bonds, he
stripped me of my clothes, leaving me only my trousers. "Thou shalt be
my under-cook," he said. "We will make the fire and we will prepare the
King's dinner, together."

He lighted the stack of wood and laid me out on my back, about two feet
from the mountain of flames. The wood crackled, the red cinders fell
like hail around me. The heat became unbearable. I hitched along with my
hands a little distance, but he came with a frying-pan in his hand, and
pushed me back with his foot to the place where he had first laid me.

"Look well, and profit by my lessons. Here are the heart, liver, and
kidneys from three sheep; there is enough to feed twenty men. The King
will choose the most delicate morsels; he will distribute the remainder
to his men. Thou wilt have none of it for the present, and if thou
tastest my cooking, it will be with the eyes only."

I soon heard the bubbling in the sauce pan, and it reminded me that I
had been fasting since the evening before. My hunger added one more
torment. Moustakas held the pan under my eyes and made me look at the
appetizing color of the meat. He thrust it under my nose and I smelled
the steam of the food. Suddenly he perceived that he had forgotten the
seasoning, and he hurried away to find the salt and pepper, leaving the
sauce pan to my care. The first idea which came to me was to steal a
piece of the meat, but the brigands were only ten feet away; they would
stop me at once. "If I only had my package of arsenic," I thought. What
could I have done with it? I had not put it back in my box. I thrust my
hands into my pockets. I drew out a soiled paper and a handful of that
beneficent powder, which would save me, perhaps, or at least avenge me.

Moustakas returned at the instant when I was holding my open hand above
the sauce pan. He seized me by the arm, looked me straight in the eye,
and said in a menacing tone: "I know what thou hast done."

I dropped my arm discouraged. The cook added:

"Yes, thou hast thrown something over the King's dinner."

"What?"

"A spell. But no matter. Believe me, my poor milord, Hadgi-Stavros is a
greater sorcerer than thou art. I am going to serve his dinner. I will
have my part of it, but thou shalt not taste it."

"Great good may it do thee!"

He left me before the fire, placing me in the care of a dozen brigands
who were crunching black bread and bitter olives. These Spartans kept me
company for an hour or two. They attended to my fire with the
watchfulness of sick nurses. If, at times, I attempted to drag myself a
little further away from my torture they cried out: "Take care, thou
wilt freeze!" And they pushed me toward the flames with heavy blows of
the burning brushwood. My back was covered with red spots, my skin was
raised in blisters, my eye-lashes had succumbed to the heat of the fire,
my hair exhaled an odor of burning horn, and yet I rubbed my hands in
glee at the thought of the King eating my cooking and that something
startling would happen upon Parnassus before night.

Very soon Hadgi-Stavros' men re-appeared in the camp, stomachs filled,
eyes shining, faces smiling. "Go on!" I thought, "your joy and your
health will soon fall like a mask, and you will curse each mouthful of
the feast which I seasoned for you!" The celebrated poisoner, Locuste,
must have passed some very pleasant moments during her life. When one
has reason to hate men, it is pleasure enough to see a vigorous being
who goes, who comes, who laughs, who sings, while carrying in his
intestines a seed of death which will spring up and devour him. It is a
little like the same joy a good doctor experiences at the sight of a
dying man whom he is able to bring back to life. Locuste used medicine
inversely, as I did.

My malevolent reflections were interrupted by a singular tumult. The
dogs barked in chorus, and a messenger, out of breath, appeared on the
plateau with the whole pack at his heels. It was Dimitri, the son of
Christodule. Some stones thrown by the bandits freed him from his
escort. He shouted at the top of his lungs: "The King! I must speak to
the King!" When he was about twenty steps from us, I called to him in a
doleful tone. He was terrified at the state in which he found me, and he
cried out: "The fools! Poor girl!"

"My good Dimitri!" I said to him, "where dost thou come from? Will my
ransom be paid?"

"The ransom is well at stake, but fear nothing, I bring good news. Good
for you, bad for me, for him, for her, for everybody! I must see
Hadgi-Stavros. There is not a moment to lose. Until I come back, suffer
no one to do you any harm; she would die for it! You hear, you
wretches; do not touch milord. For your life. The King would cut you in
pieces. Conduct me to the King!"

The world is such that a man who speaks as a master is almost sure of
being obeyed. There was so much authority in the voice of this servant,
and his passion expressed itself in a tone so imperious that my guards,
astonished and stupefied, forgot to keep me near the fire. I crept some
distance away, and deliciously reposed upon the cold rock, until
Hadgi-Stavros' arrival. He appeared not less agitated than Dimitri. He
took me in his arms like a sick child, and carried me, without stopping,
to that fatal chamber where Vasile was buried. He laid me on his own
carpet with maternal solicitude; he stepped back and looked at me with a
curious mixture of hate and pity. He said to Dimitri: "My child, this is
the first time that I have left such a crime unpunished. He killed
Vasile, that was nothing. He would have assassinated me, I pardoned him.
But he robbed me, the scamp! Eighty thousand francs less in Photini's
dowry! I sought for a punishment equal to his crime. Oh, rest easy! I
should have found it. Unhappy that I am! Why did I not restrain my
anger? I have treated him harshly. And she will bear the penalty. If she
receives two blows of the stick upon her little feet I shall never see
her again. Men do not die of it, but a woman, a child of fifteen!"

He cleared the place of all the men who were crowding around us. He
gently unwound the bloody bandages which enveloped my wounds. He sent
his pipe-bearer for the balm of Ludgi-Bey. He seated himself on the
damp grass in front of me, he took my feet in his hands and looked at
the wounds. An almost incredible thing to tell! There were tears in his
eyes!

"Poor child!" he said, "you have suffered cruelly. Pardon me. I am an
old brute, a wolf of the mountain, a Palikar. I was trained in ferocity
from twenty years of age. But you see that my heart is good, since I
regret what I have done. I am more unhappy than you, because your eyes
are dry and I weep. I shall set you at liberty without a moment's delay,
or rather, no, you cannot go away thus. I will cure you first. The balm
is a sovereign remedy. I will care for you as for a son. Health shall
return quickly. You must be able to walk to-morrow. She must not remain
a day longer in your friend's hands. In the name of Heaven tell no one
of our quarrel to-day! You know that I do not hate you! I have said so
often. I sympathized with you and I gave you my confidence. I told you
my most sacred secrets. Do you not remember that we were friends until
Vasile's death? An instant's anger must not make you forget twelve days
of good treatment. You would not wish to break a father's heart. You are
an honest young man; your friend ought to be good like you."

"But who, then?"

"Who? That cursed Harris! that devilish American! that execrable pirate!
that kidnapper of children! that assassin of young girls! that wretch
whom I wish I held with you so that I could crush you in my hands, grind
you together, and scatter your dust to the winds of my mountains! You
are all the same, Europeans, a race of traitors, who dare not attack
men, and who have courage to fight only against children. Read what he
has written me and tell me if there are tortures cruel enough to
chastise a crime like his!"

