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Page 37
I made an effort to rise and cry aloud, but not a muscle of my body would
obey my wishes, not a breath came to my lips; and the old woman, bending
over me between the curtains, fixed her stony stare upon me with a
strange unearthly smile. I wanted to call for help, I wanted to drive her
from me, but her petrifying stare seemed to fascinate and paralyse me,
just as that of the serpent fixes the little bird motionless before it.
During this speechless contemplation minutes seemed like hours. What was
she about to do? I was ready for any event.
Suddenly she turned her head, went round upon her heel, listened, strode
across the room, and opened the door.
At last I recovered a little courage; an effort of the will brought me to
my feet as if I were acted on by a spring; I darted after her footsteps;
she with one hand was holding her torch on high, and with the other kept
the door open.
I was about to seize her by the hair, when at the end of the long
gallery, under the Gothic archway of the castle leading to the ramparts,
I saw--a tall figure.
It was the Count of Nideck!
The Count of Nideck, whom I had thought a dying man, clad in a huge
wolf-skin thrown with its upper jaw projecting grimly over his eyes like
a visor, the formidable claws hanging over each shoulder, and the tail
dragging behind him along the flags.
He wore stout heavy shoes, a silver clasp gathered the wolf-skin round
his neck, and his whole aspect, but for the ice-cold deathly expression
of his face, proclaimed the man born for command--the master!
In the presence of such an imposing personage my ideas became vague and
confused. Flight was no longer possible, yet I had the presence of mind
to throw myself into the embrasure of the window.
The count entered my room with his eyes fixed on the old woman and his
features unrelaxed. They spoke to one another in hoarse whispers, so low
that I could not distinguish a word. But there was no mistaking their
gestures. The woman was pointing to the bed.
They approached the fireplace on tiptoe. There in the dark shadow of the
recess at its side the Black Plague, with a horrible smile, unrolled a
large bag.
As soon as the count saw the bag he made a bound towards the bed and
kneeled upon it with one knee; there was a shaking of the curtains, his
body disappeared beneath their folds, and I could only see one leg still
resting on the floor, and the wolf's tail undulating irregularly from
side to side.
They seemed to be acting a murder in ghastly pantomime. No real scene,
however frightful, could have agitated me more than this mute
representation of some horrible deed.
Then the old woman ran to his assistance, carrying the bag with her.
Again the curtains shook and the shadows crossed the walls; but the most
horrible of all was that I fancied I saw a pool of blood creeping across
the floor and slowly reaching the hearth. But it was only the snow that
had clung to the count's boots, and was melting in the heat.
I was still gazing upon this dark stream, feeling my dry tongue cleave to
the roof of my mouth, when there was a great movement; the old woman and
the count were stuffing the sheets of the bed into the sack, they were
thrusting and stamping them in with just the same haste as a dog
scratching at a hole, then the lord of Nideck flung this unshapely bundle
over his shoulder and made for the door; a sheet was dragging behind him,
and the old woman followed him torch in hand. They went across the court.
My knees were almost giving way under me; they knocked together for fear.
I prayed for strength.
In a couple of minutes I was on their footsteps, dragged forward by a
sudden irresistible impulse.
I crossed the court at a run, and was just going to enter the door of the
tower when I perceived a deep but narrow pit at my feet, down which went
a winding staircase, and there far below I could see the torch describing
a spiral course around the stone rail like a little star; at last it was
lost in the distance.
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