He savagely hurled a crumpled letter at me. I instantly recognized the
writing, and I read:

     "Sunday, May 11, on board The Fancy, Bay of Salamis.

     "Hadgi-Stavros:

     "Photini is on board under guard of four American cannons. I shall
     hold her as hostage as long as Hermann Schultz is prisoner. As thou
     treatest my friend, so shall I treat thy daughter. She shall pay
     hair for hair, tooth for tooth, head for head. Reply to me without
     delay, otherwise I shall come to see thee!

     "John Harris."

On reading this letter I could not restrain my joy. "The good Harris!" I
shouted, "I who accused him! But explain, Dimitri, why he has not
rescued me sooner?"

"He has been away, Mr. Hermann; he was chasing pirates. He returned
yesterday morning, unfortunately for us. Why did he not remain away!"

"Excellent Harris! He has not lost a single day. But where did he kidnap
the daughter of this old scamp?"

"At our house, M. Hermann. You know her, Photini. You have dined more
than once with her."

The Daughter of the King of the Mountains was then that boarding-school
miss with the flat nose, who sighed for John Harris.

I concluded from this that the abduction had been accomplished without
violence.

The pipe-bearer now came up with a package of linen and a bottle filled
with yellow pomade. The King dressed my feet with practiced touch, and I
experienced within an hour a certain relief. Hadgi-Stavros was, at this
moment, a fine subject for the study of psychology. He had as much
brutality in his eyes as delicacy in his touch. He unwound the bandages
from my instep so gently that I scarcely felt it; but his glance said:
"If I could only strangle thee!" He took out the pins as adroitly as a
woman; but with what pleasure would he have thrust his cangiar into me.

When he had adjusted the bandages, he stretched out his clenched fists
and savagely roared:

"I am no longer a King, since I must refrain from gratifying my anger!
I, who have always commanded, I obey a threat! He, who has made millions
of men tremble, is afraid! They will boast of it, without doubt; they
will tell the whole world of it; Oh! for the means to silence those
European gossips! They will publish it in their papers, perhaps even in
their novels. Why did I marry? Ought such a man to have children? I was
born to fight soldiers and not to rear up little girls! Thunder is not
for children; cannons are not for children. If they were, they would no
longer fear the thunder-bolts and cannon-balls. This John Harris may
well laugh at me! What if I should declare war against him? What if I
should capture his ship by force? I have attacked many, when I was a
pirate, and twenty such cannons did not trouble me. But my daughter was
not on board. Dear little one! You know her then, Monsieur Hermann? Why
did you not tell me that you boarded with Christodule? I would have
asked no ransom; I would have released you instantly, for love of
Photini. Truly, I wish that she knew your language. She will be a
princess in Germany, some day or other. Is it not true that she will
make a beautiful Princess? I think so! Since you know her you will
forbid your friend to do her any harm. Could you have the heart to see a
tear fall from those dear eyes? She has never harmed you, the poor
innocent! If anyone ought to expiate your sufferings, it is I. Tell M.
John Harris that you bruised your feet on the paths; you may then do me
any harm you choose."

Dimitri stopped this torrent of words. "It is very unfortunate that M.
Hermann is wounded. Photini is not safe in the midst of those heretics,
and I know M. Harris: he is capable of anything!"

The King scowled. Suspicions of a lover entered the father's heart. "Be
off, then," he said to me; "I will carry you if necessary to the foot of
the mountain; you can find, in some village, a horse, a carriage, a
litter; I will furnish everything needed. But let him know, that from
to-day, you are free, and swear to me, on the head of your mother, that
you will tell no one of the injury which has been done you?"

I scarcely knew how I could endure the fatigues of the journey; but
anything seemed preferable to the company of my tormentors. I feared
that a new obstacle might arise before I was free. I said to the King:
"Let us start! I swear to you by all I hold most sacred, that they shall
not touch a hair of your daughter's head!"

He raised me in his arms, threw me over his shoulder, and mounted the
staircase to his cabinet. The entire band rushed out in front of him and
barred our passage. Moustakas, livid as a man attacked with cholera,
said to him: "Where art thou going? The German has thrown a spell over
the food. We are suffering all the pains of hell. We are frightfully
ill, through his fault, and we wish to see him die."

My hopes were dashed to the ground. Dimitri's arrival; John Harris'
providential interference; Hadgi-Stavros' change of front; the
humiliation of that superb head to the feet of his prisoner; so many
events, crowded into a quarter of an hour, had turned my head; I had
already forgotten the past, and I had rashly begun to count on the
future.

At the sight of Moustakas, I remembered the poison. I felt that any
moment might precipitate a fearful event. I clung to the King of the
Mountains, I wound my arms around his neck, I begged him to carry me
away without delay. "It will redound to thy glory," I said to him.
"Prove to these savages that thou art King! Do not reply! words are
useless. Let us pass over their bodies. Thou knowest thyself what
interest thou hast in saving me. Thy daughter loves John Harris; I am
sure of it, she confessed it to me!"

"Wait!" he replied. "Let us pass first! we can talk later."

He laid me carefully down on the ground, and rushed, with clenched
fists, into the midst of the bandits. "You are fools!" he shouted. "The
first one who touches milord will answer to me. What spell do you say he
has cast? I ate with you; am I ill? Let me pass! he is an honest man; he
is my friend!"

Suddenly, he changed countenance; his legs gave way under the weight of
his body. He seated himself near me, leaned toward me and said with more
grief than anger:

"Imprudent! Why did you not tell me that you had poisoned us?"

I seized the King's hand; it was cold. His features were convulsed; his
marble-like face became a frightful color. At this sight, my strength
suddenly failed me, and I felt that I was dying. I had nothing more to
hope for in the world; had I not condemned myself, in killing the only
man who had any interest in saving me? My head fell on my breast, and I
sat, helpless, by the side of the livid and shivering old man.

Moustakas and some of the others had, already, stretched out their hands
to seize me and compel me to share their sufferings. Hadgi-Stavros had
no strength to defend me. Occasionally, a terrible hiccough shook the
King, as the wood-cutter's ax shakes an oak a hundred years old. The
bandits were persuaded that he was dying, and that the invincible old
man was about, at last, to be conquered by death. All the ties which
bound them to their chief, bonds of interest, of fear, of hope, and of
gratitude, broke like the threads of a spider's web. The Greeks are the
most restive people in the world. Their inordinate and intemperate
vanity was sometimes subdued, but like a steel ready to rebound. They
knew how, in case of need, to lean upon the strongest, or how to
modestly follow the lead of the ablest, but not how to pardon the master
who had protected and enriched them. For thirty centuries or more, this
nation has been composed of a people, egotistical and jealous, which
only necessity has held together, which inclination separates, and which
no human power could unite entirely.

Hadgi-Stavros learned to his cost that one does not command, with
impunity, sixty Greeks. His authority did not survive an instant longer
than his moral force or his physical vigor. Without mentioning the
wounded men who shook their fists in our faces, while reproaching us for
their sufferings, the able-bodied grouped themselves in front of their
legitimate king, around a huge, brutal peasant, named Coltzida. He was
the most garrulous and most shameless of the band, an impudent blockhead
without talent and without courage; one of those who hide during action,
and who carry the flag after a victory; but in like situations, fortune
favors impudent braggarts. Coltzida, proud of his lungs, heaped insults,
by the score, on Hadgi-Stavros, as a grave-digger heaps the earth on the
grave of a dead man.

"Thou seest," he said, "a wise man, an invincible general, an
all-powerful king, and invulnerable mortal! Thou hast not deserved thy
glory, and we have been far-sighted in trusting ourselves to thee! What
have we gained in thy company? How hast thou served us? Thou hast given
us fifty-four miserable francs a month, a beggarly pittance. Thou hast
fed us on black bread and mouldy cheese which you would not touch, while
thou hast accumulated a fortune and sent ships loaded with gold to
foreign bankers. What benefit have we received from our victories and
for all the blood which we have shed in the mountains? Nothing! thou
hast kept all for thyself, spoils, personal effects, prisoners' ransoms!
It is true that thou hast left us the bayonet thrusts: it is the only
profit of which thou hast not taken thy share. During the two years I
have been with thee, I have received four wounds in the back, and thou
hast not a scar to show! If, at least, thou hadst known how to lead us!
If thou hadst chosen good opportunities, when there was little to risk
and much to gain! Thou hast beaten us; thou hast been our executioner;
thou hast sent us into the wolves' jaws! Thou hast then hastened to be
done with us and to retire us on a pension! Thou wert longing so much to
see us all buried near Vasile that thou deliveredst us to this cursed
lord, who has thrown a spell over our bravest soldiers! But do not hope
to cheat us from our vengeance. I know why thou wishest to have him go
away; he has paid his ransom. But what dost thou wish to do with this
money? Wilt thou carry it away to a foreign country? Thou art sick,
opportunely, my poor Hadgi-Stavros. Milord has not spared thee, thou art
dying also, and it is well! My friends, we are our own masters. We will
no longer obey anyone, we will do whatever pleases us, we will eat the
best, we will drink all of the wine of Aegina, we will burn an entire
forest to cook whole herds, we will pillage the kingdom! we will take
Athens and we will camp in the Palace gardens! You have only to allow
yourselves to be led; I know the best methods! Let us begin by throwing
the old man, with his much loved lord, into the ravine; I will then tell
you what is necessary to do!"

Coltzida's eloquence came near costing us our lives, because his
audience applauded. Hadgi-Stavros' old comrades, ten or a dozen devoted
Palikars, who might have come to his aid, had eaten dessert at his
table: they were also writhing in agony. But a popular orator cannot
elevate himself above his fellows without creating jealousies. When it
became clear that Coltzida proposed to become chief of the band,
Tambouris and some other ambitious ones faced about and ranged
themselves on our side. To a man they liked better the man who knew how
to lead them than this insolent braggart, whose incapacity repelled
them. They urged that the King had not long to live, and that he would
appoint his successor from among the faithful who remained around him.
It was no ordinary affair. The odds were that the capitalists would more
readily ratify Hadgi-Stavros' choice, than endorse a revolutionary
election. Eight or ten voices were raised in our defense. Ours, because
our interests were one. I clung to the King of the Mountains, and he had
one arm around my neck. Tambouris and his fellows put their heads
together; a plan of defense was formed; three men profited by the
uproar to run, with Dimitri, to the arsenal, to get arms and cartridges,
and to lay along the path a train of powder. They came back and
discreetly mixed with the crowd. They formed into two parties; insults
were hurled from one to the other. Our champions, with their backs to
Mary-Ann's chamber, guarded the staircase, they made a rampart of their
bodies for us, and kept the enemy in the King's cabinet. In the
scrimmage, a pistol-shot rung out. A ribbon of fire ran over the ground
and the rock flew up with a fearful noise.

Coltzida and his followers, surprised by the detonation, ran to the
arsenal. Tambouris lost not an instant; he raised Hadgi-Stavros,
descended the staircase in two bounds, laid him in a safe place,
returned, picked me up, carried, and laid me at the King's feet. Our
friends intrenched themselves in the chamber, cut trees, barricaded the
staircase, and organized a defense before Coltzida could return.

Then, we counted our forces. Our army was composed of the King, his two
servants, Tambouris with eight brigands, Dimitri, and myself; in all
fourteen men, of whom three were disabled. The coffee-bearer had been
poisoned also, and he began to show the first rigors of illness. But we
had two guns apiece, and a great supply of cartridges, while the enemy
had no arms nor ammunition except what they carried on their persons.
They possessed the advantage of numbers and point of vantage. We did not
know exactly how many able-bodied men they had, but we must expect to
meet twenty-five or thirty assailants. I need not describe to you the
place of siege: you know it. Believe, however, that the aspect of the
place had changed a great deal since the day when I breakfasted there
for the first time, under guard of the Corfuan, with Mrs. Simons and
Mary-Ann. The roots of our beautiful trees were exposed, and the
nightingale was far away. What is more important for you to know, is,
that we were protected on the right and left by rocks, inaccessible even
to the enemy. They could attack us from the King's cabinet, and they
could watch us from the bottom of the ravine. On the one hand, their
balls flew over us; on the other, ours flew over the sentinels, but at
such long range that it was wasting our ammunition.

If Coltzida and his companions had possessed the least idea of war, they
could have done for us. They could have raised the barricade, entered by
force, driven us into a corner, or thrown us over into the ravine. But
the imbecile, who had two men to our one, thought to husband his
ammunition, and place, as sharp-shooters, twenty stupid men who did not
know how to discharge a gun. Our men were not much more skillful. Better
commanded, however, and wiser, they managed to smash five heads before
night fell. The combatants knew each other by name. They called to each
other after the fashion of Homer's heroes. One attempted to convert the
other by aiming at his cheek; the other replied by a ball and by
argument. The combat was only an armed discussion when, from time to
time, the muskets spoke.

As for me, stretched out in a corner, sheltered from the balls, I tried
to undo my fatal work, and to recall the poor King of the Mountains to
life. He suffered cruelly; he complained of great thirst, and a sharp
pain in the upper part of the abdomen. His icy hands and feet were
violently convulsed. The pulse was irregular, the respiration labored.
His stomach seemed to struggle against an internal execution, without
being able to expel it. His mind had lost nothing of its vigor and its
quickness; his bright and keen eye searched the horizon in the direction
of the Bay of Salamis, and Photini's floating prison.

He grasped my hand and said: "Cure me, my dear child! You are a doctor,
you ought to cure me. I will not reproach you with what you have done;
you were right; you had reason to kill me, because I swore that without
your friend Harris I would not have allowed you to escape me. Is there
nothing to quench the fire which consumes me? I care nothing for life; I
have lived long enough; but if I die, they will kill you, and my poor
Photini will be sacrificed. I suffer! Feel my hands; it seems to me that
they are already dead. Do you believe that this American will have the
heart to carry out his threats? What was it you told me a little while
ago? Photini loves him! Poor little one! I have brought her up to become
the wife of a king. I would rather see her dead, than--no, I would
rather, after all, that she should love this young man; perhaps he may
take pity on her. What are you to him? a friend; nothing more; you are
not even a compatriot. One may have as many friends as one wishes; one
cannot find two women like Photini; I would strangle all my friends if
I found it to my advantage; I would never kill a woman who loved me. If
only he knew how rich she is! Americans are practical, at least, so it
is said. But the poor, little innocent knows nothing about her fortune.
I ought to have told her. But how can I let him know that she will have
a dowry of four millions? We are Coltzida's prisoners. Cure me then, and
by all the saints in paradise I will crush the reptile!"

I am not a physician, and all I know about toxicology is in its
elementary treatment; I remembered, however, that arsenical poisoning
was cured only by a method similar to "Doctor Sangrado." I used means to
make the old man eject the contents of his stomach, and I soon began to
hope that the poison was almost expelled. Reaction followed; his skin
became burning hot, the pulse quickened, his face flushed, his eyes were
blood-shot. I asked him if any one of his men knew enough to bleed him.
He tied a bandage tightly around his arm, and coolly opened a vein
himself, to the noise of the fusilade and while the bullets dashed
around him. He let out a sufficient amount of blood, and asked me in a
sweet and tranquil tone, what else there was to do. I ordered him to
drink, to drink more, to keep on drinking, until the last particle of
arsenic had been disposed of. The goat-skin of white wine which had
killed Vasile was still in the chamber. This wine, mixed with water,
brought back life to the King. He obeyed me like a child. I believe that
the first time I held out the cup to him, his poor, old suffering
Highness seized my hand to kiss it.

Toward ten o'clock he became much better, but his pipe-bearer was dead.
The poor devil could neither rid himself of the poison, nor revive. They
threw him into the ravine, at the top of the cascade. All our defenders
were in good condition, without a wound, but famished as wolves in
December. As for me, I had been without food for twenty-four hours, and
I was very hungry. The enemy, in order to defy us, passed the night
eating and drinking above our heads. They threw to us some mutton bones
and some empty goat-skin bottles. Our men replied with some shots,
guessing at the position of our foes. We could plainly hear the cries of
joy and the groans of the dying. Coltzida was drunk; the wounded and the
sick howled in unison; Moustakas did not shout for a long time. The
tumult kept me awake the entire night near the old King. Ah! Monsieur,
how long the nights seem to him who is not sure of the next day!

Tuesday morning broke gray and wet. The sky looked threatening at
sunrise, and a disagreeable rain fell alike on friend and foe. But if we
were wide awake enough to protect our arms and ammunition, General
Coltzida's army had not taken the same precaution. The first engagement
redounded entirely to our honor. The enemy was badly hidden, and fired
their pistols with shaking hands. The game seemed so good a one, that I
took a gun like the others. What happened I will write to you about at
some future time, if I ever become a doctor. I have already confessed to
murders enough for a man whose business it is not. Hadgi-Stavros
followed my example; but his hands refused to act; his extremities were
swollen and painful, and I announced to him, with my usual frankness,
that this incapacity might last as long as he did.

About nine o'clock the enemy, who seemed to be very attentive in
responding to us, suddenly turned their backs. I heard heavy firing
which was not directed to us, and I concluded that Master Coltzida had
allowed himself to be surprised in the rear. Who was the unknown ally
who was serving us so good a turn? Was it prudent to effect a junction
and to demolish our barricade? I asked nothing else, but the King
believed that it was a troop of the line, and Tambouris gnawed his
moustache. All our doubts were soon removed. A voice which was not
unknown to me, cried: "All right!" Three young men, armed to the teeth,
sprang forward like tigers, broke down the barricade and fell in our
midst. Harris and Lobster held in each hand a six-shooter. Giacomo
brandished a musket, the butt-end in the air, like a club: it was thus
that he knew how to use fire-arms.

A thunder-bolt falling into the chamber would have produced less magical
effect than the appearance of these men, who shot right and left, and
who seemed to carry death in their hands. My three fellow-boarders,
excited by the noise, elated with victory, perceived neither
Hadgi-Stavros nor me. They only turned around in order to kill a man,
and God knows! they did their work well. Our poor champions, astonished,
affrighted, were overcome without having had time to defend themselves
or to be recognized. I, who would have saved their lives, shouted from
my corner; but my voice was drowned in the whistling of bullets, and
the shouts of the conquerors. Dimitri, crouching between the King and
me, vainly joined his voice to mine. Harris, Lobster, and Giacomo fired,
ran here and there, knocked down, counting the blows, each in his own
tongue.

"One!" said Lobster.

"Two!" responded Harris.

"Tre! quatro! cinque!" growled Giacomo. The fifth was Tambouris. His
head split under the blow like a fresh nut struck by a stone. The brains
were scattered about, and the body sunk into the water like a bundle of
clothes which a washerwoman throws in the edge of a brook. My friends
were a fine sight in their horrible work. They killed with ferocity,
they delighted in the justice they meted out. While running toward the
camp, the wind had blown away their hats; their locks were disheveled;
their glistening eyes shone so murderously, that it was difficult to
decide whether death was dealt by their looks or by their hands. One
could have said that destruction was incarnate in this panting trio.
When they had removed all obstacles from their path and they saw no
enemies but the three or four wounded men stretched on the ground, they
stopped to breathe. Harris' first thought was for me. Giacomo had only
one care: he wished to ascertain whether, among the number, he had
broken Hadgi-Stavros' head. Harris shouted: "Hermann, where are you?"

"Here!" I replied: and the three fighters ran at my call.

The King of the Mountains, feeble as he was, put one hand on my
shoulder, raised himself from the rock, looked fixedly at these men who
had killed such a number to reach him, and said in a firm tone: "I am
Hadgi-Stavros!"

You know that my friends had waited for a long time for occasion to
chastise the old Palikar. They had promised themselves to celebrate his
death as a festival. They would avenge Mistra's little daughters; a
thousand other victims; me, and themselves. But, however, I had no need
to restrain them. There was such remains of greatness in this hero in
ruins, that their anger fell from them and gave way to astonishment.
They were all three young men, and at the age when one no longer takes
arms against a disarmed enemy. I related to them, in a few words, how
the King had defended me against his whole band, almost dead as he was,
and on the same day on which I had poisoned him. I explained to them
about the battle they had interrupted, the barricades they had broken
down, and that strange contest in which they had interfered and killed
our defenders.

"So much the worse for them!" said John Harris. "We wear, like Justice,
a bandage over our eyes. If the rogues performed a good deed before they
died, it will be counted in their favor up above; I do not object to
it."

"As for the men of whom we have deprived you, do not worry about them,"
said Lobster. "With two revolvers in our hands and two more in our
pockets, we have each been worth twenty-four men. We have killed these;
the others have only to come back. Is it not so, Giacomo?"

"As for me, I could knock down an army of bulls!" said the Maltese; "I
am in the humor for it. And to think that one is reduced to sealing
letters with two such fists as these!"

The enemy, however, recovered from their astonishment, had again begun
the siege. Three or four brigands had poked their noses over our
ramparts and saw the carnage. Coltzida knew not what to think of the
three scourges who had struck blindly, right and left, among friends and
foes; but he decided that either sword or poison must have freed the
King of the Mountains. He prudently ordered the men to demolish our
defense. We were out of sight, sheltered by the wall, about ten steps
from the staircase. The noise of the falling barricade warned my friends
to reload their revolvers. The King allowed them to do so. He said to
John Harris:

"Where is Photini?"

"On my ship."

"You have not harmed her?"

"Do you think that I have taken lessons from you in torturing young
girls?"

"You are right, I am a miserable old dog; pardon me! Promise me to
forgive her!"

"What the devil do you want me to do with her? Now that I have found
Hermann, I will send her back to you whenever you wish."

"Without ransom?"

"You old beast!"

"You shall see whether I am an old beast!"

He passed his left arm around Dimitri's neck, he extended his shriveled
and trembling hand toward the hilt of his sword, painfully drew the
blade from the scabbard, and marched toward the staircase where Coltzida
and his men stood hesitating. They recoiled at sight of him, as if the
earth had opened to allow the passage of the ruler of the infernal
regions. There were fifteen or twenty, all armed; not one dared to
defend himself, to make excuses, nor even to attempt to escape. They
trembled in all their limbs, at sight of the terrible face of the
resuscitated King. Hadgi-Stavros marched straight to Coltzida, who,
paler and more horrified than the others, attempted to hide behind his
companions. The King threw his arm backwards by an effort impossible to
describe, and with one blow severed his head from his body. Instantly, a
trembling seized him. His sword fell on the dead man and he did not
deign to pick it up.

"Let us go on," he said, "I carry an empty scabbard. The blade is no
longer of use, neither am I; I am done for!"

His old companions approached to ask pardon. Some of them begged him not
to abandon them; they knew not what to do without him. He did not honor
them with a word of response. He implored us to accompany him to Castia
to find horses, and to Salamis to search for Photini.

The brigands allowed us to depart without hindrance. After a few steps,
my friends noticed that I could scarcely step; Giacomo helped me along;
Harris asked if I was wounded. The King gave me a beseeching look, poor
man! I told my friends that I had attempted a perilous escape, and that
my feet had been badly wounded. We carefully picked our way down the
mountain paths. The groans of the wounded, and the voices of the bandits
who were discussing matters, followed us for quite a distance. As we
approached the village, the weather changed, and the path began to dry
under our feet. The first ray of sunlight which burst forth seemed to me
very beautiful. Hadgi-Stavros paid little attention to the outside
world; he communed within himself. It is something to break off a habit
of fifty years standing.

On the outskirts of Castia, we met the monk who was carrying a swarm of
bees in a sack. He greeted us courteously, and excused himself for not
having visited us since the evening before. The musket shots had
intimidated him. The King saluted him and passed on. My friends' horses
were waiting, with their guide, near the fountain. I asked them how they
happened to have four horses. They said that M. Mérinay made one of the
party, but that he had alighted to inspect a curious stone, and that he
had not yet re-appeared.

Giacomo Fondi lifted me to the saddle at arm's length; he could not
resist the temptation. The King, assisted by Dimitri, painfully climbed
into his. Harris and his nephew vaulted into theirs; Giacomo, Dimitri,
and the guide preceded us on foot.

The path widening, I rode up beside Harris, and he related to me how
the King's daughter had fallen into his hands:

"Imagine;" he said to me. "I had just arrived from my cruise, much
pleased with myself, and very proud of having run down a half-dozen
pirates. I anchored off Piraeus, Sunday, at six o'clock; I landed; and
as I had been eight days tête-à-tête with my head officer, I promised
myself a little pleasure in conversation. I stopped a fiacre, I hired it
for the evening. I arrived at Christodule's house in the midst of a
general hubbub; I would never have believed that so much trouble could
be found in a pastry-cook's house. Every one was there for supper.
Christodule, Maroula, Dimitri, Giacomo, William, M. Mérinay and the
little Sunday girl, more tricked out than ever. William related to me
your story. It is useless to tell you that I made a great uproar. I was
furious with myself for not having been in the city. My nephew assured
me that he had done all he could. He had scoured the city for fifteen
thousand francs, but his parents had opened only a limited credit for
him; briefly, he had not found the amount. In despair, he addressed
himself to M. Mérinay: but the sweet Mérinay pretended that all his
money was lent to his intimate friends, far from here, very
far;--farther than the end of the world!

"'Eh! Zounds!' I said to Lobster, 'it is in lead-money that one must pay
the old scoundrel. For what good is it to be as dextrous as Nimrod, if
one's talent is good only to break Socrates' prison? We must organize a
hunt for the old Palikars! Once, I refused a journey to Central Africa:
I have since regretted it. It is double pleasure to shoot an animal
which defends itself. Provide plenty of powder and balls, and to-morrow
morning we will set out on a campaign.' William took the bait, Giacomo
brought his fist down in a crashing blow on the table; you know what
Giacomo's fist-blows are. He swore that he would accompany us, provided
he could find a single-barreled gun. But the most enraged of all was M.
Mérinay. He wished to bathe his hands in the blood of those wretches. We
accepted his services, but I offered to buy the game which he would
bring back. He swelled out his little voice in the most comical fashion,
and showing his fists to Mademoiselle, said that Hadgi-Stavros would
have business to settle with him.

"I laughed gleefully like those who are always gay the night before a
battle. Lobster became very merry at the thought of showing the bandits
the progress he had made. Giacomo could not contain himself for joy; the
corners of his mouth went around dangerously near his ears; he cracked
nuts with the face of a nut-cracker of Nuremburg. M. Mérinay had a halo
around his head. He was no longer a man, but a pyrotechnic display.

"Except us, the guests resembled alder trees. The pastry-cook's huge
wife made signs of the cross; Dimitri raised his eyes to heaven,
Christodule advised us to think twice before we provoked the King of the
Mountains. But the girl with the flat nose, the one to whom you gave the
name of Crinolina invariabilis, was plunged in grief which was quite
amusing. She fetched great sighs like a wood-splitter; she did this
only to keep herself in countenance, and I could have put in my left eye
all the supper which she put into her mouth."

"She is a good girl, Harris."

"Good girl as much as you wish, but I find that your indulgence for her
passes all bounds. I have never been able to pardon her for her dresses
which thrust themselves obstinately under the legs of my chair, the odor
of patchouli which she spreads around me, and the lackadaisical glances
which she passes around the table. One would say, upon my word, that she
is not capable of looking at a carafe without casting sheep's eyes at
it. But if you love her, such as she is, there is nothing to be said.
She left at nine o'clock for her boarding-school; I wished her bon
voyage. Ten minutes afterward I shook hands with our friends, we made a
rendezvous for the next day, I went out, I wakened my coachman and guess
whom I found in my carriage? Crinolina invariabilis with the
pastry-cook's servant.

"She placed her finger on her lips. I entered without saying a word, and
we started. 'Monsieur Harris,' she said in very good English, by my
faith, 'swear to me to renounce your plans against the King of the
Mountains.'

"I began to laugh, and she began to weep. She declared that I would be
killed; I replied that it was I who would kill the others; she objected
to having Hadgi-Stavros killed; I wished to know why; at last, at the
end of her eloquence, she cried out, as if in the fifth act of a play:
'He is my father!' Upon that I began to seriously reflect; once in a way
does not count. I thought that it might be possible to recover a lost
friend without risking two or three others, and I said to the young
Palikar:

"'Your father loves you?'

"'More than his life.'

"'He never refuses you anything?'

"'Nothing that is necessary.'

"'And if you should write to him that you wanted M. Hermann Schultz
would he send him to you with the message-bearer?'

"'No.'

"'You are absolutely sure of it?'

"'Absolutely.'

"'Then, Mademoiselle, I have but one thing to do. Set a thief to catch a
thief. I will carry you on board The Fancy, and I will hold you as a
hostage until Hermann is returned.'

"'I was about to propose it to you,' she said. 'At that price papa will
send back your friend.'"

Here I interrupted John Harris' story.

"Oh, well! you do not admire the poor, young girl who loves you enough
to give herself into your hands?"

"A fine affair!" he replied. "She wished to save that honest man, her
father, and she well knew that once war was declared we would not let
him escape. I promised to treat her with all the respect a gallant man
ought to treat a woman. She wept until we reached Piraeus. I consoled
her as best I could. She murmured: 'I am a lost girl!' I demonstrated
to her by 'A' plus 'B' that she would find herself again. I made her get
out of the carriage. I helped her and the servant into my boat, which
now awaits us below. I wrote to the old brigand an explicit letter, and
I sent an old woman with a little message to Dimitri.

"Since that time the beautiful weeper enjoys undisputed possession of my
apartments. Orders were given that she was to be treated like the
daughter of a king. I waited until Monday evening for her father's
response; then my patience failed me; I returned to my first plan; I
took my pistols; I notified my friends, and you know the rest. Now it is
your turn; you ought to have a whole volume to recount."

"I must first speak to the King."

I approached him and said to him in a low tone: "I do not know why I
told you that Photini was in love with John Harris. Fear must have
turned my head. I have been talking with him, and I swear to you, on the
head of my father, that she is as indifferent to him as if he had never
spoken to her."

The old man thanked me with a motion of the hand, and I went back to
John Harris, and related my adventures with Mary-Ann. "Bravo!" he
exclaimed. "I find that the romance is not complete on account of the
absence of a little love. A sufficient amount will do no harm."

"Excuse me," I answered. "There is no love in it at all! A firm
friendship on one side, a little gratitude on the other. But nothing
more is necessary, I think, to make a reasonably suitable marriage."

"Marry, my friend, and permit me to be a witness to your happiness."

"You have well earned it, John Harris."

"When shall you see her again? I would give much to be present at the
interview."

"I would like to surprise her and meet her by chance."

"That is a good idea! After to-morrow, at the Court Ball! You are
invited. I am, too. Your note lies on your table, at Christodule's
house. Until then, my boy, you must remain on board my ship in order to
recuperate a little. Your hair is scorched and your feet are wounded; we
will have time to remedy all that."

It was six o'clock in the evening when the boat belonging to Harris put
off to The Fancy. They carried the King on deck; he could not walk.
Photini, weeping, threw herself into his arms. It was happiness to see
that those whom she loved had survived the battle, but she found her
father grown twenty years older. Possibly, also, she suffered from
Harris' indifference. He delivered her to her father in a characteristic
American fashion, saying: "We are quits! You have returned my friend to
me; I have restored Mademoiselle to you. An even exchange is no robbery!
Short accounts make long friends! And now, most venerable old man, under
what beneficent region of the earth will you search for the one who is
to hang you?"

"Pardon me," he replied, with a certain hauteur. "I have bidden adieu to
brigandage forever. What would I do in the mountains? All of my men are
dead, wounded or scattered. I could form another band; but these hands
which have been so powerful, refuse to act. Younger men must take my
place; but I defy them to equal my fortune and my renown. What shall I
do with what few years are left to me? I know not yet; but you may be
sure that my last days will not be idle ones. I have to establish my
daughter to dictate my memoirs. Possibly, even, if the shocks of this
week have not wearied my brain too severely, I will consecrate to the
service of the State my talents and my experience. May God give me
health and strength! before six months have passed I shall be President
of the Ministry!"




VIII.

THE COURT BALL.


Thursday, May 15, at six o'clock in the evening, John Harris, in full
uniform, took me to Christodule's house. The pastry-cook and his wife
gave me a warm reception, not without many sighs on account of the King
of the Mountains. As for me, I embraced them heartily. I was happy in
being alive, and I saw only friends on all sides. My feet were cured; my
hair trimmed, my stomach full. Dimitri assured me that Mrs. Simons, her
daughter, and her brother were invited to the Court Ball, and that the
laundress had taken a dress to the Hotel des Etrangers. I enjoyed, in
advance, Mary-Ann's surprise and joy. Christodule offered me a glass of
Santorin wine. In this glorious beverage I thought to drink to liberty,
riches, happiness. I mounted the staircase to my room, but before
retiring I knocked at M. Mérinay's door. He received me in the midst of
a medley of books and papers. "Dear sir, you see a man overwhelmed with
work," he said. "I found, above the village of Castia, an antique
inscription, which deprived me of the pleasure of fighting for you, and
which for six days has puzzled me. It is absolutely unknown, I assure
you of that. No one has seen it; I have the honor of discovering it; I
intend to give it my name. The stone is a small monument of shelly
limestone, 35 centimetres in height by 22, and set, by chance, on the
edge of the path. The characters are of the finest period of art and cut
to perfection. Here is the inscription as I copied it in my note-book:

"S. T. X. X. I. I.

"M. D. C. C. C. L. I.

"If I can translate it my fortune is made. I shall be made member of the
Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-lettres of Pont-Audemer! But the task
is a long and difficult one. Antiquity guards its secrets with jealous
care. I greatly fear that I have come across a monument relative to the
Eleusinian mysteries. In that case there may perhaps be two
interpretations to discover; the one the vulgar or demontique; the other
the sacred or hieratique. You must give me your advice."

I replied: "My advice is that of an ignorant man. I think that you have
discovered a mile-stone such as one often sees on long roads, and that
the inscription which has given you so much trouble can, without doubt,
be translated thus:

"Stade, 22, 1851. Good evening, my dear M. Mérinay; I am going to write
to my father and then put on my red uniform."

My letter to my parent was an ode, a hymn, a chant of happiness. The
exuberant joy which filled my heart overflowed upon the paper. I invited
the family to my wedding, not forgetting good Aunt Rosenthaler. I
implored my father to sell his inn at once; I ordered that Frantz and
Jean Nicolas should leave the service; I advised my other brothers to
change their business. I took everything upon myself; I assumed the
responsibility of the future of the whole family. Without losing a
moment I sealed the letter and sent it by special messenger to Piraeus,
to catch the German-Lloyd steamer, which sailed Friday morning at 6
o'clock. "In this way," I said to myself, "they will rejoice in my
happiness almost as soon as I shall."

At a quarter to nine sharp I entered the Palace with John Harris.
Neither Lobster, M. Mérinay nor Giacomo were invited. My three-cornered
hat was a little rusty, but by candlelight this little defect was not
noticeable. My sword was seven or eight centimetres too short; but what
of that? Courage is not measured by the length of a sword, and I had
without vanity the right to pass for a hero. The red coat was
tight-fitting; it pinched me under the arms, and the trimming on the
cuffs was quite a distance from my hands; but the embroidery showed to
advantage, as papa had prophesied.

The ballroom, decorated with taste and brilliantly lighted, was divided
into two sections. On one side behind the throne for the King and Queen
were the fauteuils reserved for the ladies; on the other were chairs for
the ugly sex. With one glance I swept the space occupied by the ladies.
Mary-Ann had not yet arrived.

At nine o'clock I saw enter the King and Queen, followed by the Grand
Mistress, the Marshal of the Palace, the aides-de-camp, the Ladies of
Honor, and the orderly officers, among whom I recognized M.
George-Micrommatis. The King was magnificently dressed in Palikar
uniform, and the Queen was resplendent with exquisite elegancies which
could come only from Paris. The gorgeousness of the toilets and the
glitter of the national costumes made me almost forget Mary-Ann. I fixed
my eyes on the door and waited.

The members of the Diplomatic Corps and the most distinguished guests
were ranged in a circle around the King and Queen, who conversed
pleasantly with those near them for a half hour or so. I was on the
outside row with John Harris. An officer, standing in front of us,
stepped back suddenly with his whole weight upon my foot and the pain
drew from me an exclamation. He turned his head and I recognized Captain
Pericles, freshly decorated with the Ordre du Sauveur. He made excuses
and asked for news. I could not refrain from informing him that my
health did not concern him. Harris, who knew my history entirely,
politely said to the captain: "Is it not M. Pericles to whom I have the
honor of speaking?"

"Himself!"

"I am charmed! Will you be good enough to accompany me, for a moment,
into the card-room? It is still empty and we will be alone."

"At your orders, Monsieur."

M. Pericles, pale as a soldier who is leaving a hospital, smilingly
followed us. Arrived, he faced John Harris and said to him: "Monsieur, I
await your pleasure."

In reply Harris tore off his cross with its new ribbon, and put it in
his pocket, saying: "There, Monsieur, that is all I have to say to
you!"

"Monsieur!" cried the captain, stepping back.

"No noise, Monsieur, I pray you. If you care for this toy you can send
two of your friends for it to Mr. John Harris, Commander of The Fancy."

"Monsieur," Pericles replied, "I do not know by what right you take from
me a cross which is worth fifteen francs, and which I shall be obliged
to replace at my own expense."

"Do not let that trouble you, Monsieur; here is an English sovereign,
with the head of the Queen of England on it; fifteen francs for the
cross, ten for the ribbon. If there is anything left, I beg of you to
drink to my health."

"Monsieur," said the officer, pocketing the piece, "I have only to thank
you." He saluted without another word, but his eyes promised nothing
pleasant.

"My dear Hermann," Harris said to me, "it will be prudent for you to
leave this country as soon as possible with your future bride. This
gendarme has the air of a polished brigand. As for me, I shall remain
here eight days in order to give him time to demand satisfaction. After
that I shall obey the orders which I have received to go to the Sea of
Japan."

"I am sorry that your ardor has carried you so far. I do not wish to
leave Greece without a specimen or two of the Boryana variabilis. I have
an incomplete one without the roots in my tin box which I forgot when we
left the camp."

"Leave a sketch of your plant with Lobster or Giacomo. They will make a
pilgrimage into the mountains for your sake. But for God's sake! make
haste to get to a place of safety!"

In the meantime my happiness had not arrived at the ball, and I tired my
eyes staring at all the dancers. Toward midnight I lost all hope. I left
the dancing hall and planted myself near a whist table, where four
experienced players were displaying great skill. I had become interested
in watching the game, when a silvery laugh made my heart bound. Mary-Ann
was behind me. I could not see her, I dared not turn toward her, but I
felt her presence, and my joy was overwhelming. What was the cause of
her mirth I never knew. Perhaps some ridiculous uniform; one meets such
in every country at official balls. I remembered that there was a mirror
in front of me. I raised my eyes and I saw her, without being seen,
between her mother and her uncle; more beautiful, more radiant than on
the day when she appeared to me for the first time. Three strands of
pearls were around her neck and lay partly on her divine shoulders. Her
eyes shone in the candlelight, her teeth glistened as she laughed, the
light played in her hair. Her toilet was such as all young girls wear;
she did not wear, like Mrs. Simons, a bird of paradise on her head; but
she was not the less beautiful; her skirt was looped up with bouquets of
natural flowers. She had flowers on her corsage, and in her hair, and
what flowers, Monsieur? I give you a thousand guesses. I thought that I
should die of joy when I recognized upon her the--Boryana variabilis.
Everything came to me from Heaven at the same moment! Is there anything
sweeter than to find a coveted flower, for which one thought to search,
in the hair of one whom one loves? I was the happiest of men and of
naturalists. Excess of happiness made me cast to the winds all the
proprieties. I turned quickly toward her, and holding out my hands, I
cried:

"Mary-Ann! It is I!"

Will you believe it, Monsieur, she recoiled as if terrified, instead of
falling into my arms. Mrs. Simons raised her head, so haughtily that it
seemed to me as if her bird of paradise would fly away with it to the
ceiling. The old gentleman took me by the hand, led me aside, examined
me as if I was a curious beast, and said to me: "Monsieur, have you been
presented to these ladies?"

"There is no question about that, my worthy Mr. Sharper! My dear uncle!
I am Hermann. Hermann Schultz! Their companion in captivity! their
savior! Ah! I have had some wonderful experiences since their departure!
I will relate them to you at your house."

"Yes, yes," he replied. "But the English custom, Monsieur, exacts,
absolutely, that one be presented to ladies before one relates stories
to them."

"But since they know me, my good and excellent Mr. Sharper. We have
dined more than ten times together. I have rendered them a service worth
a hundred thousand francs! You know it well; at the camp of the King of
the Mountains."

"Yes; yes; but you have not been presented."

"But do you not know that I have exposed myself to a thousand deaths for
my dear Mary-Ann?"

"Very well! but you have not been presented."

"Present me, then, yourself."

"Yes, yes; but you must first be presented to me."

"Wait!"

I ran like a crazy man across the ballroom; I jostled several couples
who were waltzing; my sword got entangled between my legs, I slipped on
the waxed floor, and fell my full length. It was John Harris who helped
me up.

"For whom are you searching?"

"They are here, I have seen them. I shall marry Mary-Ann; but I must be
presented first. It is the English custom. Help me! Where are they? Have
you not seen a large woman, with a bird of paradise head-dress?"

"Yes, she left the ball with a pretty girl."

"Left the ball! But, my friend, she is Mary-Ann's mother!"

"Be calm! we will find them again. I will have you presented by the
American Minister."

"That is the very thing! I will show you my uncle, Edward Sharper. I
left him here. Where in the devil has he hidden? He ought not to be far
away!"

Uncle Edward had disappeared. I dragged poor Harris to the Place des
Palais, before the Hotel des Etrangers. Mrs. Simons' apartments were
lighted. At the end of a few moments the lights were extinguished.
Everyone had gone to bed.

"Let us do the same," Harris suggested. "Sleep will calm you. To-morrow
between one and two, I will arrange your affairs."

I passed a night much worse than those of my captivity. Harris slept
with me, or rather, he did not sleep. We heard the carriages coming from
the ball, descend Rue d'Hèrmes with their freight of uniforms and
toilets. About five o'clock, weariness closed my eyes. Three hours
afterwards, Dimitri entered my room and said:

"Great news! Your Englishwomen have gone!"

"Where?"

"To Trieste."

"Wretch! art thou sure of it?"

"It was I who accompanied them to the ship."

"My poor friend," Harris exclaimed, seizing my hands. "Gratitude may be
assumed, but love does not come at will."

"Alas!" sighed Dimitri. This sentiment had an echo in his heart.

Since that day, Monsieur, I have lived like the beasts; drank, ate,
breathed. I sent my collection to Hamburg without one specimen of the
Boryana variabilis. My friends accompanied me to the French steamer the
day after the ball. They thought it wise to make the journey during the
night, for fear of encountering M. Pericles' soldiers. We arrived
without accident at Piraeus; but when a short distance from the shore, a
half-dozen invisible muskets sent their bullets singing about our ears.
It was the pretty Captain sending his adieux.

I scoured the mountains of Malta, of Sicily, and of Italy, and my
herbarium was much richer than I. My father, who had had the good sense
to keep his inn, wrote to me, at Messina, that my efforts were
appreciated. Perhaps I might find a place on arriving; but I determined
to count on nothing.

Harris was en route for Japan. In one or two years I hoped to have news
of him. The little Lobster had written me from Rome that he was still
exercising with the pistol. Giacomo continued to seal letters all day
and crack nuts at night. M. Mérinay found a new interpretation from the
inscription on the monument, one more clever than mine. His great work
upon Demosthenes ought to be printed some day or other. The King of the
Mountains made peace with the authorities. He built a fine mansion on
the road to Pentelicus, with a guard-house for lodging twenty-five
devoted Palikars. In the meantime, he has rented a small hotel in the
modern city, at the edge of the open sewer. He receives many people, and
actively engages in public affairs, in order to be elected to the
Ministry. Dimitri goes there occasionally, to supper, but sighs in the
kitchen.

I have never heard of Mrs. Simons, of Mr. Sharper, nor of Mary-Ann. If
this silence continues, I shall soon think of them no more. Sometimes,
even in the middle of the night, I dream that I am before her and that
my tall, thin figure is reflected in her eyes. Then I awake, I weep hot
tears and I furiously bite my pillow. What I regret, believe me, is not
the woman, it is the fortune and the position which escaped me. It is a
good thing for me that I have not yielded up my heart, and each day I
give thanks for my natural coldness. What I might complain of, my dear
Monsieur, is, if unfortunately, I had fallen in love!




IX.

LETTER FROM ATHENS.


The day that I was about to send M. Hermann Schultz's story to the
publishers, I received from the correspondent to whom I had sent the
MS., the following letter:

     Sir: The history of the King of the Mountains is the invention of
     an enemy of truth and the gendarmerie. No persons mentioned have
     set foot in Greece. The police have never vised any passports
     bearing the name of Mrs. Simons. The Commandant at Piraeus has
     never heard of The Fancy nor of Mr. John Harris. The Phillips
     Brothers do not remember of ever having employed Mr. William
     Lobster. No diplomatic agent has known any Maltese of the name of
     Giacomo Fondi. The National Bank of Greece has nothing with which
     to reproach itself, and it has never had on deposit, any funds made
     by brigandage. If it had received them, it would have considered it
     a duty to have confiscated them for its profit. I hold, for your
     inspection, the list of our officers of the gendarmerie. You will
     find no trace of M. Pericles. I know only two men of that name; one
     is a tavern-keeper in Athens; the other sells spices in Tripolitza.
     As for the famous Hadgi-Stavros, whose name I have heard to-day,
     for the first time, he is a fabulous being whom one must relegate
     to Mythology. I confess, in all sincerity, that there have been
     sometimes brigands in the country. The principal ones were
     destroyed by Hercules or Theseus, who may be considered as the real
     founders of Greek gendarmerie. Those who escaped the hands of these
     two heroes, have fallen under the blows of our invincible army.
     The author of the romance has displayed as much ignorance as
     dishonesty, in attempting to prove that brigandage exists to-day. I
     would give a great deal to have this romance published, may be in
     France, or in England, with the name and portrait of M. Schultz.
     The world would know by what gross artifices he has attempted to
     make every civilized nation suspicious of us.

     As for you, Monsieur, who have always given us justice, accept the
     assurance of the kindest sentiments, with which I have the honor of
     being,

     Your very grateful servant,
     Patriotis Pseftis.

     "Author of a volume of Dithyrambics upon the regeneration of
     Greece; editor of the Journal l'Esperance; member of the
     Archaeological Society of Athens; corresponding member of the
     Academy of the Ionian Isles; stockholder in the National Company of
     the Spartan Pavlos."


THE AUTHOR HAS THE LAST WORD.

Athenian, my fine friend, the truest histories are not those which have
happened!

*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42096 ***